Jesus the Christ is the reason for this special season
The Synaxarion of the Nativity (handed down as oral tradition through the Orthodox Churches of the East)
On the 25th day of the same month, the Nativity according to the flesh of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Verses.
God the one born, the Mother too a Virgin:
What greater wonder had creation seen?
Mary the Virgin bore God on the twenty fifth day of December.
God, who loves mankind, seeing the human race under the tyranny of the devil,
took compassion on it, and sending his Archangel Gabriel, he said to the Mother of God:
‘Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you’.
And at once our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son and Word of God, was conceived in her immaculate womb.
And when the nine months were completed from her conceiving, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus for the whole inhabited world to be enrolled; and Kyrinios was sent to Jerusalem to make the enrolment in Bethlehem.
Joseph the guardian of the Mother of God went up with her to be enrolled in Bethlehem.
And when the Virgin was about to give birth, not having found lodging due to the great number of people, she entered a poor cave, and there, without corruption, she gave birth to our Lord Jesus Christ, and she wrapped him like a babe in swaddling clothes, and laid down and put in the manger of the irrational beasts the Creator of all things, as he was about to deliver us from our unreason.
On the same day, the worship by the Magi.
Verses.
Men from the nations worshipped you, O Word,
Showing your future honour from the Nations.
In those days there was a Seer called Balaam in the country of the Persians who prophesied many things, among which he said: ‘A star will dawn out of Jacob, and will crush the princes of Moab’. The other Seers then, holding this prophecy in succession, taught it to the kings of the Persians. And it came to these men, three in number, and they were keeping watch for when they might see such a star. But being astronomers, when they saw that Christ’s star did not follow a course like the other stars, from east to west, but from north to south, knew that it showed the birth of a great king; and having followed the star, they found Christ the Lord, and falling down they worshipped him and offered him gold, incense and myrrh. And so, on the orders of an Angel, they returned to their country.
Herod, the prince of the Jews, having learned from the Magi that a great king had been born, who was going to subdue the whole world, summoned the Magi secretly and said, ‘Go, inquire diligently about the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may go and worship him’. He said this to learn where he was and that he might send and kill him. Then, having summoned the Scribes, he asked, ‘Where does Scripture say that the Christ will be born?’ They said, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea’. Then he sent his troops to slaughter the boys in Bethlehem of two years and under. Because of this an Angel was sent from God who said to Joseph, ‘Rise, take the Child and his Mother, and flee into Egypt’. Joseph did so, and taking the Child and his Mother he went away into Egypt.
On the same day, Commemoration of the Shepherds who saw the Lord.
Verses.
The Shepherds, leaving their own flock behind,
To see Christ the Good Shepherd went with haste.
To him be glory to the ages of ages. Amen.
Picture above:
2nd century fresco of Mary and the Child Jesus, said to be the oldest Christian image of the Madonna.
Catacomb of St Priscilla, Rome: Source: http://www.bible-archaeology.info/tombs_catacombs.htm
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