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| Source: orthodoxroad.com |
Dear Parish Faithful,
Christ is Born! Glorify Him!
We were blessed yesterday morning with a truly festal Liturgy and celebration of the Lord's Nativity in the flesh. I am sorry about cancelling the festal Matins on the eve of the Feast, but that added rest allowed me to recover enough to serve the Liturgy yesterday. It was a joy see the church so filled with worshippers. I hope that your respective Christmas celebrations went well.
As our fast-paced culture moves so swiftly forward (toward what may be a fair question); it may seem as if Christmas is already over - "one and done" as the saying goes. Or what remains could be the rush to return gifts that do not work, do not fit, or are unwanted. Let's slow things down for a moment, if possible, and bring back to mind some of the incredibly rich hymnography that we just sang in the Liturgy or read through on our own. We can meditate upon these hymns as the Nativity Feast continues until January 4 inclusive. The longest fast-free period in our liturgical year!
These hymns are united in their rhetorical capacity to state the paradox of God becoming man. I was speaking with someone in the church yesterday, while preparing for the Liturgy, and we both agreed that thinking on the Incarnation can "explode" one's mind. A profound mysterion to use of the Apostle Paul's chosen words to reveal the meaning of Christ among us!
This first example is the third kathisma taken from the festal Matins:
How can a womb contain Him whom nothing can
contain?
How can He remain in His father's bosom, yet rest in his mother's arms?
It is His good pleasure to accomplish this.
Having no flesh, He purposely assumes it for our sake.
He who is becomes what He never was.
He shares our substance without forsaking His own nature.
Desiring to make us citizens of the world on high,Christ, the Only-begotten of the Father, is born on earth as a man.
_____
From the Liturgy, the incomparable kontakion, which is actually the prelude to the metered theological poem (known as a kontakion) of St. Romanos the Melode:
Today he virgin gives birth to the transcendent one,
And the earth offers a cave to the unapproachable one!
Angels, with shepherd, glorify Him!
The wise journey with a star,since for our sake the Eternal God was born as a little child!
_____
And, the special Hymn to the Theotokos that replaces "It is Truly Meet" in the Liturgy (actually the Irmos of the Ninth Ode of the splendid Nativity Canon, also from the festal Matins):
Magnify, O my soul,
the most pure virgin Theotokos,
more honorable and more glorious than the heavenly hosts!
I behold a strange, most glorious mystery!Heaven - the cave!
The cherubic throne - the virgin!
The manger - the place where Christ lay,
the uncontainable God, whom we magnify in song!
There is no need for any further commentary, as each person who reads and meditates upon these hymns will provide his/her own personal interior commentary. As the Apostle Paul exhorts us: think on these things!
