Mom, are we going to wait until Christmas Eve to put up the tree?” Xavier asked the other day.
I told him that was an old European tradition and asked if he’d like to observe it.
“No,” came the reply “I was just wondering why the tree wasn’t up yet.”

So with a bit of nagging, up went the (artificial and pretty much too small) tree complete with the beer lights (get it – light beer?) and the new angel topper (I liked our old one, Eddie said).

The house is decorated, gifts are amassing under the tree, we wait to celebrate the Nativity on Sunday.

Merry Christmas!

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)

Mimi’s Chronicles at Narnia.

I took Monday off to go with the Altar Boys in our parish (of which Xavier is one) to see The Chronicles of Narnia.

First, when we got to the church, the boys had a practice for the upcoming feast. It was my week to clean the church, so I got there a few minutes early to get the vacuuming done. This is when I discovered I had one blue shoe and one black shoe on. Ugh.
Got the vacuuming done, finished the cleaning and read in the car (Lorna Doone) while the practice continued.

Then, we were off to Skippers for lunch. I remembered why it had been 15 years since I’d last been in a Skippers (it seems like I craved their Clam Chowder when pregnant with Cedric). Then we had over an hour until the movie started. We went to the theater, got our tickets, and went back to the church so the boys could run off their energy.

Finally, we were at the theater, tickets in hand, and ready to depart to Narnia.

I loved it! Each time they showed something new, I thought “that’s exactly how I imagined it!” The scenery was lovely, the actors were grand (love Lucy, could she be any cuter?), and the storyline was true enough to the book to not give any pause, and Aslan was incredible.

On the way home, I was discussing the allegorical theme of the movie (especially the part where Edmund has a confession with Aslan) with Xavier. He took that and ran with it, he loved figuring out the different allegories and how parts of the movie fit in with Christianity - the breaking of the stone table, the four kids being as disciples, and on and on. My favorite comment was “so, I guess that’s why Subdeacon Gideon took us to see the movie”.

And, then, in a most humbling moment, he said a powerful theological statement “Edmund is like the thief – he did something bad, confessed to God, and is with him in the Kingdom”.

Indeed!

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.