Christmas Eve - The Royal Hours

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS BORN! GLORIFY HIM!

CHRISTMAS EVE DIVINE SERVICE - THE ROYAL HOURS

All Divine Liturgies in the Orthodox Church are preceded by the chanting of the Hours services, consisting of Psalms, hymns and prayers. But in the Great Cathedral of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, the Byzantine Emperor was present each year at the service beginning the celebration of the Holy Nativity of Christ. Therefore, the Hours preceding the Vespers and Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great on Christmas Eve are given the name "Royal Hours."

The Emperor's attendance at the service was in part of a demonstration of his humble acknowledgment that Jesus Christ reigns over all mortal beings. The third Psalm 45: "My heart overflows with good tidings as I sing my ode to the King: my tongue is like the pen of a skillful scribe. Thou art the fairest of the sons of men; grace is poured upon Thy lips; therefore God has blessed Thee forever. Gird Thy sword upon Thy thigh, O Mighty One, in Thy splendor and beauty. Draw Thy bow, ride forth in triumph and reign, for the sake of truth, and meekness, and righteousness." Such words could apply to only one Sovereign.

The verses of the Royal Hours make no attempt to conceal the human confusion and anguish of Joseph. He tells Mary, "I am troubled; what can I say to you? Doubt clouds my mind; depart from me! What has happened to you, O Mary? Instead of honor, you bring me shame. Instead of joy, you fill me with grief. Men who praised me will blame me."

The verses also chillingly describe the effect of one powerful man's jealousy and fear. Herod was as willing to kill innocent children to keep his unique position as ruler: "Herod was filled with alarm when he saw the righteous Wise Men. Overcome by fury, he determined precisely when the Child was born. Mothers were robbed of their infants: Their tender lives were reaped as a bitter harvest."

Mary could not stop the terror and sorrow created by Herod. But she could lovingly reassure Joseph. In the verses, she says: "Why are you so troubled? Why are you in misery seeing me with child? Do you not understand at all? I bear a fearful mystery! Cast your tears away, and learn a strange wonder (miracle); God in His mercy descends from heaven to earth. Within my womb, He has taken flesh! When He is pleased to be born, you will see Him. You will rejoice, and worship Him, your Creator."

The Royal Hours give us a whole atmosphere surrounding the Birth of Our Lord: the venality of Herod who fears being supplanted; Joseph's fear of disgrace; Mary's faith, which leads her to inspire Joseph, and us, with words like "mystery" and "wonder" to describe the event she does not fully understand but has fully accepted.

Father Alexander Schmemann has called the Royal Hours "one last meditation on the cosmical meaning of the Nativity, on the decisive and radical change it performed in the entire creation."

(Source: Department of Christian Education of the Orthodox Church in America)

+Father George

Peace From God Christ is Born! (Part II)

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS BORN! GLORIFY HIM!

+

PEACE FROM GOD CHRIST IS BORN! (Part II)

By the saintly Patriarch Pavle of Serbia (+ 2009) of blessed memory

That life is hard is not the exception but the rule. Only the twentieth century has brought the simpleminded dream that life should be easy and leisurely, which it never has been throughout history. "In the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread," the Lord tells Adam (Genesis 3:19), and that is the law of human life. But afflictions and difficulties and limitations are easier to bear when we have warmth in us and among us. For in the day of His Second Coming, the Lord will not ask what kind of times we lived in, but how we related to our neighbor. Was he our "hell" or our "heaven?" We ourselves build either heaven or hell in our own hearts out of the momentary heart is able to transform any situation, even to make a cave in Bethlehem the most beautiful palace and birthplace of the King of kings.

It is hard to be a human being. To be a human being who spreads human warmth is even harder, but it is a task to which we are suited and which the Lord Himself has entrusted to us--to be human, even during inhuman times. Let us look around us. See how many families are governed by coldness, where there is no more love and which are disintegrating. There are most and more such families. See how many ties of kinship, neighborliness, friendship, and godparenthood have been broken and enveloped in coldness. We will be completely immobilized by the ice of discord and intolerance, of disunity and envy, if we do not bring Christ into our hearts and especially into the hearts of our children. He is the Only One able to bring together the disunited and reconcile the alienated, to warm our hearts and give peace to our lives...

"...We are responsible for our future no less than for our past. It is revealed to us as a possibility which we must responsibly and consciously create. And overshadowing the future is the same question we have already asked--For or against Christ?

If the Lord has not revealed the near future to us, leaving it up to us to create it, He has revealed to us the final and ultimate truth--that no matter what, He will triumph. He revealed that good is far stronger than evil and that every triumph of evil is temporary and illusory. The weeds and the wheat grow together, but only until the harvest. For or against Christ--this is the question that will determine both our future and the future of all nations. As we gather here today around the Divine Infant Christ celebrating His Birth, we hope and we pray that He will be reborn in our hearts, in our neighbors, in our people and our country, and in the hearts of all people and all nations.

Peace from God--Christ is Born!

Your intercessors before the cradle of the Divine Infant: Archbishop of Pec, Metropolitan of Belgrade-Karlovci and Serbian Patriarch PAVLE

__________________________

"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostomos

+++

With sincere agape in His Holy Nativity,

+Father George

Peace From God Christ is Born!

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS BORN! GLORIFY HIM!

+

PEACE FROM GOD CHRIST IS BORN!
By Patriarch Pavle of Serbia (+ 2009) of blessed memory

"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (St. John 6:68).

Persons and events come and go with the relentless march of time. That which today seems important and crucial may be completely forgotten tomorrow. Persons regarded by their contemporaries as influential and powerful are forgotten as if they never existed. History brings and then carries away everything with itself, it concocts and then abandons to oblivion. Everything appears temporary and relative, even we ourselves. Man can carry on in various ways with the pessimism of history, but it is far more important how God sees history. By His constant presence and action in history God, through what only appears like a meaningless course of events, prepares the way that leads toward a predetermined goal. By His entering into history, He has transformed history so that particular events are not relative and temporary, but on the contrary, they are unique, unrepeatable and of crucial importance both for God and for man. God's presence in history cures history itself of its natural pessimism.

And precisely today, here and now, for the two thousandth time we celebrate and remember the event that divides history in two; the events so significant that we count the years from it and now complete the second millennium. Two thousand years have passed since that night when history's greatest miracle took place in the cave near Bethlehem when the Son of God Himself came and put on flesh and became like one of us and "dwelt among us" (St. John 1:14). He is none other than the Eternal and Uncreated Son, the Word or Logos of God, through Whom all things were made. Since that night nothing in human life and history is as it was before. "The Sun of Righteousness" (Mal. 4:2) was born to us and all the depths of human fallenness and struggle against God have been filled by His warmth and light. From the night on, all human life and the history of every nation comes down to only one dilemma, to one simple question: Are you for or against Christ? One simple question, but a question so crucial that our entire life and the future of our people hinges upon it. That question overshadows and defines every historical period of the past twenty centuries.

For or against Him? Earlier periods that were, at least for the most part, "for Christ," brought forth fruit that stands as an example and a starting point for all times. That fruit is called Christian culture. It represents an attempt to Christianize every segment of personal, social and national life, so nothing remains outside or apart from Christ. We call it an attempt since nothing in history is absolute and final. But the value is truly in the deeply Christian attempt since a basic characteristic of Christianity is its all-inclusiveness--that Christ be all in all.

Let us simply remember how the writer of the life of the Serbian Lazarevic said to him, that he wished that "life throughout his land truly be like the Church of God." The fruits of life directed in this way are magnificent. Christianity was poured into the everyday way of life. It Christianized every soul and created the atmosphere in which all personal and social life developed. No matter what area of life in that period we examine, we always find at its core a Christian vision and understanding of life and the world. It was an inexhaustible source of vitality and, most importantly, optimism for the age that declared itself "for Christ." Even the tragedies that occurred, such as our Kosovo, could take on a Christian character in the national consciousness. Historical periods cannot be repeated, neither can models from the past be transplanted into the present. But what remains as an example for all times is the creative effort to base all of life on Christ, so that there are no spheres of life or activities that honor laws or rules other than Christian ones...

"...What is man, and what is he worth? The twentieth century said that man is nothing, but this feast today tells us, just as that day two thousand years ago told us, that man is sacred. And that applies not only to his spirit or his soul but also to his body. The whole of man, body, and soul together, is an inviolable shrine of incalculable and eternal worth. Today's feast tells us this, the day on which the Bodiless becomes embodied and on which the Son of God becomes the Son of man. This precisely is what is radically new in our faith.

That the soul is holy is suggested by other religions, but that the body is equally sacred is found nowhere else. During the whole first eight centuries of Christianity, which were characterized by struggles against heresies, the Church unyieldingly defended this truth: that the whole of man, both and body and soul, is holy. And that applies to every human being, regardless of his religion or nationality. Every murder, every disrespect of human personality and freedom is sin, even more so when it is justified on ideological nationalistic grounds.

In contrast to this dismal picture of the twentieth century, today we see before us a young mother holding her newly-born Child to her bosom, and are moved to feel one of the greatest of human virtues and attributes: a warm heart. The motherly love of the Most Holy Theotokos permeates today's entire event and radiates a warm feeling within us.  Christmas is the feast of warmth and of warm human hearts. If it seems that there is no place today a person can "warm" himself, it is because human hearts have grown cold. They have become hard and unfeeling even towards the suffering of so many of our brothers and sisters who in recent years have been left homeless, exiled from their birthplaces, and some even without their loved ones. (Source: Orthodox Heritage)

(To be continued)

_____________________________

"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostomos

+++

With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George  

Orthodox Christian Hymns Praising the Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ on His Holy Nativity

MAY ALL OF YOUR HEARTS BE FILLED WITH GREAT JOY AT THE BIRTH OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!

CHRIST IS BORN! GLORIFY HIM!

Christmas Eve Matins

Apolytikion (Dismissal) Hymn

As she carried in her womb what she conceived without seed, Mary went to Bethlehem with elder Joseph to enroll, for they were of the house and lineage of David. The time arrived for her to give birth to her Child; but then there was no place in the inn for them. Therefore the grotto served as a luxurious royal palace for the Queen. And Christ the Lord is born to raise the image which was formerly fallen.

+

Kathisma ! Mode pl. 2.

The sayings of the Prophets are being now fulfilled, for our God shall be born in the days to come ineffably from Mary the Virgin, and He remains what He was before childbirth. The Magi have been gathered, bearing their precious gifts. In the fields are the shepherds. And we sing a hymn to Him Who from a Virgin was born, "Glory to Thee, O Lord."

+

Oikos

Ever adorned with a pure light and speech, and with grace, O Virgin, you presented yourself as a sacrifice to the Lord, Who for us took flesh from the Virgin and was born on earth, in His ineffable compassion. And the Master magnificently decorated Thee with two crowns of glory. You preserved yourself with chastity, as if bodiless, and as a bride you entered with Him into the heavenly bridal hall, all aglow, adorned with your medals, O Evgenia, all-lauded godly Martyr Saint.

+

On December 24, we commemorate the holy, devout, virgin Martyr Evgenia (Eugenia), and those with her.

+

CHRISTMAS DAY - The Nativity in the Flesh of Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ.

+  

Apolytikion (Dismissal) Hymn of the Feast. Mode 4.

 Your Nativity, O Christ Our God, has caused the light of knowledge to rise upon the world. For therein the worshippers of the stars were by a Star instructed to worship Thee, the Sun of Righteousness, and to know Thee as Orient from on High. Glory to Thee, O Lord.

Kontakion Hymn. Mode 33

On this day the Virgin gives birth to the Super-essential. To the Unapproachable, earth is providing the grotto. Angels sing and with the shepherds offer up glory. Following a Star the Magi are still proceeding. He was born for our salvation, a newborn Child, the Pre-Eternal God.

+

INSTEAD OF HOLY GOD

You Who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Allelouia.

MAY YOU ALL HAVE A BLESSED CHRISTMAS!

With agape in Our Savior,

+Father George  

The Commemoration of Saint Joseph the Betrothed of the Most Pure Virgin Theotokos

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True God,
CHRIST IS BORN! GLORIFY HIM!

+

THE COMMEMORATION OF SAINT JOSEPH THE BETROTHED OF THE MOST PURE VIRGIN THEOTOKOS

Saint Joseph was of royal lineage, a descendant of David and Solomon, the grandson of Matthan and great-grandson of Eleazar. Joseph was the son of Jacob after the flesh, and of Heli according to the law of the levirate. (The law of the levirate commanded that if a man died, not having children, his brother should accept his widow as his own wife. [Deuteronomy, Ch. 25]). After Jacob was born, his father Matthan died. Jacob's mother then married Melchi, the scion of David through his son Nathan. She bore Heli, who took a wife but died childless. Thereafter, Jacob, Heli's half-brother, took to himself Heli's wife, and to raise up seed for the deceased, went in to his sister-in-law and begot Saint Joseph the Betrothed. This is why Joseph is called both the son of Jacob, and the son of Heli: of Jacob after the flesh, and of Heli according to the Law. In Luke's genealogy of Christ, it is written: "Jesus Himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the "son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli," but Saint Matthew says that Jacob was Joseph's father.

Some Western teachers hold that Joseph was a virgin till the day of his death, but the Eastern Holy Fathers do not agree with this, maintaining that he was married and had children. The Greek historian Nicephorus, basing himself on Saint Hyppolytus, tells us that Joseph's wife was named Salome. This Salome was not the same as the one who lived in Bethlehem, the so-called midwife at Christ's Nativity, but another. The midwife Salome was kinswoman to Elizabeth and the Theotokos, while Joseph's wife was the daughter of Aggeas, brother of Zachrias, the Forerunner's father. Aggeas and Zacharias were sons of the priest Barachias.

Salome, Aggeas' daughter, living with Saint Joseph in honorable wedlock, bore him four sons: James, Simon, Jude, and Joses. In addition, she gave birth to two daughters, Esther and Thamar, also known as Martha. According to the Synaxarion for the Sunday of the Myrrhbearing Women, Joseph and Salome had a third daughter, also called Salome, like her mother. Unquestionably St. Joseph was married and had children.

After his wife's death, Saint Joseph remained a widower for many years. The Holy Gospel praises his purity, attesting that he was a just man (Matthew, Ch. 1). What evidence could be more convincing than this? Beyond a doubt, his righteousness surpassed that of any of the forefathers or patriarchs of the Old Testament, none of whom was deemed worthy to be called the father of the Messiah, or the bridegroom and supposed husband of His Mother. Truly the Lord found in Joseph a man after His own heart, made him a servant of the mystery of our redemption, and revealed to him a servant of the mystery of our redemption, and revealed to him "the secret and hidden things of His wisdom" (Psalm 50 [51]). And Joseph was worthy of such honor, having attained perfection in virtue.

Saint Joseph was eighty years (80) old when the immaculate Virgin was betrothed to him, not so that he might enjoy the pleasures of marriage with her, but in order to serve as a guardian of her virginity (Kedrinus). With all reverence and fear, he ministered to the Mother of God, his Lady and the Mistress of the whole world. In obedience to the command given by the Angel who appeared to him in a dream, he also served the Divine Infant she bore, during the flight into Egypt, while they were returning from that land, and during the years they lived in Nazareth. Saint Joseph earned money by hard labor, since he was a poor carpenter, though of royal blood. It pleased the Lord to be born in poverty because He wished to provide us an example of humility. Although springing from a royal line, He was a stranger to glory, wealth, and power, and was not ashamed to have a poor Mother and a poor supposed father.

In accordance with the teaching of Holy Scripture, in Adam, all mankind tasted the forbidden fruit. Only the God-man Christ begins with Himself the new mankind, freed by Him from sin of Adam. Therefore, He is called the "firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8:29, that is: the First in the new human race; He is the 'new Adam.") The Most Holy Virgin was born as subject to the sin of Adam together with all mankind, and with him she shared the need for redemption (the Epistle of the Eastern Patriarchs, Par. 6).

Saint Joseph lived 110 years and died peacefully, joining his ancestors in Hades. He brought them the glad tidings that the long-awaited Messiah, Christ the Lord, had come to save the race of man. Unto our God be glory forever. Amen.

The Holy Church commemorates the feast of Saint Joseph on the Sunday following the Nativity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (The Collection of the Lives of the Saints)

_________________________

"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostomos

+++

With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George

A Narrative of the Adoration (Worship) of the Magi (Part II)

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS BORN! GLORIFY HIM!

+

THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI (Part II)

Wherefore, it is written: "They fell down and worshiped Him, and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gifts", fulfilling the commandment: "None shall appear before Me empty" (Ex. Ch. 23). And what were their gifts? Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They brought gold as befitting a king, frankincense for Him that is God, and myrrh to One Who would taste death, for the Jews used myrrh, which masks the foul odor, in preparing corpses for burial (Saint Theophylact). Thus did the three kings honor one of the Trinity with gifts, indicating thereby that He is one in two natures as Saint Leo says: "They brought frankincense to God, myrrh to Him Who is a man and would undergo death, and gold to the King, rightly honoring the Divine and human natures in a single hypostasis. Offering gifts, they showed their devotion to Him in Whom they believed with their hearts."

Being "warned in a dream" by an Angel "that they should not return to Herod", who plotting to murder the newborn King, the Magi "departed into their own country another way" (Matthew, Ch. 2). There, according to the trustworthy testimony of Nicephorus, they preached that Christ was the Son of God come into the world, and taught the people to believe in Him, as they themselves did. It is certain that after they died the Wise Men were numbered in the choir of the Saints.

One of the Magi was called Melchior and was old and gray. He had long hair and brought gold to the King and Master. Another was named Caspar. He was young, beardless, and had a ruddy complexion. His gift to God Incarnate was frankincense. The third, Balthasar, was bearded, very dark, and presented myrrh to the Son of Man, Who would undergo death. Many years after the Wise Men departed this life, their remains were translated to Constantinople. Later, the holy relics were removed to Milan, then to Cologne, unto the glory of Christ God in the flesh.  

A Narrative of the Most Pure Virgin Mary's Flight into Egypt with the Newborn Divine Child. (Matthew, Ch. 2).

After the Wise Men left Bethlehem, the Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and instructed him to flee to Egypt with the newborn Babe, Jesus Christ, and His Mother, the Most Pure Virgin Mary. The Angel told Joseph to remain in that country until he received the command to return, for Herod intended to "seek the young Child, to destroy Him" (Matthew, Ch. 2). Joseph arose, and "took the young Child and His Mother by night, and departed into Egypt", but before leaving the country, he fulfilled in the Temple of Solomon everything commanded by the Law of the Lord; for the days of the purification of the immaculate and blameless Mother of God were drawing to an end. In the Temple of Jerusalem, the Lord was met by the elder Symeon and Anna the prophetess. After accomplishing everything required, Joseph and Mary went to their house in Nazareth, as Saint Luke says: "And when they had performed all things according to the Law of the Lord, they returned unto Galilee, to their own city Nazareth" (Luke, Ch. 2). From this it is evident that they did not go directly from Bethlehem to Egypt, but first to the Lord's Temple, then to Nazareth, and only afterward to Egypt. In his Explanation of the Holy Gospel According to Saint Matthew, Theophylact writes: "How is it that St. Luke says that after the Lord was born, forty days passed, and then He was held in Symeon's arms and went to Nazareth; while St. Matthew tells us that the Lord went to Nazareth after returning from Egypt? Understand that Luke speaks about things on which Matthew is silent. Luke says that after the birth, the forty days passed; then the Lord went to Nazareth. Matthew tells us what happened afterward that He fled into Egypt, then returned from there to Nazareth. They do not contradict one another. Luke informs us of the journey from Bethlehem to Nazareth, Matthew of the return from Egypt to Nazareth, which took place later."

After arriving in Egypt, the travelers found themselves in the Thebaid, approaching Hermopolis. Near the gates of the city, there was a very beautiful tree called "Persea," which, on account of its imposing height, the idolatrous people worshipped as a god, offering it sacrifices. When the Immaculate Mother of God and the Divine Infant drew near this tree, it began to tremble violently, and the demon who dwelt within it fled. Then the tree bent over so far its top touched the ground, thus professing its Creator the adoration that was His due, and showing its respect for His Mother, the Most Pure Virgin. The holy travelers stopped to rest beneath it, sheltering themselves from the sun in its abundant shade. The tree thereafter remained bent, as a testimony to Christ-God's flight into Egypt, and its leaves acquired the power to heal all diseases.

The Most Pure Mother of God and Christ remained for some time in Egypt, but it is uncertain exactly how long. Saint Epiphanius asserts that it was for two years...as the Gospel says: "They were "there until the death of Herod" (Matthew, Ch. 2). After the massacre of the children in Bethlehem, the wretched king perished miserably and the Angel appeared again to Joseph in a dream, commanding him to return to the land of Israel, since they were "dead which sought the young Child's life." Joseph departed with the Child and His Mother for Judea, the largest and most important division of Israel, "but when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither." Herod the Great had three sons: Archelaus; Herod Antipas; and Philip, the youngest. After he died, they all went to Rome, each with the hope of inheriting his father's kingdom. Caesar refused to appoint any of them king, and instead divided the realm into four parts, designating the brothers tetrarchs. As Caesar was dismissing the brothers, he promised to grant the royal title to Archelaus, if he succeeded in governing well the domain entrusted to him. It turned out, however, that the son was no better than the father, torturing and executing many. No sooner did he arrive in Jerusalem than he slew 3,000 people. Likewise, on one of the great Jewish feasts, he slaughtered a multitude of citizens immediately in front of the entrance to the Temple. Eventually, he was denounced before Caesar for his cruelty, removed from power, and exiled. When Joseph, therefore, was visited by the same Angel that had appeared to him before and was informed that the wicked Archelaus was ruler in Judea, he went to Galilee, where Herod Antipas ruled less brutally. Joseph returned to his house in Nazareth and remained there with the Divine Child and the immaculate Virgin. Thus the saying concerning Christ the Lord "spoken by the Prophets" was fulfilled, for they had foretold that He "would be called a Nazarene." Unto Him be glory forever. Amen. (Source: The Great Collection of the Lives of the Saints)

______________________________

"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostomos

+++

With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George