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Ignorance, error, and concupiscence were overcome through spiritual strength garnered from good works; as well as, the establishment of truth through reason. Children were born in a state of Original Sin without sanctifying grace and exemption from death because of hereditary stain. This privation of the holiness, justice, and union with God originally accorded humanity in the Divine Plan, resulted from the use of free will by their progenitors to rebel against the moral order. According to the gospels, Jesus Christ was miraculously conceived by his mother Mary, the wife of a carpenter, Joseph of Nazareth, and born in a manger in Bethlehem in Judea, where Joseph and Mary had gone to comply with the Roman edict of enrollment for the census.
They were visited by Three
Magi "Wise Men" named Balthasar, Melchoir, and Gaspar bearing gifts of gold,
frankincense, and myrrh for the Holy Child who was immaculately conceived
without the taint of original sin.
The sixth century mosaic above from the Basilica of Saint Apollinarius in Ravenna, Italy depicted the Three Magi in the traditional dress of breeches, capes, and Phrygian caps. The Three Magi were astrologers who had observed the "Star of Bethlehem" in the heavens. This star was a special conjunction of the planets Venus and Jupiter with the star Regulus, which they believed was a portent of birth of the savior of humanity in a certain special place on the Earth. Balthasar, Melchoir, and Gaspar warned Joseph and Mary about King Herod's plan to slay the infant, and, advised them to sojourn in Egypt for awhile until the danger had passed. They spent several years in Egypt before returning to Nazareth after King Herod's death. Not much is known about Jesus from his twelfth year (when he attended the Passover in Jerusalem) until his thirtieth year when he began his three year ministry.
His travels and studies
during the eighteen intervening years remained veiled in mystery, some sources
suggest that he may have sojourned in Egypt, India, Tibet and other lands before
returning to Judea...
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