GREAT FEAST, NATIVITY ACCORDING TO THE FLESH OF OUR LORD, GOD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST

Hymns

Troparion (Tone 4) 

Your Nativity, O Christ our God,

Has shone to the world the Light of wisdom!

For by it, those who worshipped the stars,

Were taught by a Star to adore You,

The Sun of Righteousness,

And to know You, the Orient from on High.

O Lord, glory to You!

Kontakion (Tone 3)

Today the Virgin gives birth to the Transcendent One,

And the earth offers a cave to the Unapproachable One!

Angels with shepherds glorify Him!

The wise men journey with a star!

Since for our sake the Eternal God was born as a Little Child!

CANON OF THE NATIVITY Ode 1 Christ is born, glorify him. Christ is from heaven, go to meet him. Christ is an earth, be ye lifted up. Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing out with gladness, all ye people. For he is glorified.

Ode 3 'To the Son begotten of the Father without change before the ages, and in these last times without seed made flesh from a Virgin, to Christ God let us cry aloud: Thou hast exalted our horn. Holy are Thou, O Lord!'

Ode 4 Rod of the root of Jesse, and flower that blossomed from his stem, O Christ, Thou hast sprung from the Virgin. From the Mountain overshadowed by the forest Thou hast come, made flesh from her that knew not wedlock, O God who art not formed from matter. Glory to Thy power, O Lord.

Ode 5 'As Thou art God of peace and Father of mercies, Thou hast sent us Thy Angel of great counsel, Who grants us peace; so we are guided by the knowledge of God, watching before dawn we glorify Thee, only Lover of mankind'.

Ode 6 'The monster from the deep spat Jonas from its bowels like a new born babe, just as it had received him; while the Word having dwelt in the Virgin and taken flesh, came forth, yet kept her incorrupt, for being himself not subject to decay, he preserved his mother free from harm'.

Ode 7 'The Youths brought up together in godliness, scorning the impious decree, feared not the threat of fire, but standing in the midst of the flame they sang: God of our Fathers, blessed are Thou!'

Ode 8 'The furnace moist with dew was the image and the figure of a wonder past nature; for it did not burn those it had received; even as the fire of the Godhead did not consume the Virgin's womb into which it has descended. Therefore in praise let us sing: Let all creation bless the Lord, and highly exalt Him to all the ages'.

Ode 9 Magnify, O my soul, the most glorious Theotokos, more honourable and more glorious than the hosts on high. 'I behold a strange and wonderful mystery, heaven is the Cave, the Cherubim thrown -- Virgin, the Manger the Place in which Christ lay, the God whom nothing can contain. Whom we praise and magnify.'

That God so love the World that he gave his only Son. This might sound Protestant but in the Eastern Christian Spirituality, in the fullness of time, our Lord Jesus Christ was revealed to us by being Born by the Most Holy Theotokos, the Blessed Virgin Mary. On the Forefeast of the Nativity we have prepared ourselves in this coming of our Saviour. For more, click on the Information regarding this Great Feast of the Nativity, and the Liturgical Services held on its Forefeast, Vigil and the same day of the Great Feast.