Monday, December 19, 2005

O Emmanuel,
our King and Lawgiver,
the one awaited by the gentiles,
and their Savior:
come to save us,
Lord our God.

At the end of Vespers we pray the beautiful prayer of St. Simeon from Luke 2:29-32

"Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to enlighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel"

From the life of St. Simeon:
During the reign of the Egyptian Emperor Ptolemy Philadelphus, Simeon was chosen as one of the prominent Seventy to whom was entrusted the task of translating the Bible from the Hebrew language into the Greek language [The Septuagint]. Simeon was performing his task conscientiously but when he was translating the book of the Prophet Isaiah and came upon the prophecy: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and will give birth to a son" (Isaiah 7:14), he became confused and took a knife to remove the word "virgin" and to replace it with the words, "young woman," and as such to translate it into Greek. At that moment, however, an angel of God appeared to Simeon and restrained him from his intention, explaining to him that the prophecy is true; that the prophecy is correctly written: that it is true and correct. The messenger of God also said that Simeon would be convinced of it personally for, according to the Will of God, he will not die until he sees the Messiah born of the Virgin. The righteous Simeon rejoiced to hear such a voice from heaven, left the prophecy unchanged and thanked God Who is making him worthy to live and to see the Promised One. When the young Child Jesus was presented in the Temple in Jerusalem by the Virgin Mary, the Spirit of God appeared to Simeon who was very old and as "white as a swan." Simeon quickly entered the Temple and there recognized both the Virgin and the young Child by the light that shone around their heads as an aureal. The joyful Simeon took Christ into his hands and prayed to God to release him from this life: "Now, Master, You may let Your servant go in peace, according to Your word, for my eyes have seen Your salvation" (St. Luke 2: 29-30). Anna the Prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, was also there, who recognized the Messiah and proclaimed Him to the people. "And coming forward at that very moment, she gave thanks to God, and spoke about the Child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem" (St. Luke 2:38). At that time, Anna was eighty-four years old. St. Simeon died shortly after that. This righteous Elder Simeon is considered to be the Protector of young children.

St. Simeon is truly the bridge between the Old Testament and the New Testament, and his prayer affirms that the lawgiver was awaited by all. As St. Athanasius says in "On The Incarnation" "For the law was not given only for the Jews, nor was it solely for their sake that God sent the prophets...The law and the prophets were a sacred school of the knowledge of God and the conduct of the spiritual life for the whole world" (page 40)

The Feast of the Presentation of our Lord in the Temple is the end of the Christmas season, being 40 days after the Nativity (February 2). Since I'm at home and dialup doesn't allow me to upload photos, the icon of the Feast can be seen here.

come to save us,
Lord our God.

4 Comments:

At 2:16 PM , Blogger SuburbanMom said...

I can't really follow all that but I did want to say hi :)

 
At 9:36 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi there... love the O Antiphons, and have just been reading your blog and seeing that you posted them. My worlds are overlapping majorly here, are you on Ship of Fools, or do you just know people there?

I was actually posting because I saw that you posted a poem from Anne Bradstreet in an entry in November (posted here because I didn't know if you'd see coments on old entries) and I *love* Anne Bradstreet! That's so cool, it's not very common to find people who know of her.

 
At 10:03 AM , Blogger Mimi said...

Thanks Katherine, you'll do fine, I'm sure!

Lizzie - I've been through the Ship a few times, but I don't hang out there reguarly. I know a lot of people who do, though.

I also *love* Anne Bradstreet - she's been one of my favorites since High School.

(I have comments emailed to me, so even if they go back awhile, they still get to me)

 
At 10:26 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Heh, I just followed a link to you from Ian's blog... so yeah, ship people. I am on the ship but don't post too much, have several friends from there though. And of course got to be friends with Mousethief & Co. from there... we figured out who each other were (we'd vaguely seen each other at pan Orthodox stuff) and introduced ourselves at a Wilkeson Barbeque more than two years ago. :)

 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home