The first chapter of Matthew's Gospel and the first chapter of Luke's Gospel contain the annunciation of Jesus' forth-coming birth. Traditionally they are read during Advent as a way of preparing for Christmas. Here Father Brown reflects not only on those annunciations but also on the beautiful canticles or hymns, the Magnificat and the Benedic-tus, which we hear in Luke on the lips of Mary and the father of John the Baptist. He meditates too on the list of Jesus' ancestors which in Matthew constitute the very first words of the New Testament and which are presented as "The ori gin of Jesus Christ." Advent is the season when we await "the one who is to come." These gospel stories, in iden-tifying clearly for us this expected one as Son of David and Son of God, relive poetically the expectations of Israel from the Old Testament, inviting God's Christian people to do the same.

Raymond E. Brown's six-hundred page study of the Infancy Narratives in Matthew and Luke, The Birth of the Messiah (Doubleday, 1977), has been hailed as a classic example of theologically sensitive biblical scholarship. In a small previ-ous The Liturgical Press book, An Adult Christ at Christmas, he presented in popular form some of his most important insights on chapter 2 of Matthew and chapter 2 of Luke on the birth at Bethlehem and its aftermath. Here he does the same for chapter 1 in each Gospel, providing material to a wide-ranging audience for reflection in study clubs and adult education classes, for preaching, and, above all, for personal spirituality.