Invenerunt Puerum cum Maria Matre ejus, et procidentes adoraverunt eum.

They found the Child with Mary His Mother, (genuflect)
and falling down they adored Him.

— St Matthew ii, 11.

Especially at Christmastide, most especially on the feast of the Epiphany, when I come before the Crib, I love to repeat these words as I kneel to adore the Saviour Whose image I see before me, offering not gold, frankincense nor myrrh, but my heart's oblation, as I find the Child with Mary His Mother, and adore Him with the Magi.

I apply these words when I genuflect before the tabernacle, where He reposes as once in the Manger, within the church, which is the true Bethlehem, verily the "House of Bread".  We must come into the Church to do so: Et intrantes domum, "And entering into the house...".

The above image, a triptych known as the Columba altarpiece, by Rogier van der Weyden (1399/1400-1464), I reproduce here because, in my parish church, a reproduction has been placed above the votive candle stand next to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, and so I light a candle before her and this representation of the Annunciation, Nativity and Presentation of Our Lord, her Son.

And falling down they adored Him

"They found the Child with Mary His Mother, and falling down they adored Him" — St Matthew ii, 11.

One joy I'd forgotten for a while, before rediscovering it, is making a visit to the Church of the Apostles after work, or on Saturday morning, and slipping in the side door.  Entering in that way, the first you see is the altar of the Immaculate Conception; turning round to the left, you come to the kneeler beside votive candle stand, and, further round still, the side altars of Our Lady of Czestochowa and of the Sacred Heart – while, up to the right, you see through to the High Altar wherein Our Lord is present in His Sacrament.

"And entering into the house, they found the Child with Mary His Mother, and falling down they adored Him" — St Matthew ii, 11.

Either side of the Sacred Heart altar are some fine stained glass windows: on the right, Our Lord appearing to St Margaret Mary; on the left, the Adoration of the Magi, the text underneath reading "They found the Child with Mary His Mother, and falling down they adored Him".  Very often I look at that image and that inscription.

I find that coming in, kneeling down, and greeting Our Lord and Our Lady, is the summary of devotion: first seeing the sacred image of the Blessed Virgin, who brought forth Jesus Christ – the same Lord Whose Real Presence we know to be present in the Tabernacle, which next we see.  It's a good place to pause and pray; to make a Visit; to make a spiritual communion; to read some of the Hours from my pocket Diurnal, first (as the custom is) saying O sacrum convivium, with the versicle and collect of Corpus Christi...

"And entering into the house..." – the Greeks don't disdain to call a church a temple, nor to term it a house, indeed, the House of God; and of course the Church of the Apostles, the "mother church" of Launceston (once planned to be a cathedral), is by its very name a significant representation of the Church, founded on the Apostles by Christ.  

"And entering into the house, they found the Child with Mary His Mother, and falling down they adored Him" — St Matthew ii, 11.