Christmas Advent Archives

The Fifth Day of Christmas Advent. The Lord Christ’s Net

11/19/2025

~Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes for the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord 2020 The Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn still visible is a beautiful sight, reminding us of the Christmas Star, although it most likely is not the same. Of course, the Adventists among us are speculating that Christ is soon to return. So they have been for over 2,000 years. Our message to them is, “What are you waiting for?

The Fourth Day of Christmas Advent. The Significance of the Birth of Christ for the Human Race

11/18/2025

Every year, in an atmosphere of joy and delight, the Church celebrates the Birth of Christ, and sings wonderful hymns to God Who became incarnate and re-formed our degenerate human nature. Orthodox hymnography and theology emphasize the great anthropological significance of the divine incarnation: we have been saved from hopeless degradation and from the chaos of destructive hatred by the love of God, which took on flesh and bone within history through the person of

The Third Day of Christmas Advent. Broken Communion

11/17/2025

~Father Stephen Freeman, November 25, 2022 The holidays can make it all too poignant: the terrible fact of broken communion. Often, our festivities bring us into close contact with some (few or many) whom we most commonly avoid. An uncle, an aunt, a brother, a parent whose relationship is marked with pain, misunderstanding, shame, and various other torments. Statistics say that these times (particularly Thanksgiving to Christmas) are frequently marred by things we would otherwise

The Second Day of Christmas Advent. Memory of Apostle and Evangelist Matthew

11/16/2025

The Holy Apostle and Evangelist Matthew, was also named Levi (Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27); he was one of the Twelve Apostles (Mark 3:18; Luke 6:45; Acts 1:13), and was brother of the Apostle James Alphaeus (Mark 2:14). He was a publican, or tax-collector for Rome, in a time when the Jews were under the rule of the Roman Empire. He lived in the Galilean city of Capernaum. When Matthew heard the voice of Jesus Christ:

The First Day of Christmas Advent. Fasting from the Sentiments of the Feast

11/15/2025

By Father Stephen Freeman I have a favorite Joni Mitchell song. In her very mournful style she sings about the season before Christmas: It’s comin’ on Christmas, They’re cuttin’ down trees, They’re puttin’ up reindeer and singin’ songs of joy and peace. Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on…I would teach my feet to fly! It is a melancholy tune, echoing the bittersweet experience of the culture Christmas. We love

Fortieth Day of Christmas Advent. For so has God Loved the World (Part II)

12/24/2024

But the road from Bethlehem to Zion is long, and is leading us through Gethsemane and Golgotha. Already in Bethlehem the newborn Godchild is presented with funeral offerings by the Wise Men from the East. “Today God leads the Wise Men to worship through the star, prefiguring His three-day burial in gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” The very doors of the Bethlehem cavern are nearly stained with the innocent blood of the children who were killed

Thirty-Ninth Day of Christmas Advent. For so has God Loved the World (Part I)

12/23/2024

By Father Georges Florovsky That we begin our reckoning of time with Christ’s birth is a fact which has long been but a mere convention for many. Seldom does one recall and recognize the great event from which we count time. So do we betray our ignorance and insensitivity. In ancient days, time was computed from the Incarnation of God the Word. It signifies that we live in a world which has been renewed and

The Thirty-Sixth Day of Christmas Advent. The Fire of Christmas

12/20/2024

By Father Stephen Freeman As a child of the South, accustomed to the tones and the tales of my region, I was well aware of the “fires of hell”. Roadside signs proclaimed the eternal destiny of those who were not saved. I have discovered in later years, that many adult Christians remain committed to the most literal possible version of the fires of hell and will argue as though heaven itself depended on the burning

The Thirty-Third Day of Christmas Advent. The Nativity: An Icon of the Christian Family

12/17/2024

By Fr. Vasile Tudora Everyone’s favorite time of the year is the period before Christmas, when the air is filled with joy, peace and expectation. We are blessed to live in a country that looks forward to Christmas although we might seem to have lost some of its meaning along the way. We have radio stations that air carols without ceasing, exalting the season, although many of them speak about snow, jolly figures carrying gifts,

The Thirty-Second Day of Christmas Advent. Christmas Time

12/16/2024

By Father Stephen Freeman The feast of the Nativity of Our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ, draws near and the anxiety of the world increases. There are those who worry that the feast is surrounded by too much commercialism. Others fear that religion will once again invade their safely guarded secular spaces. These are only the most vocalized anxieties – busyness consumes our lives. I think of the words from the Dr. Seuss character,

Archive

The Fifth Day of Christmas Advent. The Lord Christ’s Net

The Fourth Day of Christmas Advent. The Significance of the Birth of Christ for the Human Race

The Third Day of Christmas Advent. Broken Communion

The Second Day of Christmas Advent. Memory of Apostle and Evangelist Matthew

The First Day of Christmas Advent. Fasting from the Sentiments of the Feast

Fortieth Day of Christmas Advent. For so has God Loved the World (Part II)

Thirty-Ninth Day of Christmas Advent. For so has God Loved the World (Part I)

The Thirty-Sixth Day of Christmas Advent. The Fire of Christmas

The Thirty-Third Day of Christmas Advent. The Nativity: An Icon of the Christian Family

The Thirty-Second Day of Christmas Advent. Christmas Time

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