Nativity: December 25th, or January 7th?
Regarding the Church Calendar (also known as the Old Calendar, and the Julian Calendar), I am grateful that our monastery is part of a jurisdiction that has remained true to the Traditional Calendar. The move to the Papal Calendar was, to my mind, divisive, and it is my prayer that the whole of the Orthodox Church will one day return to the unity that was ours when we all shared the same calendar. That said, I do not consider myself an “Old Calendarist”, nor do I see this as a matter of doctrinal purity. God does not need a calendar to perform miracles, and I know many a saintly priest and bishop who serves on the New Calendar, and I pity those who would choose to go into schism over the calendar issue, for the Church Fathers clearly taught that schism is a greater sin than heresy.
It is important to remember that January 7th is December 25th, according to the Julian Calendar. Those of us who are celebrating the Birth of Our Saviour on January 7th, are in fact celebrating on the 25th of December. Since the Great Feasts of the Church are occasions when we enter mystically into the event celebrated, the thirteen day difference between Nativity according to the Julian Calendar, or the Gregorian Calendar, makes no difference. Within the Kingdom of God there is no time or space. We are all united liturgically, together, in the holy city of Bethlehem. Regardless of the calendar, we are One Body in Christ.
A blessed Nativity to all.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
My video address for the Divine Lantern Podcast:
https://www.youtube.com/@vashonmonks/videos
Wednesday January 4, 2023 / December 22, 2022
30th Week after Pentecost. Tone four.
Nativity (St. Philip’s Fast). By Monastic Charter: Strict Fast (Bread, Vegetables, Fruits)
Forefeast of the Nativity of Christ.
Great-martyr Anastasia of Rome, deliverer from bonds, and her teacher Martyr Chrysogonus, and with them martyrs Theodota, Evodias, Eutychianus, and others who suffered under Diocletian (304).
Venerable Nicephorus the Leper (1964).
New Hieromartyrs Demetrius and Theodore priests (1938).
Martyr Zoilus (Greek).
The Scripture Readings
Hebrews 10:1-18
Animal Sacrifices Insufficient
10 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. 2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. 3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
Christ’s Death Fulfills God’s Will
5 Therefore, when He came into the world, He said:
“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,
But a body You have prepared for Me.
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin
You had no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—
In the volume of the book it is written of Me—
To do Your will, O God.’ ”
8 Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law), 9 then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second. 10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Christ’s Death Perfects the Sanctified
11 And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. 14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
15 But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,
16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” 17 then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” 18 Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.
Mark 10:11-16
11 So He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. 12 And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
Jesus Blesses Little Children
13 Then they brought little children to Him, that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked those who brought them. 14 But when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased and said to them, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. 15 Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.”16 And He took them up in His arms, laid His hands on them, and blessed them.