O Virgin of virgins,
how shall this be?
For neither before was any like thee,
nor shall there be after.
Daughters of Jerusalem,
why marvel ye at me?
That which ye behold is a divine mystery.


I am finally weighing in on the last of the O Antiphons, this beautiful discussion between the Daughters of Jerusalem and the Theotokos.

One of my favorite hymns of the Nativity, and one that I remember clearly hearing for the first time is this one from Nativity Eve:

What shall we offer You, 0 Christ,
Who for our sake has appeared on the earth as a man?
Every creature which You have made offers You thanks.
The angels offer You a song.
The heavens, their star.
The wise men, their gifts.
The shepherds, their wonder.
The earth, its cave.
The wilderness, the manger.
And we offer You a Virgin Mother.
O Pre-eternal God, have mercy on us!



I love all of creation participating in the Incarnation of Christ, but mostly, I love the reminder that we offer not only a Daughter of Eve (as CS Lewis would say) but the new Eve.

Father Thomas Hopko in his wonderful book “The Winter Pascha” writes:

The Orthodox Church teaches that it is unreasonable, impious, and even
blasphemous to think that God could choose just any woman to be the mother
of His Son or that the Lord could be born without, or even against, the free
and voluntary cooperation of the one who bore Him. Or, even worse, that He
could simply "choose a womb" from which to be born as "water passing through
a pipe," as some early Christian heretics claimed in their misguided zeal to
defend the sovereignty and power of God "who does whatever He wills." It is
rather considered to be the greatest glory of creatures that they all give
thanks to God in a manner appropriate to their being by providing the
conditions for His becoming one of them Himself. Little did the three young
men in the fiery furnace of Babylon realize to what glory creatures were to
come in the Messianic age when they called all to bless the Lord and to
praise and exalt Him forever.3 And little did any child of Adam and Eve
realize to what glory human beings would come when one of their own, called
the 'new Eve," would become truly "Theotokos" by giving birth to a man who
is the divine Son of God.

My wish is that we all take time during this season to participate in the Incarnation with Creation. Thank you for reading my humble ponderings this Nativity Fasting season, and thank you mostly to Huw Raphael for issuing this challenge. While I regret that I have missed most of the dates, I have learned a lot from contemplating the O Antiphons and have really come to long for the Incarnation this year. It is a gift that is greatly appreciated

(icon of the Nativity from the 7th Century, Sinai, available from St. Isaac the Syrian Skete)