12 Days of Christmas: An Evangelion of History and Cosmos

the 12 days of Christmas

from Dec.25 to Jan.6:

   

The Church's Calendar Year of Liturgies

beginning on the first Sunday of Advent,

provides us a sign that  

our entire calendar year, 

and all creation,

is now re-created   

as 

Anno Domini, 

the Year of the Lord.

This annual "evangelion" of the New Calendar reveals a 2nd birth of history.
In Genesis, the First Book of Moses bears witness that the Covenant gathers the creatures of the garden into the Noah's ark of salvation. Again the Apostle Paul witnesses in Romans 8 that all creation holds a share in the Mysteries of Salvation. That very share is present and "a living dynamic of grace" in the Church's sacramental acts and liturgical cycle of life.

Thus our own days, and all history, belong to the Mysteries of Bethlehem.
 
Theotokos
written by KhouriaHeather

The Scriptures proclaimed in the Divine Liturgy
of Sanctification and Dedication Sundays
announce the Mysteries of the Kingdom,
and over the coming Sundays we encounter preparations of
the New Israel in our own lives and in the whole of salvation history for the Church and the world,
i.e.,
the cosmology and eschatology of the New Aeon .

The Sundays of "Sanctification and Dedication of the Church"
begins the liturgical year of seasons and feasts

on the 8th Sunday before the Nativity of the Lord.

This 8-week period is our Season of Advent, our 

"Maranatha, 

Come Lord Jesus!"

The birth of the liturgical year is a typos of the birth of Christ in history.

 And the Lord's birth into history 

 "implodes" upon all time,

 from genesis to the eschaton,
 the rebirth of all things in Christ.



Mandylion
written by KhouriaHeather

Each succeeding Gospel of the 8 Sundays of Preparation

reveals a particular dimension of the indwelling and fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Thus each Sunday becomes a dimension and typos of Pentecost:

1___Sanctification Sunday (Koodhosh Eetho)
2___Dedication & Renewal Sunday (Hoodhosh Eetho)
3___Annunciation to St. Zechariah
4___Annunciation to St. Mary
5___St. Mary visits St. Elizabeth
6___Birth of St. John the Baptist, Forerunner, and Friend of the Bridegroom
7___Annunciation to St. Joseph, Husband of Mary
8___Sunday of the Genealogy of Christ
____Christmas

And so even in the Feast of the Holy Cross, at the end of the Church Year,
our Church continues to reflect upon the Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin Mother.


In the heart of Mary we behold a diary of the human heart.
through the Victory of the Holy Cross.

 In her life 

we share the life of the entire Church~

In her joy 

we share the journey and joy of all the saints~

 we share the light and love of her Son, the Lord of Heaven and earth~

In her heart 

we live by faith in the new creation given us

Ecclesia Orans



with thanks to St. Paul's Greek Orthodox Church of Irvine, CA
www.stpaulsirvine.org/ecumenical2007.pdf