My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
On the Eighth of September Our Holy Orthodox Church Commemorates
the Holy Nativity of the Most Pure THEOTOKOS and Ever-Virgin Mary.
Apolytikion (Dismissal) Hymn. Fourth Tone
THY NATIVITY, O THEOTOKOS, hath proclaimed joy to the whole world,
for from thee dawned the Sun of Righteousness, Christ our God,
annulling the curse and bestowing the blessing, abolishing death and
granting us life everlasting.
Kontakion Hymn. Fourth Tone
JOACHIM and ANNA were freed from the reproach of childlessness, and
Adam and Eve from the corruption of death, O immaculate one, by thy
Holy Nativity, which thy people, redeemed from the guilt of offences,
celebrate by crying to thee: The barren woman giveth birth to the
Theotokos, the Nourishe of our life.
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The Lord, Who dwells in the heavens, wishing to appear on earth and abide with men, first prepared a dwelling place for His glory: His Most Pure Mother. It is the custom of kings that in whatever city they desire to live, a place of residence be prepared for them beforehand. And as the palaces of earthly kings are constructed by the most skilled craftsmen, of the most costly materials, on the most elevated sites, and are more beautiful and spacious than all the other dwellings of men, so it was necessary that the palace of the King of Glory be erected in a similar fashion. In the Old Testament, when God desired to dwell in Jerusalem ,Solomon built a Temple for Him, employing Hiram, a most wise master, who possessed full knowledge of every art and science and was skilled in every enterprise. He constructed the Temple with materials of great value: with costly stone, with aromatic woods of cedar and cypress brought from Lebanon, and with pure gold, locating it upon a high place, that is, upon Mount Moriah. The Temple was of great beauty, and on its walls were portrayed the likeness of Cherubim and of various trees and flowers. The Temple was so spacious that all of the Isreaelite people could be accommodated therein without crowding, and the glory of the Lord came upon it in fire and a cloud (2 Chronicles, ch. 7). Nevertheless, the Temple even though Solomon built Him a temple, "the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands. What house will ye build me, saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest" (Acts, ch. 7).
At the beginning of the new era of grace, the Lord was pleased to create a temple not made by hands: the Most Pure, Most Blessed Virgin Mary. By what builder was this temple erected? In truth by One Most Wise: by the very Wisdom of God, as the Holy Scripture say, "Wisdom hath built herself a temple" (Proverbs, ch. 9). All things created by the Wisdom of God are good and perfect, and since it was the Wisdom of God that fashioned the Living Temple of the Logos/Word, A PERFECT TEMPLE WAS FASHIONED FOR A PERFECT GOD, A MORE RADIANT PALACE FOR THE MOST RADIANT KING; FOR THE MOST PURE AND UNDEFILED BRIDEGROOM A BRIDAL CHAMBER MOST PURE AND UNDEFILED WAS PREPARED; FOR THE SPOTLESS Lamb, AN UNSULLIED DWELLING-PLACE. A faithful Witness abiding in the heavens said to her, "Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee" Saint John of Damascus wrote, "She is wholly the bridal chamber of the Spirit, wholly the city of God, a seas of grace, wholly good, wholly near unto God."
With what materials was this palace built? In truth, with the most costly. For she, being like a precious stone, was of royal lineage, having descended from David, who placed a stone in his sling and with it killed Goliath, which stone foreshadowed the Rock that is Christ. And she was fashioned, as it were, FROM AROMATIC WOODS OF CEDAR AND CYPRESS, BEING OF PRIESTLY ANCESTORS AS WELL, WHO OFFERED GOD SWEET-SMELLING SACRIFICES. Her father, the holy righteous Joachim, was the son of Barpaphira, who traced his ancestry to Nathan, the son of David. Her mother, the holy righteous Anna, was the daughter of Matthan the priest, who was of the line of Aaron. Thus, the Most Pure Virgin was by her father of royal descent, and by her mother, of high-priestly lineage. Of what precious materials, from what an ancestry ws the most illustrious, animate palace of the King of Glory fashioned! As structures built of stone and wood in Solomon’s Temple were esteemed all the more for the pure gold with which they were covered, so in the case of the Nativity of the Most Pure Theotokos, the nobility of her royal and high-priestly lineage is rendered yet more honorable by the chaste temperance of her holy parents, which is more to be valued than thousands of gold and silver. "She is more precious than costly stones, and nothing that is dear is to be compared unto her," (But not of virginity, for Christ alone was born "of seedless conception"), for the Most Pure Virgin was born of parents possessed of chastity, which is loftier than all nobility, as the holy Damascene testifies. Writing of the righteous ancestors of God, he says, "O blessed couple, Joachim and Anna! Truly, by the fruit of your lions are ye known to be blameless, according to the words of the Lord, "Ye shall know them by their fruits" (Matthew, ch. 7)…you, having chastely observed the laws of nature in all chastity, have been granted by God that which is above nature and HAVE BROUGHT INTO THE WORLD THE VIRGIN MOTHER OF GOD. While in the flesh, you have piously and virtuously borne a daughter WHO IS HIGHER THAN THE ANGELS AND REIGNETH OVER THEM. Most fair and sweet daughter, lily sprung up in the midst of tares from a root most noble and august, by thee the royal priesthood hath been enriched!" With words such as these the holy Damascene clearly indicates the manner of parents who bore the Mother of God and of what costly materials the palace of the Heavenly King was erected…
"..The place where the Most Blessed Virgin was born was a little town in the land of Galilee called Nazareth, which was subject to the city of Capernaum. It was inglorious and obscure, and its inhabitants were held in disdain, even as it was once said of Christ, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" (John, ch. 1) But the Lord, "Who dwelleth on high and looketh down on things that are lowly" (Psalm112), was well-pleased that His Most Pure Mother be born not in Capernaum, which in its pride was lifted up to heaven, but rather in humble Nazareth, indicating that that "which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God" (Luke, ch. 16) while that which is despised and disdained by them is regarded by Him as lofty and honorable. Moreover, by its very name Nazareth hints at the height of the virtues of the Most Pure Virgin. As by His Nativity in Bethlehem, which name means HOUSE OF BREAD, the Lord mystically signified that He is the Bread that comes down from heaven for the life and strength of men, so by the birth of His Most Pure Mother in Nazareth, He denotes sublime things. For the name Nazareth means a blossoming place, sacred, removed from the things of this world, adorned, as it were, with a crown, and guarded. [Resources: The Great Collection of The Lives of the Saints]
(To be continued)
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"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 