Nativity Meditation from SVOTS -- The Holy and All-praised Apostle Andrew the First-called

Come and see! You will witness the mystery of Christ’s birth from the Virgin, His manifestation at the Jordan in His Baptism by John, His victory over the devil in the desert, His proclamation of good news to the poor, His announcement of liberty to the oppressed, His declaration of the acceptable year of the Lord’s grace. …

You will see what “many prophets and righteous men longed to see … and did not see it, and to hear … and did not hear it” (Mt. 13.17). And ultimately you will see the Son of God Himself being lifted upon the Cross in order to give His broken Body as food for His people, and His shed Blood as their drink, that their hunger and thirst for peace and joy and righteousness, and indeed for life itself, might be forever satisfied.

+ Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko: The Winter Pascha

Nativity Fast Meditation from SVOTS

For He who gives riches becomes poor, for He assumes the poverty of my flesh that I may assume the riches of His divinity. He that is full empties himself, for He empties himself of His glory for a short while that I may have a share in His fullness. 

What are the riches of His goodness! What is this mystery that is around me! I had a share in the Image but I did not keep it. He now partakes of my flesh that He might both save the image and make flesh immortal.

+Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko: The Winter Pascha