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The Twelve Days of Christmas in the Orthodox Tradition

12/26/2019

By Fr. Johannes L. Jacobse, December 23, 2013 In the Christian tradition of both east and west, the twelve days of Christmas refer to the period from Christmas Day to Theophany. The days leading up to Christmas were for preparation; a practice affirmed in the Orthodox tradition by the Christmas fast that runs from November 15 to Christmas day. The celebration of Christmas did not begin until the first of the twelve days. As our

Christ is Born! Glorify Him! Merry Christmas!

12/25/2019

Christ is Born! Glorify Him! Merry Christmas! By Georges Florovsky St. Athanasius writes that the Logos [Word] became man, similar to us in all respects. […] By virtue of its union with the Logos, “because of the Logos, which was in a body,” the body was freed from its weakness and subjection to decay. […] The Logos was not bound by the body but freed the body from its limitedness and its inclination to sin.

Making Sense of a Jumbled World. Christmas Eve, 2019

12/24/2019

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, December 27, 2014 Listening to the Nativity collection of readings for the Vespers of Christmas Eve (there were eight of them), my mind drifted to the “jumbled mess” that is the Old Testament. We speak of it as if it were a single thing, when, it is many things (over 40), and some of those things are jumbled concatenations of other jumbled things. I can only imagine what someone coming to

And the Word Became Flesh

12/23/2019

By Fr. Stavros Akrotirianakis, December 24, 2018 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory. John 1:14 The Gospel accounts of the Nativity are limited to a mere forty verses. In the Gospel of Matthew, there are 19 verses about the Nativity. The Gospel of Luke has 20. The Gospel of Mark makes no mention of the Nativity. It begins with the Baptism of Christ. The Gospel of John

Figures of the Nativity—All of Creation Rejoiced

12/20/2019

By Fr. Stavros Akrotirianakis, December 14, 2018 We began this short series on figures of the Nativity by comparing them to roles in a Christmas pageant. There are eight defined “speaking” roles in just about every Christmas pageant—Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, the magi, the innkeeper, King Herod, the angels and the crowd in Bethlehem. There are some other roles in the story. I’ve watched many a Christmas pageant in my years as a priest,

Put the Dickens back in Christmas

12/19/2019

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, December 20, 2017 In the late 1600’s in colonial Boston, the celebration of Christmas was against the law. Indeed, anyone evidencing the “spirit of Christmas” could be fined five shillings. In the early 1800’s, Christmas was better known as a season for rioting in the streets and civil unrest.1 However, in the mid-1800’s some interesting things changed the cultural response to the feast and, in 1870, Christmas was declared a federal holiday

Figures of the Nativity—The Magi

12/18/2019

By Fr. Stavros Akrotirianakis, December 13, 2018 Today we continue on our study of the “Figures of the Nativity” by speaking about the Magi, the last people to take part in the story. We are not told how many “Magi” came to worship Jesus. We have settled on three, since three distinct gifts were offered. We know that the Magi came from far away and followed a star for two years before finding the Christ-child

I’ll Be Small for Christmas

12/17/2019

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, December 18, 2017 Children today are raised with dreams of greatness. Cultural affirmations of our limitless potential, well-intentioned, have not produced a generation of over-achievers, but have indeed brought forth hordes of great dreams. This is nothing new in American culture. We are the world’s longest sustained pep-talk. Ronald Reagan loved to quote the 1945 Johnny Mercer hit: You’ve got to accentuate the positive Eliminate the negative Latch on to the

Figures of the Nativity—Herod

12/16/2019

By Fr. Stavros Akrotirianakis, December 11, 2018 Most movies have a villain. In fact, the storyline in many movies, as well as in life in general, is the conflict between good and evil. In Christian terms, church fathers and saints have written about spiritual warfare—the conflict between Godliness and things that are against God. In the Nativity story, we have our villain, and it’s King Herod. When the wise men came to Jerusalem asking King

Figures of the Nativity—The Virgin Mary

12/13/2019

By Fr. Stavros Akrotirianakis, December 10, 2018 Obviously, the central figure in the Nativity story is Christ Himself, the Logos of God become incarnate as a human being. The next most central figure is the Virgin Mary. Tradition teaches us that the Virgin Mary was born to elderly parents, Ioachim and Anna, who had faith to believe that God would grant them a child in old age. She was chosen by God before her birth

Blog

The Twelve Days of Christmas in the Orthodox Tradition

Christ is Born! Glorify Him! Merry Christmas!

Making Sense of a Jumbled World. Christmas Eve, 2019

And the Word Became Flesh

Figures of the Nativity—All of Creation Rejoiced

Put the Dickens back in Christmas

Figures of the Nativity—The Magi

I’ll Be Small for Christmas

Figures of the Nativity—Herod

Figures of the Nativity—The Virgin Mary

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