From antiochan.org, dynamispublications.org, rongolini.com and biblegateway.com:
Daily Readings:
Saints/Martyrs/Feasts/Fasts to be observed/commemmorated/celebrated: the Seventh Day of Christmas
Scriptural Readings:
Isaiah 7:10-16; 8:1-4, 8-10 (12/31-1/13) Eighth Vigil Reading: Nativity of Christ our God
Immanuel: Isaiah 7:10-16; 8:1-4, 8-10 SAAS, especially vs. 14: “Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and you shall call His name, Immanuel.” This present passage develops earlier, in the middle of a conversation between God, the Lord of Hosts, and King Ahaz of Judah (Is. 7:3-9). The Lord spoke to the king through His Prophet Isaiah. There was a national crisis - an attack on the nation of Judah. Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, who was king of Israel, had formed a military coalition and come “...against Jerusalem to war against it...” (Is. 7:1). Their intent was to remove Ahaz as king of Judah and put “...the son of Tabel...” (Is. 7:6) on the throne. They were motivated by a by fear for survival against the aggression of the Assyrian empire that was actively conquering the region. The Syrian and Ephraimite kings first tried to convince Ahaz to join them in an anti-Assyrian coalition, but Ahaz refused, and so they sought to effect a ‘coup d’etat’ and establish a friendly government in Jerusalem that would join them in a confederacy against the Assyrians.
Isaiah reports that the soul of King Ahaz was confounded as well as the soul of his people, “...as a tree of the woods is shaken by the wind” (Is. 7:2). God was seeking to reassure the king: “Guard yourself and be silent; do not fear, neither let your soul be disheartened because of these two stubs of smoking firebrands, for when My fierce anger is over, I shall heal....This counsel shall not continue...” (Is. 7:4,7). King Ahaz was not convinced. Thus, the Lord invited the nervous king, “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above” (Is. 7:11). Ahaz, not able to see beyond his fear, evaded the Divine offer of prophetic reassurance with a pious demur: “I will not ask, nor will I tempt the Lord” (vs. 12).
The Lord’s response to King Ahaz touched both the depth of the creation, that is, the lowly earth and all its inhabitants, as well as the height of all God’s creation, the visible and the invisible. By the power of God from Heaven, that which is impossible in the depths of earth will occur: “...the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son...” (vs. 14). And thus, the poor, ineffectual, unbelieving, and timid king of Judah was told of the future, wondrous Incarnation of God in the flesh. Further, he was informed of the child’s dual nature (Christ being fully God and fully man), “...you shall call His name Immanuel” (vs. 14), that is, to say, ‘God with us.’
The remainder of the reading focuses on the ministry of Immanuel. First, the sinlessness of the Lord Jesus is revealed: “...before the child knows good or evil, He refuses the evil to choose the good...” (vs. 7:16). In this prophetic utterance, the Lord declared centuries in advance the birth of our Savior the truth which the Apostle affirmed after the death and Resurrection of Christ our God: “...we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but [One Who] was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15).
Then, God directed His counsel to the immediate circumstances of the Syro-Ephraimite invasion and the looming threat of Assyria. These were temporal threats with consequences for the nations of mankind at a certain point in history, but in no way would their plans disrupt the counsel of God. Centuries later the counsel of Herod and Pilate would lead to the crucifixion of Christ and would scatter the Disciples, but those decisions did “...not continue...for the Lord God is with us” (Is. 8:10). The Lord easily can easily scatter the counsel of men wherever it conflicts with His purpose to give eternal life to mankind. “For God did not send [Immanuel] into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (Jn. 3:17).
God is with us, understand, O ye nations, and submit yourselves: for God is with us. Hearken ye unto the ends of the earth, for God is with us (Is. 8:10, as found in Great Compline).
1 Peter 1:1-2, 10-12, 2:6-10
1 Peter 1:1-2; 1 Peter 1:10-12; 1 Peter 2:6-10 (King James Version)
King James Version (KJV)
1 Peter 1:1-2
Listen to this passage
View commentary related to this passage
1 Peter 1
1Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
2Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
King James Version (KJV)
Public Domain
1 Peter 1:10-12
Listen to this passage
View commentary related to this passage
10Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
11Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
12Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.
King James Version (KJV)
Public Domain
1 Peter 2:6-10
Listen to this passage
View commentary related to this passage
6Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
7Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
8And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
9But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;
10Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
King James Version (KJV)
Public Domain
Mark 11:27-33
Mark 11:27-33 (King James Version)
27And they come again to Jerusalem: and as he was walking in the temple, there come to him the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders,
28And say unto him, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority to do these things?
29And Jesus answered and said unto them, I will also ask of you one question, and answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.
30The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? answer me.
31And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then did ye not believe him?
32But if we shall say, Of men; they feared the people: for all men counted John, that he was a prophet indeed.
33And they answered and said unto Jesus, We cannot tell. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.
The Synaxarion:
December 31
Closing Day of the Feast of the Nativity according to the Flesh of Our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ
Memory of the Venerable Melania the Roman (There were two to bear this name: Melania the Elder who died in 410, and her daughter, Melania the Younger, who died in 439)
Two patricians in Rome bore the name of Melania. The first, called Melania the Elder, the granddaughter of Markellin the Consular and spouse of Valerius Maximus, the Prefect of Rome under Julian the Apostate, was born in Spain. A widow at twenty-two years of age, she conceived the lively desire to consecrate herself to God. She entrusted her son Publicola to a tutor, sold the greater part of her immense properties and she embarked for Alexandria, where she distributed her riches to the poor and to the monasteries. She went to visit the Desert Fathers in Nitria, conversed with them at great length for six months, visited all the holy anchorites of the desert and educated herself from them. She built a monastery in Jerusalem around 375, where she withdrew for twenty-seven years in the company of about fifty consecrated virgins. Nearby her was the famous writer Rufin, a native of Aquileia, Italy, who, honored later by priestly ordination, had at the same time as Saint Melania, the pious thought to construct a hospice in Jerusalem to receive bishops, priests, monks, and virgins who came on pilgrimage to the Holy Places. Adorned with high education and very well mannered, her son Publicola attained high dignities in the Empire, not to speak of the happy marriage which he had contracted.
Saint Melania the Younger whom we commemorate today was the daughter of Publicola. She was born in Rome around 383. With her husband Pinian, she embarked for Africa around 409, where the two spouses spent seven years. Then in 416, in company with Albina, the mother of Pinian, they went to Jerusalem. Albina having died in 431, Saint Melania shut herself up in a small cell on the Mount of Olives. She erected there a monastery which contained about ninety virgins whom the Saint directed, but so humbly that she was like the servant of all. She approached the Holy Mysteries daily. After the death of Pinian, she founded a monastery for men, to assure the liturgical offices according to the Roman rite in the Church of the Ascension. She died in peace on December 31, 439.
Far from Rome at the time these holy persons survived the barbarian invasion of 410 which sacked and devastated the whole city, not even sparing the bronze statues of the forum. While the unhappy inhabitants of Rome were all captives, they alone, being consecrated to God on the exhortations of Melania, escaped the frightful catastrophe.
All is said as on the Feast of the Nativity according to the Flesh of Our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ, itself. However, the Epistle and Gospel are from the present period. Hirmos from the Second Canon of the Feast (see it on December 26).
In occurrence with a Saturday, the Epistle and Gospel are from the Saturday before Theophany.
In occurrence with a Sunday: Typika and Beatitudes or Antiphons of the Feast with, at the Second Antiphon, the response of the Nativity according to the Flesh of Our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ. Isodikon of the Feast, but the response is from the Resurrection. Troparia: of the Resurrection; of the Nativity according to the Flesh of Our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ; of Saint Joseph; and of the Church Patron. Kondakion of the Nativity according to the Flesh of Our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ. Trisagion. Epistle and Gospel of the Sunday before Theophany. Hirmos from the Second Canon of the Nativity according to the Flesh of Our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ. After Communion, the Troparion of the Nativity according to the Flesh of Our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment