From byzcath.org, rongolini.com, biblegateway.com:
Daily Readings:
Saints/Martyrs/Feasts/Fast to be observed/commemmorated/celebrated: the Feast of the Nativity
Scriptural Readings:
Ephesians 5:1-8
Ephesians 5:1-8 (King James Version)
Ephesians 5
1Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;
2And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
3But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
4Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.
5For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
6Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
7Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
8For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light
Luke 14:1-11
Luke 14:1-11 (King James Version)
Luke 14
1And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him.
2And, behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy.
3And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day?
4And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go;
5And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day?
6And they could not answer him again to these things.
7And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them.
8When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him;
9And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room.
10But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.
11For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
The Synaxarion:
December 25
The Nativity According to the Flesh of Our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ. Easter. Abstention from work for three days
The birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ was first liturgically commemorated in Egypt where it was celebrated during the night of January 5 to the 6. It took the place, among the Christians, of the nativity Ayon, the god of Alexandria, that the pagans celebrated during the winter solstice, established on January 6 according to the Egyptian calendar established by Amenemhet I, around 1991 before Jesus Christ. In the process of time, the date of the solstice was transferred to December 25, and it is upon this day that the Romans celebrated the "Natalis solis invicti", a feast instituted in 274 after Jesus Christ by Emperor Aurelian. In other regions of the empire, similar feasts were celebrated on the same date. For example, in Petra the Arab Nebataeans had the nativity of their god Dusara. The Hebrews celebrated the new dedication of the Temple on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Kislev, which also corresponded to the winter solstice.
The Nativity of Jesus was in fact commemorated in the East as at Rome from the beginning of the Fourth century, but not an historic commemoration but above all a feast of notions; the Theophanies, that is the diverse "manifestations" of Christ: His birth, manifestation to the Magi, baptism. It remains thus today in the Coptic Church.
It is then in Rome that it first was made a separate feast apart from January 6, and established on December 25, without any doubt to "baptize" the Feast of the Sun which we spoke of above. At what date is this institution placed? It was certainly established in 354, perhaps even from the conclusion of the Council of Ephesus (431). But if Rome was the first to separate the Nativity from the Theophanies, it is from the liturgy of Jerusalem that she borrows the outline of its ceremonies as well as a great number of prayers. Jerusalem celebrated Theophany like Easter, by two Eucharistic sacrifices: one after the vigil, in the middle of the night, in the Basilica of Bethlehem; the other, on the day, in the Martyrion of the Holy Resurrection. In Rome also the Eucharist was celebrated first in the middle of the night, at Saint Mary Major, then on the day, at the tomb of Saint Peter. Later, a third Divine Liturgy was added to it. Other borrowings by Rome from the original Theophany are evident enough.
At Antioch, the feast of Christmas was introduced for the first time in the East by Saint John Chrysostom himself, as he attests in his homily for the day of the Savior's Nativity. It was from the beginning, much more than at Rome, a solemnity commemorative of an historic fact. Above all the marvel of the Virgin birth was insisted upon. This idea inspired a considerable part of the hymns of the Office, without doubt in repercussion of the Council of Ephesus. It did not take long to establish a special concomitant feast of the Theotokos, on December 26, a common synaxis feast in the Byzantine and Syrian Churches.
It is only later that the popular and poetic character of the oriental feast passed into the West where it was to take, above all by the influence of Saint Francis of Assisi, a very important place in the folklore of the Latin countries. It was of such importance that the feast of Christmas there, in fact, became the greatest one after Easter, and which on this point has supplanted Theophany, which remains only the feast of the adoration of the Magi is tied to the Savior's birth and is commemorated on December 25).
First Class Feast which, in occurrence with a Sunday, suppresses the whole proper of the Resurrection. Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom. Antiphons of the Feast. Isodikon of the Feast. Troparion of the Nativity according to the Flesh of Our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ (three times), the Hypakoi and the Kondakion of the Feast. Instead of the Trisagion: "All of you who have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. "Alleluia." Epistle and Gospel of the Feast. Hirmos (from the first Canon of the Feast). Kinonikon and, after Communion, Troparion of the Feast.
In occurrence with a Sunday or a Monday: Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great. All is from the Feast, as above, but the Hirmos is that of the Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great.
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