Resources

Many informative articles were published in our parish newsletters in the years prior to Covid. Email to the friends and faithful of Holy Cross has replaced our newsletters, but many of the articles are collected here. Use the indexes below to find the topic or author you’re interested in. (Once you click on a topic or author, scroll to the bottom of the page to see the search results.)

Also, have a look at the Recommended Readings on the OCA (Orthodox Church in America) website for a list of books covering a wide range of topics. Essential Orthodox Christian Beliefs: A Manual for Adult Instruction is also available for free download on the OCA’s website.

(Speaking of our parent jurisdiction, the OCA traces its origins to the arrival in Kodiak, Alaska in 1794 of eight Orthodox missionaries from the Valaamo Monastery in the northern Karelia region of Russia. Today, the OCA includes some 700 parishes, missions, communities, monasteries, and institutions throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico.)

We hope you’ll find these suggested readings to be both edifying and encouraging!

Nativity, Fasting Fr Artemy Vladimirov Nativity, Fasting Fr Artemy Vladimirov

A Homily on the Nativity Fast

It all begins with an idea.

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Nativity, Christmas Fr John Hays Nativity, Christmas Fr John Hays

The Silence of Christmas

It all begins with an idea.

John Hays

November 2007

This article is adapted from a “reflection” on a class taught by Dr. Al Rossi at St. Vladimir’s Seminary. The class dealt with silence and prayer. The quotes in italics are one-liners by Dr. Rossi.

“For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, ‘In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.’”— Isaiah 30:15

One of my professors, Dr. Rossi, related how he would go to New Skete and be silent. The message: There is Someone in silence. This resonates with me somewhat because I visited those holy grounds myself a few Nativity seasons ago, with Fr. Chris. I must say, it impressed me. The monks, their way of life, how everything in the community worked—it all made quite the impression. And silence was definitely a part of the experience. You could sense that these folks had some firsthand experience with the stuff.

I especially remember how they would punctuate Scripture readings and other meditative readings with silence. That was powerful. They actually expected you to ponder what was just read! And, indeed, you could almost taste the silence in the air.

There is Someone in silence. I guess we were made for it, which may help explain why we so often respond in wonder or joy when it occasionally comes into our lives. And yes, God apparently uses silence to call to us, to stir our spirits, and this also may explain why many of us really do feel excited—as though we had received an invitation into something wondrously deep and enchanting— when a Bishop Kallistos or whoever speaks authentically about silence.

But there is someone else in silence.

I am in silence. And I am often unhappy, confused, perplexed, and unsettled. Ill at ease in my own skin and my own thoughts. And so I suspect that if I were to remain at New Skete for, say, two or three weeks or longer, I might not be so rosy about it. After the first few experiences of these still waters, I would grow bored and restless, and all the rest. And this is likely part of the reason why we have to struggle so hard to cultivate silence—passionately, sincerely, and consistently—in our lives! We like to hear about it, but we don’t necessarily want to pay the real price to attain it in earnest.

The essence of faith is knowing that I don’t know. Yes. Say what we will, on a deep level most of us really do freak out about things that are absolutely beyond our comprehension and control, at least if it is something we care about. And God— the meaning of life, our deepest purpose in life, and all the rest—is something that we profoundly yearn to grasp. And yet, we just don’t know. Silence, then, plunges us into these deep and cold waters of our own ignorance about that which we most care to know (Ecclesiastes: “He has set eternity in the hearts of men”). And presumably, this is meant to build our faith, as we learn to accept that we don’t know so many, many things and yet trust God to be God and to know what He is doing.

Silence is a choice. Clearly, we can choose to go for the abiding version of the experience of which we have from time to time caught a glimpse. Our Church traditions tell us so, and so do probably 97% of just about every other serious faith tradition out there, from Zen Buddhism to Islam (it’s what the name “Islam” more or less means—peace through submitting to God’s will; not to mention the Sufis and so on) to Judaism to animism, for crying out loud. And if the Son of God can’t give us peace, who can? Considering the prevalence of “peace” and its permutations throughout the New and Old Testaments, it’s safe to say that it is not God who has failed to offer and provide for our peace. We, then, are called to step up to the plate on this one! It’s really not rocket science, after all.

The thing I personally appreciate about these invitations to peaceful silence and their contrast with my own basic lack of silence and peace is that it forces me to look inside, face up to my inner noise and chaos, and ask myself how serious I am about being a genuinely peaceful person. And the older I get, the more important it appears to me to get with the program and not waste any more time in cultivating this gift. Life is too short, as they say.

And, Lord help us, just in case we had decided that inner peace and quiet are maybe not so important after all, here comes American Christmas—busting down our front door, cluttering our yards, walls, and roofs, and assaulting every one of our senses in a weeks-long, drawnout orgy of self-indulgence, noise, consumerism, goodwill, peace, depression, and various incarnations of chubby and magical “St. Nicholases” who have to do with just about everything—except fasting, prayer, and silence.

Through it all there is much beauty, to be sure. And genuine goodwill. And even glory to God in the highest. But it isn’t always easy to appreciate and hold on to these aspects of “The Holiday Season.” One thing is for certain, though: prayer, as we strive to cultivate silence in our hearts, can help us.

Writing in the second century, St. Ignatius of Antioch said: “Mary’s virginity was hidden from the prince of this world; so was her child-rearing, and so was the death of the Lord. All these three trumpet-tongued secrets were brought to pass in the deep silence of God.” If we want to penetrate and revel in these mysteries—of our Savior’s birth, childhood, and saving death—then we need to begin to enter into this “deep silence of God.” And lest we get caught up in mere externals and begin to bemoan the noise and chaos around us and despair of finding peace and quiet, we should recall that the silence we seek isn’t really dependent on our environment—it is within us. In fact, during the Nativity season, it’s even in the chaos and noise around us, if we only cultivate the ears to hear and the eyes to see.

One place to begin could be to read between the lines of our culture's typical versions of Christmas to note what we don’t proclaim about the season. The Evangelical author Philip Yancey, in The Jesus I Never Knew, writes insightfully of the silence our culture wraps around the Biblical Christmas stories. He notes that while we focus on the joy and the “good news,” which is there and should be celebrated, we are almost utterly silent about the more disturbing aspects of the story. Thus, we have no Christmas cards commemorating Herod’s slaughter of the Innocents. We prefer not to meditate on the implications of the fact that Mary’s being pregnant at so young an age would be labeled a “crisis pregnancy” in our time. Considering her unmarried status and “angelic visitations,” it is statistically unlikely that our Savior would have even been allowed to be brought to term in the first place. Nor does the fact that the Judea of that time was an occupied territory, politically, economically, and socially under Rome’s heel, seem to get much press. Finally, St. Symeon’s prophecy that a sword would pierce Mary’s soul because of her child, which he told her a mere forty days after Christ’s birth, is just as much a part of the Christmas story as is the story of the shepherds who were keeping watch over their flocks by night. Why, then, does our culture tend to overlook these facets of the Nativity story and only look at the “happy” and “uplifting” ones?

Let’s face it: Jesus Christ was born to die. Our concerns today—long life, “fulfilling one’s potential,” universal health coverage and a guaranteed education for all, an ideal balance of our physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual needs, a Christian and yet pluralistic society that is ideally tolerant of all that is not utterly evil in and of itself, etc.—just don’t help us much when we look at the story of Jesus. The King of Glory left heaven for our sakes; He “gave it all up,” so to speak. He was born into a backwater semi-country, grew up in obscurity among “marginalized” people and religious zealots, and died tragically young as some sort of political/religious quasi-revolutionary.

And yet—all of this is good news. At least when seen through the eyes of faith. Again, Jesus Christ was born to die—and to rise again. And He died to effect our own resurrection as well. The tragedy and loss in His life was part of God’s plan to redeem the human race. And the same is true today. We find Christ in the tragedy and loss that is around us and within us; we find His life in death. The Church never lets us forget this.

Recall our Nativity icon. Christ, “sweet baby Jesus,” is swaddled as though wrapped in His shroud for burial. He is, in fact, lying in a coffin-like tomb. This sweet little child is depicted as lying in a cave— precisely as He is to be buried in one. His birth is not something we can perceive or contemplate apart from His death and resurrection. Indeed, His coming to dwell among us—at His birth, during the Liturgy, in the mystery of Baptism, or during His Second Coming—is never something we can contemplate apart from His death and resurrection.

Maybe, then, our culture’s “corruption” of Christmas is not such a bad thing. As they say, the light only shines brighter the darker it gets. No one can “take the Christ out of Christmas.” Christmas, and thus Christ Himself, is in us, in our hearts, in the Church; in “the deep silence of God.” As Dr. Rossi reminds us: there is Someone in silence; the essence of faith is knowing that I don’t know; and silence is a choice. St. Ignatius confirms this, as does Theophan the Recluse, who writes, “The principle thing is to stand with the mind in the heart before God, and to go on standing before Him unceasingly day and night, until the end of life.” As Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you...” (John 14:27).

By prayer and fasting, then, now is the time to find and cultivate the silence within us, that we may sing with the whole Church, “Thy Nativity, O Christ our God, has shone to the world the light of wisdom!” (Festal Troparion).

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Nativity St John Chrysostom Nativity St John Chrysostom

The Nativity Sermon of St. John Chrysostom

It all begins with an idea.

St. John Chrysostom

December 2015

Behold a new and wondrous mystery.

My ears resound to the Shepherd’s song, piping no soft melody, but chanting full forth a heavenly hymn. The Angels sing. The Archangels blend their voice in harmony. The Cherubim hymn their joyful praise. The Seraphim exalt His glory. All join to praise this holy feast, beholding the Godhead here on earth, and man in heaven. He Who is above, now for our redemption dwells here below; and he that was lowly is by divine mercy raised.

Bethlehem this day resembles heaven; hearing from the stars the singing of angelic voices; and in place of the sun, enfolds within itself on every side, the Sun of justice. And ask not how: for where God wills, the order of nature yields. For He willed; He had the power; He descended; He redeemed; all things yielded in obedience to God. This day He Who is, is Born; and He Who is, becomes what He was not. For when He was God, He became man; yet not departing from the Godhead that is His. Nor yet by any loss of divinity became He man, nor through increase became He God from man; but being the Word He became flesh, His nature, because of impassability, remaining unchanged.

And so the kings have come, and they have seen the heavenly King that has come upon the earth, not bringing with Him Angels, nor Archangels, nor Thrones, nor Dominations, nor Powers, nor Principalities, but, treading a new and solitary path, He has come forth from a spotless womb.

Since this heavenly birth cannot be described, neither does His coming amongst us in these days permit of too curious scrutiny. Though I know that a Virgin this day gave birth, and I believe that God was begotten before all time, yet the manner of this generation I have learned to venerate in silence and I accept that this is not to be probed too curiously with wordy speech.

For with God we look not for the order of nature, but rest our faith in the power of Him who works.

What shall I say to you; what shall I tell you? I behold a Mother who has brought forth; I see a Child come to this light by birth. The manner of His conception I cannot comprehend.

Nature here rested, while the Will of God labored. O ineffable grace! The Only Begotten, Who is before all ages, Who cannot be touched or be perceived, Who is simple, without body, has now put on my body, that is visible and liable to corruption. For what reason? That coming amongst us he may teach us, and teaching, lead us by the hand to the things that men cannot see. For since men believe that the eyes are more trustworthy than the ears, they doubt of that which they do not see, and so He has deigned to show Himself in bodily presence, that He may remove all doubt.

Christ, finding the holy body and soul of the Virgin, builds for Himself a living temple, and as He had willed, formed there a man from the Virgin; and, putting Him on, this day came forth; unashamed of the lowliness of our nature.

For it was to Him no lowering to put on what He Himself had made. Let that handiwork be forever glorified, which became the cloak of its own Creator. For as in the first creation of flesh, man could not be made before the clay had come into His hand, so neither could this corruptible body be glorified, until it had first become the garment of its Maker.

What shall I say! And how shall I describe this Birth to you? For this wonder fills me with astonishment. The Ancient of days has become an infant. He Who sits upon the sublime and heavenly Throne, now lies in a manger. And He Who cannot be touched, Who is simple, without complexity, and incorporeal, now lies subject to the hands of men. He Who has broken the bonds of sinners, is now bound by an infants bands. But He has decreed that ignominy shall become honor, infamy be clothed with glory, and total humiliation the measure of His Goodness.

For this He assumed my body, that I may become capable of His Word; taking my flesh, He gives me His spirit; and so He bestowing and I receiving, He prepares for me the treasure of Life. He takes my flesh, to sanctify me; He gives me His Spirit that He may save me.

Come, then, let us observe the Feast. Truly wondrous is the whole chronicle of the Nativity. For this day the ancient slavery is ended, the devil confounded, the demons take to flight, the power of death is broken, paradise is unlocked, the curse is taken away, sin is removed from us, error driven out, truth has been brought back, the speech of kindliness diffused, and spreads on every side, a heavenly way of life has been planted on the earth, angels communicate with men without fear, and men now hold speech with angels.

Why is this? Because God is now on earth, and man in heaven; on every side all things commingle. He became Flesh. He did not become God. He was God. Wherefore He became flesh, so that He Whom heaven did not contain, a manger would this day receive. He was placed in a manger, so that He, by whom all things are nourished, may receive an infants food from His Virgin Mother. So, the Father of all ages, as an infant at the breast, nestles in the virginal arms, that the Magi may more easily see Him. Since this day the Magi too have come, and made a beginning of withstanding tyranny; and the heavens give glory, as the Lord is revealed by a star.

To Him, then, Who out of confusion has wrought a clear path, to Christ, to the Father, and to the Holy Spirit, we offer all praise, now and forever. Amen.

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Nativity Anonymous Nativity Anonymous

The Holy Supper at Nativity

It all begins with an idea.

Anonymous

December 2010

Christians of the Orthodox Faith have developed many meaningful customs which are associated with the feasts and fasts of the Church Year. These are especially recognizable during the feast of the Nativity of Jesus Christ.

One of the most prominent of these customs among the people who emigrated from the Carpathian mountain region is the Holy Night Supper. Each village retains its own variations regarding the actual ritual, but all the customs in general enrich the Christmas Eve Supper. Many of these customs have been handed·down by word of mouth. Others have been forgotten. Many are perpetuated here in America by the second and third generation of Orthodox Christians. Though it is traditionally served at home it has become customary in some Orthodox churches to preserve this family tradition where parishioners bring their favorite Nativity Lenten food and share it with all present. This family tradition is in danger of being lost since families no longer live close together and few have the time to cook the necessary dishes. The priest who is the father of the church family performs the prayer ritual.

The entire drama of events, associated with the “Birth of Christ” at Christmas is re·enacted through the customs at the “Holy Night Supper.” The Advent season does not conclude until the feast of Christmas. The Lenten rule of abstinence from meat and dairy products is strictly observed. Therefore, the Holy Night Supper consists of lenten foods.

Traditionally, the entire family prepares for the Holy Supper on the vigil of Christmas by washing themselves. The clean body is reflective of an unblemished soul and reminds us of the special state of grace, the result of having received the Holy Eucharist in Church during the Advent season.

The Supper begins at about the time the first star appears in the sky. The entire family assembles in the dining room. The star represents the star of Bethlehem. The “gazda” or master of the home proceeds to feed the animals with a generous portion of food. This custom reminds us of the animals present In the stable at the birth of Christ. The father spreads hay or straw in the dining room. As he does this, special prayers are recited. He greets the family with the words: “Christ is Born,” to which all reply, “Glorify Him!”

The dining room represents the cave and manger of Bethlehem, the humble surroundings of the Lord’s birth. The four legs of the table are tied with rope or chain by the father. This represents the asking of blessings and protection from all corners of the world. The chain symbolizes the unity of love which prevails among the members of the family.

The mother of the house sprinkles all present with holy water. She also sprinkles all the livestock In the barn and the animals in the home. She gives each of the animals some sugar or salt and plenty of feed. Candles are lighted on the table, as well as on the Christmas tree. The tree represents that one from which Adam and Eve had eaten. The candles remind us of Christ the “light of the World” at the time of His Birth. A candle is placed in the window as a Sign of welcome to any stranger or traveler who seeks shelter.

A clean white linen cloth is placed on the table. The linen represents the swaddling clothes with which the Mother of God clothed the Infant Child. Four candles are placed on the table symbolizing Christ and the three wise men. A manger scene is also placed on the table.

During the initial prayers by the father, blessed incense is burned on hot coals or charcoal. It reminds us of the gift of frankincense and myrrh. The smoke symbolically elevates the prayers to the throne of God. An empty chair is set at, the table in memory of deceased family members. It also reminds us of those family members who are unable to be present at the Supper. Members of the family who are absent, represent those people who were not present at the birth of Christ.

According to the custom, the father or the eldest son leads the family in prayer, in a kneeling position. This reminds us of the adoration of the Christ Child by the shepherds and wise men. The prayer expresses gratitude of God for His blessings during the past year. Included in the prayer are special petitions for health, happiness, longevity, peace and love. The father then blesses the food with holy water.

The father offers the traditional Christmas toast with a drink of sweet wine or brandy. All members of the family drink the toast, including the children. The mother gives a tooth of garlic, dipped in honey, to each member. She makes the sign of the cross on the forehead of the father, and on each of the other members of the family according seniority. The honey is symbolic of the sweetness of life, while the garlic represents the bitterness. The Trinity is invoked to fortify all family members against the tribulations of life in the coming year.

The father takes the home-made bread, blesses it, and distributes a piece to everyone. The sign of the cross is made with the bread, before it is consumed. Customarily, twelve traditional foods are served, representing the twelve Apostles. The food is served from a common bowl, from which all eat, as it is passed-around. This is symbolical of the family unity. The following lenten foods are served at the Supper. They may vary according to each village, county, and even from each household: (Only 12 of the following foods are served)

  • Bread

  • Vegetables

  • Honey

  • Fish

  • Garlic

  • Prunes

  • “Bobalky” (small biscuits)

  • Prune Soup

  • “Pirohy”

  • Stuffed Cabbage

  • Mushrooms

  • Sauerkraut

  • Mushroom Soup

  • Tea

  • Pea Soup

  • “Kolachy” (cakes)

  • Nuts

  • Borsch (beet soup)

Sounds like a feast instead of a fast, doesn’t it? Only a small portion of the food is consumed.

After dinner, the father reads the narrative of Christ’s Birth from the Scripture. A prayer of thanksgiving is recited, including thanks for the most precious gift of all, the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ. Carols are sung as the children eagerly hunt for pennies and small toys hidden in the straw, or in some secluded place of the home. Later, gifts are exchanged.During this time many carols are sung reminding the family of the birth of our Savior in the cave in Bethlehem. Then after the singing of the carols the family, like the shepherds, hasten to attend worship services.

Bethlehem has Opened Eden:

Come, and let us see!

Bethlehem has opened Eden: come, and let us see! We have found joy hidden! Come, and let us take possession of the paradise within the cave.

There the unwatered stem has appeared, from which forgiveness blossoms forth! There is found the undug well from which David longed to drink of old, and there the Virgin has borne a child, and at once the thirst of Adam and David is made to cease.

Therefore let us hasten to this place where for our sake the eternal God was born as a little child!

Ikos from Nativity Matins

A Note from Fr. Christopher

We have begun to incorporate this into our Nativity celebration at Holy Cross between the Vesperal Liturgy and the Nativity Vigil on Christmas Eve. This is a great way to solemnize this lenten meal together as a parish family. If there are any other Nativity customs from the various Orthodox traditions that you come from, please do not hesitate to let me know as it would be great to incorporate more of “our” traditions into our Holy Cross celebration of Nativity.

This article was taken and adapted from a short article called “Holy Night Supper Customs” and from the following website:
http://www.lenten-season.com/article-index.php?ID=3

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Nativity, Hymnography Bogdan Gabriel Bucur Nativity, Hymnography Bogdan Gabriel Bucur

One of Us! Praising Christ with the Hymns of the Nativity

It all begins with an idea.

Bogdan Gabriel Bucur

December 2017

In case the title startled you a bit, you can relax: I’ve taken the liberty to quote from Joan Osbourne’s 1995 hit, “One of Us,” but “just a slob like one of us” is nowhere to be found among the hymns chanted in the Orthodox Church! Osborne’s song, nonetheless, is a beautiful piece of music, with intriguing lyrics. If I am allowed to pick and choose, these are the verses I like best: “What if God was one of us? Just like one of us? Just a stranger on the bus, trying to make his way home? . . . If God had a face, what would it look like? God is great, God is good, yeah, yeah, yeah!”

I am often reminded of this song during the tiresome Christmas bustle at Walmart, with the crowds of compulsive shoppers (of whom I am fi rst), and with the jingles and the commercials repeated ad nauseam. Too much of all that and I start feeling lonely and lost, like Osbourne’s stranger on the bus, wondering how much of God’s face can still be discerned in this merrygo-round of special offers, reindeer, the obligatory new Christmas movie, “Ho-Ho-Ho” and the Santas at the mall. I also think that, while this song expresses a very deep and pure yearning — wrapped, certainly, in the cynicism and disillusionment of our age — it leaves us, at best, with only a trace of an anonymous and faceless God, who might or might not have been there on the bus.

Our Christmas hymns, the witness of the apostles and martyrs and saints, by contrast, speak boldly of “what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we observed and touched with our own hands” (1 John 1:1): a God great and good precisely because he came to be “just a slob like one of us.” Here is what we sing at the Great Hours of the Nativity:

Today is born of a virgin He who holds the whole creation in His hand.
He whose essence none can touch is bound in swaddling clothes as a mortal man.
God, who in the beginning fashioned the heavens, lies in a manger.
He who rained manna on his people in the wilderness is fed on milk from His mother’s breast.
The bridegroom of the Church summons the wise men; the Son of the virgin accepts their gifts.
We worship Thy birth, O Christ! We worship Thy birth, O Christ! We worship Thy birth, O Christ!
Show us also Thy holy Theophany.

(Eve of the Nativity, sticheron at the Ninth Royal Hour)

A Palestinian baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, sucking milk at his mother’s breast — one of us! The point of this hymn, however, is that this baby is also the maker and fashioner of the universe (“who holds creation in the hollow of his hand,” “who established the heavens”); he is also the Lord God of Israel, who freed his people from slavery, led it and fed it miraculously in the desert. He is also the light of all mankind, who summons the pagan stargazers, and, as another hymn (the Nativity troparion) says, he taught them to worship the sun of righteousness rising in Bethlehem. This baby, we are told, is the Bridegroom of the Church, and, as we have promised at Baptism, we bow down to him in worship.

The point is this: that Palestinian baby is no less than God. The icon of the Nativity – as a matter of fact, any icon of Christ – teaches the same truth, by showing a halo around the baby’s head, inscribed with Greek words declaring “He Who Is.” This is the name that God reveals to Moses on Mount Sinai: ego eimi ho on, “he who is,” “the existing one.” Those in the Church more philosophically inclined referred to this God as “the one beyond being” – beyond any affirmation and negation, beyond the grasp of human language, thought, feeling or imagination. Christianity does not begin, however, with metaphysical speculation, but with the amazing news of the Nativity: “Today the Virgin gives birth to the one beyond being”! Today, “he who is,” who spoke to Moses in the burning bush, and who inspired the lofty thought of all those who searched for him throughout the ages, has come to us as a baby. Wrapped in swaddling clothes, sucking at the breast – one of us!

Christ in the Nativity Hymns

In the Orthodox Church, one becomes familiar with “Christology” – what we confess about Jesus Christ – by participating in the Church’s worship. Explaining who this baby born at Bethlehem is constitutes precisely the liturgical program of Nativity: Bethlehem, make ready; Eden, open thy gates; for He Who Is [Exodus 3:14 ] becomes that which He was not, and the Fashioner of all creation is fashioned . . . (Sunday before Nativity, Sticheron at Litya). As another hymn explains, born in Bethlehem is He who fashioned all creation, yet reveals Himself in the womb of her that He formed (Eve of the Nativity, Sticheron at the Sixth Royal Hour). Indeed, to the discerning eye of faith, the cave holds far more than a helpless “baby Jesus.” We hymn Christ, who comes to save the man He fashioned (Sunday before Nativity Vespers, Apostichon at Lord I have cried). This is the very Lord God who separated the waters and suspended the earth upon the void (Job 26:7): When creation beheld Thee born in a cave, who hast hung the whole earth in a void above the waters, it was seized with amazement and cried: “There is none holy save Thee,O Lord!” (Compline Canon of the Forefeast of the Nativity, Ode 3, Eirmos).

The Virgin Theotokos offers, in the words of the hymnographer, the pattern of our worship of the baby: “O, sweetest child, how shall I feed Thee who give food to all? How shall I hold Thee, who holdest all things in Thy power? How shall I wrap Thee in swaddling clothes, who wrap the whole earth in clouds?” So cried the all-pure Lady whom in faith we magnify … (Matins Canon of the Forefeast of the Nativity, Ode 9, Sticheron 5).

Indeed, it is Christ who bowed the heavens (Psalm 17:10/ 18:9), and holds the creation in the hollow of his hand (Isaiah 40:12):

Open to me the gates, and entering within,
I shall see as a child wrapped in swaddling clothes
Him who upholds the creation in the hollow of His hand,
whose praises the angels sing with unceasing voice, the Lord and Giver of Life who saves mankind (Vespers of the Forefeast of the Nativity, Apostichon).

Very often the hymns speak of Christ as occupying the throne of God. This is common biblical language. Scripture depicts the God of Israel as the ruler of a heavenly world: seated on a fiery throne of cherubim – a living throne, as it were – in the innermost sanctum of a heavenly temple attended by thousands upon thousands of angels, who perform their celestial liturgies according to precisely appointed times and rules. This imagery looms large in the Psalms and in prophetic and apocalyptic literature (e.g., Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 1, Daniel 7), as well as in the New Testament and later Christian literature. “Throne” implies divine status: only God is depicted as seated on his heavenly throne; all others – angels and archangels, patriarchs, prophets, and saints – stand before him. To say that Jesus Christ is enthroned amounts, therefore, to proclaiming him as Lord and God. As Christians, we do not worship a mere human being, nor have we invented a second God: rather, in Jesus Christ we have the very image – the Face, as it were – of God (2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15; cf. Matthew 18:10). This is also true of the Nativity hymns, which have a very precise Christological message: Make merry, O Bethlehem! . . . Christ, the shepherd of Israel, who rides on the shoulders of the cherubim, has come forth from you for all to see . . . (Canon of the Nativity, Ode 3, Sticheron 4);

Before Thy birth, O Lord, the angelic hosts looked with trembling on this mystery and were struck with wonder: for Thou who hast adorned the vault of heaven with stars hast been well pleased to be born as a babe; and Thou who holdest all the ends of the earth in the hollow of Thy hand art laid in a manger of dumb beasts

(Eve of Nativity, Sticheron at the Third Royal Hour).

If the manger holds no less than the Lord, who in heaven is enthroned on the living cherubic throne, what of the Virgin? A strange and most wonderful mystery do I see: the cave is heaven; the Virgin – the throne of the cherubim (Canon of the Nativity, Ode 9, Eirmos). The virgin mother, truly “Theotokos” (God-bearer), is herself a living throne. This “strange and most wonderful mystery,” however, is not her exclusive privilege. It is rather the mystery of our call to what theologians call “deification,” that is, the vocation to an ever-increasing growth in the likeness to God. We too, as we sing at Liturgy, “represent mystically the cherubim”; we too, therefore, are called to be God-bearers.

Doxological Christology

The Christology – the teaching about Christ – that is found in the hymns complements that set forth by the ecumenical councils, and the Church views both as divinely inspired. Beginning with the apostolic council in Jerusalem, around 45 A.D., councils have prefaced their decisions with the formula, “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and also to us” (Acts 15:28). The hymns lay claim to the same inspiration by the Holy Spirit. As we sing in the Canon of the Annunciation (Ode 1, Eirmos), “My mouth shall I open wide, and it will thus be with Spirit fi lled. A word shall I then pour out unto the Mother and Queen. I will joyously attend the celebration and sing to her merrily, praising her miracles.”

But there is a distinction between the Christology of the hymns and that of the councils. The latter were compelled to articulate the faith of the Church in the face of heretical distortion, by using definitions of faith to delimit authentic Christian faith from false experience and belief. In doing so, they used the language most apt as instruments to formulate the definitions, borrowing from disciplines such as philosophy, logic, or medicine. With the hymns, however, the situation is quite different. Leaving aside the special of category “dogmatic hymns,” the hymns I have quoted so far are not engaged in demonstration, clarification or, polemics, but in worship. They do not address the adversaries of faith, but give expression to the spiritual intimacy between the Bride and the Bridegroom, the Church and Christ, constantly recalling their covenant recorded in the Scriptures. This is “doxological language,” the language of praise. In the absence of heresies (which forced the Church to express her faith in a more precise and technical language), doxology may very well have been the only Christology. Of course, these two types of language – doxological and dogmatic – are often intertwined, and have always coexisted. One finds a perfect illustration in the person of St. John of Damascus, hailed both as the author of the Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith and as an inspired hymnographer.

Hymns are Theology

In “performing” the hymns in worship, theology comes alive, becomes praise, becomes a dialogue with God. Its vantage point is no longer outside the event to which it refers, but rather the event itself, made present liturgically and encompassing worshippers past, present and future: “Today, He who holds the whole creation in the hollow of His hand is born of the Virgin”; or, at Pascha, “This is the Day of Resurrection.”

The hymns anchor all of us in the living experience of Israel’s walk with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Law-giver and “God of our fathers” – the same one whom the hymns proclaim Jesus Christ, the Lord. There is no need to argue for the importance of the hymns in Christian devotion – this is quite self-evident. But it is worth repeating that, in the Orthodox Church, hymnography can never be isolated from doctrinal inquiry: hymns are theology! They are bearers of an elaborate Christology, which essentially proclaims the same mystery of Christ that the ecumenical councils sought to defend, yet in a language very different from that of conciliar definitions.

Learning theology from the hymns helps reeducate our religious sensibility. It is not enough to ask, “What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us?” and remain suspended between the obligatory cynicism of our time and the hope that Christmas will remain somehow “magical.” And Nativity is certainly about much more than our pious emotions before “sweet baby Jesus” in the crib, just as Holy Week is about much more than our pious emotions aroused by the sufferings of an innocent. The Byzantine hymns invite us rather to approach both crib and cross with the awe that the people of Israel approached Mount Sinai, where Christ spoke to them in flashing light and rolling thunder: This is the “fear of God, faith, and love” with which the Divine Liturgy bids us approach the Son of God become son of the Virgin.

Christ is born, glorify Him!

Bogdan Gabriel Bucur is a member of the community at St. George Orthodox Cathedral in Pittsburgh. He is also an assistant professor of Theology at Duquesne University, where he teaches Bible and Patristics.

Source: The Word Magazine, Volume 52, No 10, December, 2008

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Nativity, Hymnography Alexander Bogolepov Nativity, Hymnography Alexander Bogolepov

Christmas Hymns in the Orthodox Church

It all begins with an idea.

by Alexander A. Bogolepov

December 2013

The observance of a special period of preparation before the Feast of the Nativity of Christ has long been an established part of Christian practice. In the Orthodox Church this period is made up of the Christmas Fast and the special days of preparation before Christmas itself, with the week of the Holy Forefathers and the week of the Holy Fathers. The Church services for these days of preparation commemorate the patriarchs, the prophets and all who had lived by faith in the Saviour who was to come and had prophesied about Him long before His coming. The hymns for the Feast of the Nativity are full of the original joyful excitement at the thought of God’s appearance on earth. The Christmas canon begins with a joyous declaration, gradually swelling in volume, of the Savior’s birth:

“Christ is born! Glorify Him!
Christ descends from the heavens, welcome Him!
Christ is now on earth, O be jubilant!
Sing to the Lord, the whole earth,
And sing praises to Him with joy, O ye people,
For He has been exalted!”1

In her Christmas hymns, as in her other hymnody, the Orthodox Church does not limit her vision to earthly happenings alone. In these hymns she contemplates the events of Christ’s life on earth from a dual perspective. Beyond the birth of a child in the poverty of a squalid cave, beyond the laying of the infant in a manger instead of a child’s crib, beyond His poor mother’s anxiety and alarm over His fate, supermundane events emerge -- events which are outside this world’s natural order:

“Today doth Bethlehem receive Him
Who sitteth with the Father forever”2

This was not the first birth of the One “who lay in a manger.” First He was begotten of His Father “before all ages” as God; moreover He was begotten of the Father alone, without His Mother. In Bethlehem He was born as men are born, but in contrast to all the sons of earth He was born of His Mother alone, without an earthly father. Having proclaimed “Christ is born!” in the 1st Song of the Christmas canon, the Church next calls upon the faithful to praise

“...the Son who was born of the Father
Before all ages, and in this latter day
Was made incarnate of the Virgin
Without seed; Christ our God”.3

In the last Song of the Christmas canon the feeling of the human mind’s powerlessness to comprehend this union of Divine majesty and human insignificance, this glorious mystery, is expressed even more brilliantly and eloquently.

A dark cave had replaced the resplendent heavens; the earthly Virgin had taken the place of the Cherubim as the “throne” of the Lord of Glory; a little manger had become the receptacle of the omnipresent God Who could never be contained in space:

“I behold a strange but very glorious mystery:
Heaven -- the cave;
The throne of the Cherubim -- the Virgin.
The manger -- the receptacle in which Christ our God,
Whom nothing can contain, is lying”.4

But nowhere does the attitude of reverence before this incomprehensible union of things heavenly and earthly find a more forceful expression than in the Kontakion for Christmas written by the greatest Greek hymn-writer, St. Romanos Melodus. Every word in it is full of meaning and one brilliant image follows another:

“Today the Virgin brings forth the Supersubstantial One
And the earth offers a cave to the Unapproachable One”.

Mary gave birth but remained a virgin, and gave existence to the One who is above all that exists in the world. And in the cave the earth provided a sanctuary for the One whom, as a general rule, men may not even approach. Next, the second part of this kontakion gives us two pictures of events which unfolded simultaneously and harmoniously on earth and in heaven. In heaven the angels glorify God in unison with the shepherds on earth, and the Wise Men move across the earth according to the direction taken by the heavenly star. The meaning of all this is that the Child whose life on earth was as yet only a few hours old is at the same time God, who existed before time itself and yet was born now for our salvation:

“For for our sakes, God, Who is before all the ages, is born a little Child”.5

What does the coming to earth of the Son of God really mean? Above all it means that people are illumined, that spiritual light is bestowed upon them. This idea is continually being put forward in the Christmas hymnody of the Orthodox Church. The Troparion for the Christmas Feast explains the basic meaning of the Feast. There is this direct statement:

“Thy Nativity, O Christ our God,
Has illumined the world like the Light of Wisdom”.

God enlightens each of us in the way that is most accessible and understandable to the particular person. And when He wished to enlighten the Wise Men, whose custom it was to observe the stars and their movements, He sent them an unusual star which guided them to the Christ.

“... They who worshipped the stars were through a star,
Taught to worship Thee, the Sun of Righteousness,
And to know Thee, the Day-Spring from on high”.

The star of Bethlehem gave the Wise Men an opportunity to see the rise of the Sun of Righteousness. But the light of Christ’s righteousness is not an earthly light. Its motion was not from out of the earth towards the firmament of heaven, but from above downwards. Shining high above the earth, it descended thereon from the heights of heaven and illumined the world with Divine light. It was the Day-Spring from on high. And all who have sat in spiritual darkness and waited for the true light have, like the Wise Men, come to know this extraordinary Day-Spring of the Sun of Righteousness.

“Our Saviour hath visited us from on high...
And we who were plunged in darkness and shadows
Have found the truth,
For the Lord hath been born of the Virgin”.6

The Church addresses this prayer of praise and thanksgiving to the Infant born in Bethlehem:

“Glory and praise to the One born on earth Who hath divinized earthly human nature.”7

The gifts of grace in the Holy Mysteries which strengthen enfeebled humanity, cure men, and regenerate them to a Godlike life, were imparted by Christ in the final, culminating days of His earthly mission and are linked to His death on the cross and Resurrection. But these last things were prepared for by Christ’s entire earthly life from Bethlehem to Golgotha. The Coming of Christ was the beginning of the salvation of mankind. And the Orthodox Church sings of Christ’s Nativity as the morning of men’s salvation, as the dawn after a long and anxious night -- the dawn with which the new, shining day in the life of the human race has already started.

The triumphal hymn of the Feast of Christmas is the “Gloria” sung by the angels to the Shepherds, to herald the coming of the Messiah.

“Glory in the Highest to God, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men” (Luke 2:14).

It is just as characteristic of Christmas as the hymn “Christ is Risen from the dead” is of Pascha (Easter).

According to the text of the second chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel the “good tidings” proclaimed by the angels was not a repetition from the heavens of things that were well-known before. The innumerable heavenly host which appeared suddenly in the wake of the Angel who had stood before the shepherds of Bethlehem confirmed his “tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” (Luke2:10). They also sang of the new, marvelous act of God’s goodwill, His sending the Saviour to this earth. This was the meaning of their good news: “Glory to God in the Highest; salvation had come to a sinful earth with the birth of the Christ Child, the loving-kindness of God had descended upon men.”

The extraordinary and wondrous Birth from a Pure Virgin is one of the fundamental themes of Christmas hymnody; at the same time the Mother of God, whom the Orthodox Church venerates with such pious devotion, is given in this hymnody a special place of honour. A number of examples from sacred history are used in these hymns in order to glorify Her perpetual virginity, Her conception by the Holy Spirit and Her “supermundane act of giving birth to God.” The most important of these are the prophet Jonah’s sojourn in the belly of the sea-monster and the Babylonian fiery furnace.” The fiery furnace of Babylon did not burn the young men, who were covered with its flames, likewise:

“The fire of the Godhead scorched not the Virgin,
When He entered into Her womb”.8

Despite the birth Mary was preserved a virgin like the Burning Bush on Mt. Sinai which could not be consumed but remained green in the flames.9 The Church sings praises to Mary alike for Her virginity and Her touching maternal love. Her tenderness as a mother toward Her wondrous Infant Child, whom as Her son She held in Her arms at Her breast, but before whom She bowed in worship as before “the Son of the Highest,” is expressed in the following lullaby which Church hymnody assigns to the lips of the Lady Most Pure, calling upon us men “to magnify Her without ceasing”:

“O my child, child of sweetness,
How is it that I hold Thee, Almighty?
And how that I feed Thee,
Who givest bread to all men?
How is it that I swaddle Thee,
Who with the clouds encompasseth the whole earth”.10

She who “knew not a man” and yet gave birth to the Incorporeal God is for the Orthodox Church at once mother and virgin.

“Magnify, O my soul, the Virgin Most Pure,
The God-Bearer, who is more honourable
And more glorious than the heavenly hosts”.11

The best and holiest of earthly creatures, exalted above the angels, the God-Bearer is the pride of this earth, a fitting gift from mankind to the Creator and Saviour:

“What shall we present unto Thee, O Christ,
For Thy coming to earth for us men?
Each of Thy creatures brings Thee a thank-offering:
The angels -- singing; the heavens -- a star;
The Wise Men -- treasures; the shepherds devotion;
The earth -- a cave; the desert -- a manger;
But we offer Thee the Virgin-Mother. O Eternal God, have mercy upon us”.12

In rendering “maternal-virginal glory” to Mary Full-of-Grace the Church venerates Mary because, through Her unspotted purity, She was made worthy to bring the Saviour into this world and Herself became the door of salvation and deliverance from the curse of sin which had weighed upon men:

“Magnify, O my soul, Her who hath delivered us from the curse”.13

Paradise is now once again opened to us. If sin entered the world through Eve, it is also through the New Eve (the Mother of our God) that victory over sin has come into the world.

The Church likewise summons us:

“Let us glorify in song the true God-Bearer
Through who sinners have been reconciled with God.14

The Mother of God represents the point at which the Godhead came into direct contact with Old Testament humanity. She is in this respect the living symbol of all the triumphant joy of Christmas, which is the celebration of God’s reestablished union with men. God, who had driven our forefathers out of Paradise, had set them far apart from Himself. Now, with the birth of Christ, He has again come to men, just as He once came to them in Paradise. It has become possible again for men to be in communion with God. The barrier between,Heaven and earth has fallen and so we sing along with Adam and Eve:

“The wall of partition is destroyed,
The flaming sword is dropped,
The Cherubim withdraw from the Tree of Life,
And I partake of the fruits of Paradise,
Whence, for my disobedience, I was driven forth”.15

The underlying feeling of the Christmas Feast is one of peace. This is a result of the reconciliation and new unity between heaven and earth:

“Heaven and earth now are united through Christ’s Birth!
Now is God come down to earth
And man arisen to the heaven”.16

This unity is the source of general exultation -- a note which resounds vigorously in the Christmas hymnody:

“Today Christ is born in Bethlehem of the Virgin.
Today He who is without a beginning begins,
And the Word is made flesh.
The powers of Heaven rejoice,
The earth and her people are jubilant;
The Wise Men bring gifts to the Lord,
The shepherds marvel at the One who is born;
And we sing without ceasing:
“Glory to God in the Highest, And on earth peace, (God’s) good will toward men”.17

There is one solitary note, however, which breaks into these hymns of general rejoicing like a forewarning of future lamentations. The Wise Men -- according to the Christmas Eve stichera -- came toworship the Incarnate God and devotedly offered Him their gifts -- gold, because He is the King of ages; frankincense, because He is the God of all men; but then they also brought Him myrrh, with which the Jews were accustomed to anoint their dead, because He was to “lie three days in death.”

The heart of the Mother of God must have been seized by a premonition of that which awaited the innocent Child who was sleeping peacefully in the manger. This minor note of sadness is drowned, however, in the general chorus of exultation. Heaven and earth rejoice together and this does not mean simply that the angels’ singing harmonises with that of the shepherds. The Church does not even view so-called “inanimate nature” as indifferent to the higher world. The Creator has willed the existence of a special link between them. At an earlier time man’s sinfulness had brought general disorder into nature, but now all nature leaps for joy, rejoicing at the overcoming of this sin:

“Today the whole creation rejoices and is jubilant,
For Christ is born of the Virgin”.18

In the Christmas hymnody the Star is not merely the voice which made known to the world the Saviour’s appearance. It is also a sign, a symbol of this appearance, just as the Cross is the symbol of victory over the forces of darkness. Then, too, the Star is a symbol of Christ Himself, “the Star which rose from Jacob”.19

For more than nineteen centuries Christ has been shining down upon mankind as a guiding star, not as a myth or mirage, but as the living God, who has been on earth and spoken with men. There have been many subsequent attempts to obscure the pure silver light of the Star of Bethlehem in human consciousness. But the centuries of the Christian era have not passed by in vain. And if the Christmas hymns continue to resound each year in churches scattered all over the world and to be sung as they were sung many hundreds of years ago by the grandparents and forbears of the present generation, this means that the light shed by the Christmas Star is deeply rooted in human hearts and shines on in them undimmed.

From Orthodox Hymns of Christmas, Holy Week and Easter, published by the Russian Orthodox Theological Fund Inc.

Footnotes

  • 1 Christmas Canon, 1st Song, Irmos

  • 2 Christmas Matins, stichera after the Gospel

  • 3 Christmas Canon, 3rd Song, Irmos

  • 4 Christmas Canon, 9th Song, Irmos

  • 5 Kontakion

  • 6 Christmas Matins, Protagogion

  • 7 Christmas Matins, Sedalen

  • 8 Christmas Canon, 8th song, Irmos

  • 9 2nd Christmas Canon, 1st song, Troparion

  • 10 Pre-Christmas,, 9th song, Troparion

  • 11 Christmas Canon, 9th song, verse

  • 12 Stichera by Patriarch Anatolios on “O Lord, I have cried unto Thee”

  • 13 Christmas Canon, 9th Song, verse

  • 14 Christmas Canon, 5th Song, Troparion

  • 15 Stichera by Patriarch Hermanos on “O Lord, I have cried unto Thee”

  • 16 Stichera on the Litiya

  • 17 Stichera before the great Doxology

  • 18 Christmas Canon, 9th song, verse

  • 19 Christmas Canon, 6th song, Troparion

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