Amid the flurry of Christmas Mass, presents, family gatherings, a table filled with traditional specialties, there remains the ground-breaking, time changing truth as announced by the angel: "I bring you good news of great joy for everyone! The Savior--yes, the Messiah, the Lord--has been born tonight in Bethlehem, the city of David! Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others--the armies of heaven--praising God: "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to all whom God favors." (Lk. 2: 10-11, 13-14). A Byzantine prayer looks as this event as the reversal of the Exile from the Garden of Paradise:
"Come, let us rejoice in the Lord; let us proclaim the present mystery by which the parition has been broken and the flaming sword witheld. Now the Cheubim shall let us all come to the Tree of Life. As for me, I am returning to the bliss of Paradise from which I had been banished by disobedience. Behold! The image of the Father and his unchangeable eternity has taken the form of a servant. Without suffering He has come forth to us from an all-pure Virgin, and yet He has remained unchanged. He is true God as He was before, and He has taken on himself what He had not been, becomng man out of his love for all. Therefore, let us raise our voices in hymns, singing: O God born of the Virgin, have mercy on us." (Vespers in The Festal Menaion, Sisters of Saint Basil, Uniontown, PA).
Merry Christmas.
Bro Rene
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