I u 1 N ti 2 1 s e - ait 0 2 s vy

Qa or a_ _ t oo_v g _ u nl f rh d x i n R j oo li

Qae uty rl r

C u c o t e a iiyi B t lh m h r h f h N tvt n e h e e

Kairos Quarterly is published with a blessing of the Most Reverend George, Bishop of Mayfield of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia at the Hermitage of the Holy Cross in Wayne, WV. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the entire Hermitage brotherhood or the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). Please contact us if you have any questions, suggestions or comments at: Hermitage of the Holy Cross 505 Holy Cross Road Wayne, WV, 25570 304-849-4726 www.holycross-hermitage.com giftshop@holycross-hermitage.com

Hermitage of the Holy Cross

CONTENTS
Introduction p. 2 The Transfiguration of Place: An Orthodox Christian Vision of Localism (Part I) by Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick p. 6 Why We Fast Before Nativity (Christmas) by Vincent Martini p. 11 Nativity Homily by Bishop Basil (Rodzianko) p. 13 Old Christmas in Appalachia p. 14 Shape-Note Carol Singing p. 15 Notes from the Little Mountain p. 17 Homily on St. Catherine p. 19 Final Thoughts p. 21 The Incarnation (A Poem) p. 23

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n 1934, poet and social critic T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) wrote the following words:
The Eagle soars in the summit of Heaven, The Hunter with his dogs pursues his circuit. O perpetual revolution of configured stars, O perpetual recurrence of determined seasons, O world of spring and autumn, birth and dying! The endless cycle of idea and action, Endless invention, endless experiment, Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness; Knowledge of speech, but not of silence; Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word. All our knowledge brings us nearer to death, But nearness to death no nearer to God. Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries Brings us farther from God and nearer to the Dust.

to embrace a new type of Enlightened paganism. It is for this reason that the words of T. S. Eliot ring so true today. We live in a society fueled by Consumerism, yet for as much as we consume, we are a society that is spiritually hungry and thirsting for Living Water. Indeed, where is the Life we have lost in living? - the True Life of the world, born in a cave because this busy world could not find room for Him at the inn? Do we also not have room for Him within our hearts, offering him only a cold stone upon which to lay His head? Indeed, where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? - this wisdom that led the Magi by a star to the Savior of the world and to the one thing needful (Luke 10:42). Indeed, where is the knowledge we have lost in information? this knowledge that the angel delivered unto the shepherds on that glorious night: Behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:10,11). In our society dominated by the internet, Facebook and infotainment, we have all the knowledge that we could possibly want available at our fingertips. But this vast sea of mostly useless information more often than not drowns out what is truly important we have knowledge of words, but not of the Word. After two thousand years, we have gained so much, yet a spiritual emptiness grows.

These words, written nearly 80 years ago, cannot but seem to be prophetic to our 21st century ear. After 2,000 years since the time of Christ, our world, sadly, seems to slip further and further into spiritual malaise and coldness of heart. In the early years of Roman persecution, the Church was a small, minority community of struggling men and women who gave up all to follow Christ. It has been noted that the Church is, once again, becoming a small, minority community in this world. The difference now, however, is that we are living in a post-Christian age. The sun sets in the West, as a world-weary Europe and her children in America begin to forget Christ and

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Through science, medicine, technology, communications, commerce, etc., we have, if you will, gained the world but at what cost? What have we lost in the process? The Heart is Deep At the edge of an uncertain century, these questions should be of utmost urgency and importance to Orthodox Christians. We would suggest that what we have lost is just what it means to be human; we have lost part of our own souls. One man of our own time who made this observation was Fr. Seraphim Rose. His discovery of this fact was not one of arm-chair speculation, but was born out of his own pain and personal experience. As with all godly suffering, this proved to be foundational to his spiritual growth. In Fr. Seraphim Roses biography we read a story often told at his monastery in Northern California of a zealous young man who arrived at Mt. Athos and wished to become a monk. The young man pleaded with the Elder, saying: "Holy Father! My Fr. Seraphim Rose heart burns for the spiritual life, for asceticism, for unceasing communion with God, for obedience to an Elder. Instruct me, please, holy Father, that I may attain to spiritual advancement." Going to the bookshelf, the Abbot pulled down a copy of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. "Read this, son," he said. "But Father!" objected the disturbed aspirant. "This is heterodox Victorian sentimentality, a product of the Western captivity! This isn't spiritual; it's not even Orthodox! I need writings which will teach me spirituality!" The Abbot smiled,

saying, "Unless you first develop normal, human, Christian feelings and learn to view life as little Davey did with simplicity, kindness, warmth, and forgiveness then all the Orthodox spiritual writings will be of little benefit to you."
i

This story, in many ways, sums up the entire theme and thrust of this journal that is, rediscovering our humanity in Christ, Who was the Perfect Man, and promoting what Fr. Seraphim Rose called an Orthodoxy of the Heart. In his later years, Fr. Seraphim often spoke of this Orthodoxy of the Heart passionately and directly. He said:
True Christianity does not mean just having the right opinions about Christianitythis is not enough to save ones soul. St. Tikhon (of Zadonsk) says: If someone should say that true faith is the correct holding and confession of correct dogmas, he would be telling the truth, for a believer absolutely needs the Orthodox holding and confession of dogmas. But this knowledge and confession by itself does not make a man a faithful and true Christian. The keeping and confession of Orthodox dogmas is always to be found in true faith in Christ, but the true faith of Christ is not always to be found in the confession of Orthodoxy... The knowledge of correct dogmas is in the mind, and it is often fruitless, arrogant, and proud... The true faith in Christ is in the heart, and it is fruitful, humble, patient, loving, merciful, compassionate, hungering and thirsting for righteousness; it withdraws from worldly lusts and clings to God alone, strives and seeks always for what is heavenly and eternal, struggles against every sin, and constantly seeks and begs help from God for this. St. Tikhon, therefore, gives us a start in understanding what Orthodoxy is: it is something first of all of the heart, not just the mind, something living and warm, not abstract and cold, something that is learned and practiced in life, not just in school. ii

These words by Fr. Seraphim Rose have had no small effect on the thinking and the formation of this journal, and they should prove relevant to all struggling Orthodox Christians in an un-Christian, de-humanizing contemporary culture.

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Kairos It is time for the Lord to act. What of the use of the word, Kairos, then? The Greek word kairos () is found both in the Scriptures and in the Divine Liturgy, and it means a right or opportune moment a moment in time in which God cuts though our ordinary, regular time (chronos) and acts. It is the original Greek word which the deacon speaks at the beginning of Divine Liturgy when he says to the priest, It is time for the Lord to act (Kairos tou poiesai to Kyrio). Metropolitan Kallistos Ware spoke of Kairos in an address he gave in the year 2000 entitled The Witness of the Orthodox Church, saying:
On the threshold of a new millennium, how are we as Orthodox to understand the present moment, our immediate moment of opportunity? What is the kairos that we are being invited to seize? In what ways are we being called to repent and to "change our mind"? Using this same word kairos, St Paul writes: "See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6:2). How are we to interpret and to live out this gracegiven "now", poised as we are at the end of one century and the start of another? If we are to understand the immediate kairos, if we are to live creatively in the present moment, we must also look back to the past, for without an appreciation of the past our sense of the present lacks depth What is the main task of Orthodox theology at the outset of the new millennium? My own answer is that what is required more than anything else is a fuller understanding of the human person. How little we know about ourselves! "The heart is deep" (Ps. 63 [64]:6). What does it mean to be a human being according to the image and likeness of God? iii

We live in a crucial time in the history of mankind and of the Church. We must be wise as serpents and harmless as doves (Matt. 10:16), redeeming the time because the days are evil (Eph. 5:16). In this season of Advent, the preparation for the Nativity of Christ, we await Gods entry into the world to save us from sin and death. We must prepare ourselves, however, to be made worthy of such an awesome event which no words can possibly convey. * * * There is no shortage of Orthodox reading material in English today, both on the internet and in print, and this is truly a blessing. This journal was formed not so much out of a need to fill a gap, but more as a labor of love. Reading the transcript of Fr. Andrew Stephen Damicks talk entitled A Transfiguration of Place (found on page 6) was a huge impetus for the formation of this journal, as was Fr. Andrew Phillips Orthodox England, the Road to Emmaus journal, and far too many others to be named. Herein we wish to offer our own humble observations about place, faith, community, culture and Orthodoxy of the Heart as it is lived on our little mountain in West Virginia. We wish to share our own experiences, as well as bits of wisdom and inspiration that we have found helpful and spiritually profitable over the years, and we hope that you might find some benefit from these little treasures as well. Being a Russian Orthodox monastery of mostly American converts in the hills and culture of Appalachia sometimes makes for an interesting mix. Thus, we hope, in some small way, to provide a perspective that is unique. Furthermore, we take as the standard of this journal St. Pauls admonition to redeem the time (Eph. 5:16). It has long been the tradition of the Church to take what is good, what is beautiful and what is true and to redeem and transfigure it in Christ. We see this tradition clearly in St. Basils Address to Young Men on Greek Literature, St. Justin Martyrs claim on Greek truths as ours (i.e., the Churchs), and in St. Paul himself who

What does it mean to be a human being according to the image and likeness of God? This is a recurring theme in this journal, and the time is ripe for such a meditation on this theme.

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said, Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things (Phil. 4:8). We wish to continue this tradition in this journal, redeeming all things in Christ. In this way, we will take our kairos our own moment of crisis and decisive action and use our time wisely, directing all things to Christ. Thus, we hope to gain knowledge not of words, but of the Word, and to live so that we may have Life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10).

We feel that it is fitting that the first issue of this journal should coincide with the season of the Nativity. The mystery of the Incarnation is a mystery of Love. Gods Incarnation in the flesh is the key to our humanity, for Christ brings us Life in a little grotto in Bethlehem. St. Irenaeus of Lyons said, The glory of God is man fully alive. Therefore, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light (Eph. 5:14). Throw off your slumber, you weary world, and greet the Child born of a Virgin, Who gives us Life Everlasting, and cry out saying

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Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works by Hieromonk Damascene, ch. 96, p. 959. Fr. Seraphim Rose, Orthodoxy in the USA, OW, no. 94 (1980), pp. 216-17. iii The Free Library. 2000. Gale, Cengage Learning. July 15, 2012 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+Witness+of+the+Orthodox+Church.-a062298590
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By Fr. Andrew Damick
The following is a transcript of a talk given by Fr. Andrew Damick at the St. Emmelia Orthodox Homeschooling Conference at Antiochian Village in April of 2011. Fr. Andrew is a priest at St. Paul Orthodox Church in Emmaus, PA, and his insights have been a major impetus for this journal. Therefore, we found it fitting, with Fr. Andrews blessing, to include the entirety of his article on Orthodoxy, localism, and personhood in the first issues of Kairos. For more writings by Fr. Andrew, we urge you to visit his two blogs, Roads from Emmaus and Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy.

War radically changed the face of Europe and of the world in general, though not only in terms of geographic borders. In that conflict, for the first time, the world came together in a new way, not for cultural or religious reasons, but rather to make war. And that war was fought by tearing men from their homes, taking them on long, long journeys, and most especially by pitting them against one another by using machines. Tanks were first used in that war, developed by the British mainly as a means of breaking up the deadlocks of trench warfare. Although they had been imagined and described in a 1903 short story by H. G. Wells called The Land Ironclads, the first working tanks were rolled out in September of 1916 at the Battle of the Somme in France. With the distances traveled by soldiers in that war, and with the ground they were able to acquire with the use of tanks, no longer were men defending their homes and families by camping out next to them and digging trenches. Instead, they were rolling out massive armored units, wielding these terrible weapons, fighting for something much more ephemeral than home and family. They were of course fighting to turn back invasions from the Germans and their allies, but the mechanized era of warfare that was inaugurated in 1916 became the beginning of a very new kind of culture, something never seen before in the history of mankind. A maelstrom followed, upending all the old rules of commerce, communication and economy, fueled by something exciting and yet, in retrospect, culturally very dangerous. You see, with the industrialization of war also came the industrialization of life in general, particularly with the most pervasive of industrial products transportation. Transportation turned out to be a temptation we as a race simply could not resist. At first, ever easier access to transportation meant that

here is a mythical place where many of us, including myself, have often fantasized about moving to. In it, people live a mostly agrarian lifestyle. There is little government, and what there is consists mainly of the post office, an informal sort of border patrol, and a handful of policemen who are little more than a community watch. There is also a mayor, but his primary duties are to give toasts and to preside at parties and such. Most people live in the homes their parents lived in, and hardly anyone ever thinks about buying up property and renting it out. And certainly, no one there would ever kill anyone else, no matter how annoying they became. Life there is dedicated to the good things and the slow things, to plants and livestock and good food. On birthdays, people give away presents rather than get them, which means that if you go to plenty of birthday parties, you will have a fairly steady stream of presents coming in. And anything you dont happen to like can get regifted, and no one particularly cares. I am of course describing the Shire, the fictional home of hobbits, invented by author and Oxford Anglo-Saxon professor J. R. R. Tolkien to be reminiscent of the rural England of his youth, before what in those days was called the Great War but what we now call World War I. The Great

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frequent travel was no longer solely for the wealthy. Yet it came to be critical to commerce. And it has now come to define us as people. Whole cities and suburbs are built assuming that their residents own cars. Many modern suburbs so presume the use of the car that a walker would have to travel for miles and miles to find a place to buy food. And this mobility not only connects our homes with numerous places once too far away to make frequent stops, but it has also has changed us into people who no longer really have homes. Since the 1940s, another decade of major industrial advance, in a given year, between one out of eight and one out of five Americans will move to another community. 42% of Americans have lived in more than one state, and nearly one out of seven has lived in at least four states. People who move this often are not, as you may imagine, going to live like hobbits. Hobbits are largely self-governing, but a mobile populace requires much more detailed and precisely defined legalities. With a neighbor-hood where people dont really know each other, since their houses are basically for parking their cars and for sleeping at night, a more externalized and impersonal polity must prevail. Likewise, for a people who are unlikely to have much sense of personal loyalty to the town they live in, not having grown up there, there will need to be lines of information and entertainment that transcend the mundane local life and turn the mind toward what is national and, indeed in more and more cases, inter-national. This brings us back, however, to the politics of hobbits. One might ask how hobbits, who really have little in the way of legal life or a ruling class, could have politics. After all, we think of politics these days in terms of the power-brokering of the mighty, those who now wield those great fleets not only of tanks but also of stealth bombers, nuclear missiles and aircraft carriers. But political life has not always been defined by the clashing of governments and policies. In former times, the

term politics referred much more broadly to all public life. With that understanding, hobbit politics have numerous qualities which we might admire, though I think most people nowadays would probably prefer the Shire mainly as a vacation destination, not as somewhere they would want to live. After all, there are no video games there, nor are there exotic restaurants or Internet access or any of the other kinds of entertainments and comforts made possible by quick and cheap transportation. But hobbit politics are defined most of all by their place. Even the hobbits in Tolkiens books who leave the Shire are constantly talking about it and trying to get back. The Shire is a place that its people love, and even within the Shires four Farthings and its little internal towns, people rarely move. Thus, generations upon generations of hobbits may live in the same neighborhood, walking the same streets, living in the same homes, tending the same gardens for centuries. This dedication to the same place has a name for itlocalism. My reading of history is such that most people were basically localists until recent times, though there was no need for a name for it. There was no television or cheap oil or cheap broadband access to draw our attention everywhere but here. Necessity and economics required that we know our neighbors, if only so we could trade or buy our necessities, so that we could find husbands and wives for our children, so that we would not be left bereft of comfort and help when tragedy struck. But now, all those connections have been stripped away, and our collective alienation is so acute that we grope around politically to try to find national, systemic solutions to almost all our challenges. It really used to be that your local family doctor would probably treat you anyway when you couldnt pay him, but once our government told him that wed pay him so he wouldnt have to be charitable any more, something precious was lost. But why should he care? He probably doesnt

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even live in the same neighborhood as you, anyway. The Locus and Economy of Community Lets think about this effect for a moment: What if transportation became so expensive that you could no longer travel easily? What if you lived your whole life within about a mile of your house? What if your community really had an actual locus to it, that is, a place? What if you walked almost everywhere you went? What would life look like? Because you would see them all the time, you would probably know almost everyone in your neighborhood. Because the streets would be filled with walking people, you would have a porch on the front of your house and probably not a patio in the backa porch is a place of public connection, while the patio is for privacy. You would be more concerned with how your lawn looks, not just whether its mowed but whether it actually frames the life you want to live. You would have a garden in your yard, because a lot of the things you want to eat just wouldnt be at the stores in your neighborhood. And those stores in your neighborhood would be less specialized and more geared toward the general basics of the home and garden. I think its hard for us to imagine what this would be like because were so oriented toward constant mobility. Our societal watchwords are easier and faster. All our technological development seems to be pointed in that directionthings that make life easier and faster. The ATM is faster: I dont have to go in and see a bank teller, and I can use it any time, day or night. Online bill-pay is easier: I dont have to send an envelope to some far-off place, nor do I have to practice my penmanship. The superhighway is faster: I dont have to drive through all those small towns with their stoplights. My smartphone is both easier and faster: I dont have to look things up in a book, call an informed person on the phone or even be inconvenienced by sitting at a computer. But all these technological wonderswhich, it must be admitted, have also been used for much goodleave us both freed and also enslaved. Every time I use another labor-saving

device, I am almost inevitably cut off from another person with whom I had an opportunity to have a relationship. Every time I prefer centralization over localization, I am de-localizing myself. Every time I login to Facebook, I am neither seeing actual faces nor reading a book. This is the nervous system of the simulacrum commonly called globalization. The essence of globalization is supposedly interconnectedness, that all of us who were formerly cut off from one another now have the possibility of becoming networked. But if we think about what is actually happening here, we are not more connected but more isolated. We may have more connections, but they are much more anemic relationships. A man with a thousand friendships will have a hard time maintaining one good one, because he just wont have the time. His interconnectedness actually limits or prevents real connection. Or consider something like the supermarket. In that one building, there are products from all over the world. Probably tens of thousands of farmers contribute to the products in one supermarket, not to mention those who work in the packaging and shipping industries. With one full shopping cart, I could be contributing to the livelihood of thousands of people. And yet these days, I do not have to interact with even one. I can even use the self-check-out machines rather than letting an employee scan my bar-codes for me. We hear about how we are now a global community and a global economy, but I wonder what exactly that means. In the grocery store, my money is distributed in miniscule amounts in tens of thousands of directions. On television and on the Internet, I read and watch about people suffering in far-off places. I have opinions about politics in North Africa and Wisconsin. My tax dollars go to people not only throughout my state and my country, but also the whole world. I know more about musicians from another country than I do in my own Pennsylvania borough. But I dont know any of those people. It is almost impossible for me to have a relationship with any of them. Our web of economic and political interdependence is essentially anonymous. I dont know them, and they dont know me. Public life has become about policies and publicity, but there is little in the way of the palpable.

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But why does that matter? Why shouldnt I give my one thousandth of a cent to a produce farmer in South America and another thousandth to a Malaysian chair maker? It is because we do not really depend on one another, at least, not very much. I have no sense of loyalty to them or responsibility for them. Our interdependence is so diffuse that there is almost no possibility that any of our hearts would be stirred to gratitude or to admiration for the work we do for each other. We cannot even look each other in the eye. And that is a spiritual problem. Globalization: An Impediment to Salvation We use the word community to mean a lot of different things these days. We talk about community in terms of race, partisan politics, academics, etc., but it is more and more rare to hear community used to refer to a group of people who all live and work and worship in the same place. At issue here is really communion, the coming together of separated people to share a common life. That is what communion and community are fundamentally about. But where globalization takes the most hold, community is erased. Yes, we still have friendships and other relationships, but now we base them more and more on things we have in common. What we have in common is less a truly common life of interdependence with our neighbors but more often common interests, common ideas. On the whole we dont harvest in common, shop in common, worship in common, and work in common with the people who live around us. What we now have in common is something intangibleideology and preferences, rather than place. The people I work with, worship with, live with, study with, and shop with may all be entirely separate groups of people. And the tenuousness of those relationships therefore depends on the maintenance of my behaviors in those disparate realms of activity. Some of them almost even preclude the possibility of relationship. I often see people I recognize in the places I go, but I have no idea what their names are, and in some places, it would probably be considered rude if I were to approach them. And if I no longer go to a particular store, I may never see someone I see

there ever again. If I change churches, I may lose touch entirely with someone there. We supposedly live in a global village, but if so, then it is a village where no one knows each others names and where no one sees each other, yet we trade bits of information and currency. Thats not like any village Ive ever heard of. We are being presented with the illusion of community, with the virtual reality of community, yet without the solidity of it, the incarnational warmth and nearness of real community. Why is this a spiritual problem? Why does it matter that our economies, our lives and our relationships have been so transformed? Does that somehow mean I cant be saved, that I cant grow in the image and likeness of Christ? The Incarnation bears many implications within it, and place is one of them. Christ was not incarnate in a universal body killed upon a universal cross in a universal city. No, He had one body, taken from one woman, crucified on one cross in the one city of Jerusalem. Christianity was always meant to be local, evidenced by the many small churches built in many places throughout its history, rather than this ridiculous, monocultural, globalist idea which insists that churches should resemble rock-n-roll arenas that seat thousands. Every street corner was meant to be sanctified. We were not meant to drive out of the suburbs and fill up some massive stadium in order to have a mass trance in group hysteria over a rock-n-roll band that puts Jesus name into otherwise secular songs which (badly) imitate the pop music of the monoculture. Yes, Christianity is a universal faith, but it is not a mass faith of faceless consumers who buy into a bland religious product. Of course, even if youre not a believer, the truth is that the time will likely come when our currencys bottom will drop out or we lose our ability to travel easily and cheaply (due to a spike in transportation costs, most especially of oil). When either or both of those things happen, it will be the relationships youve built in your community which could not only save your life but allow you to grow and thrive while the rest of the country flails about. (It will also be the death of the mega-churches.)

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More and more, Im starting to suspect that, even if a life defined by globalization is not an outright obstacle to salvation, it is probably an impediment. The reason I think this is that what globalization has effectively done is to dehumanize us. When God made us, He made us as communal beings, people in communion with each other and also with the place where we live. When God made man, He placed him in a garden. He did not plug him into an Ethernet port. And when man sinned, the consequences of that act included exile from his place. So we know that place has a lot to do with humanity as God created us. And sin means exile. Exile is one of the key elements of the Fall of mankind. And as Orthodox Christians, we believe that salvation consists precisely in getting up from the Fall and returning to Paradise. Another way of putting it is that salvation consists in becoming fully human. Death and corruption entered into the world with the first Adam, but the New Adam, Jesus Christ, inaugurates eternal life and incorruption. And if we are to become like the New Adam, then that means we are becoming fully human. We are not only being divinized by our contact with the divine, but we are also becoming truly humanized by that contact. But globalizations dehumanization of mankind introduces a new kind of problem for our theology. While the great revolution of Christian theology was that God became a man, that divine Incarnation was not only possible but the very center and height of human natures potential, then what happens when we lose sight of what it means to be human? The miracle of Christianity is that, through the humanity of Jesus, we access His divinity. But what happens when we cut off our access to humanity? In some sense, I believe we have now entered into a new stage of evangelism, one in which we must not only preach the Incarnationthat through Gods humanity in Jesus we can access His divinitybut now we have to start even earlier in the chain. Now we have to show what it means simply to be human. Because if we do not know how to reach humanity, then we are cut off from divinity, and the Incarnations awesome power is nullified for us.

The good news of the Gospel is that Christs incarnation, death and resurrection can save mankind. But if we are losing the very object of that salvationmankindthen how can we be saved? We can see the repercussions around us already. Have you not noticed that those whose lives are the most thoroughly defined by the virtual, electronic reality often have the least interest in doing things like getting up from the chair and going to church? Church is just too human. Now, what I am saying is by no means a condemnation of all electronic communication, international shipping and commerce, etc. But when we unthinkingly embrace such things and allow our lives to be reshaped by them so profoundly, should we not consider the spiritual consequences? Is not our age one in which the primary question facing us seems to be What is a human being? Whether we are discussing abortion, homosexual desire, bioethics, cloning, euthanasia, and so on, it is clear that we have now reached an age in which humanity is becoming more and more uncertain as to just what it is. With lives so permeated with interchangeable technological parts, it seems almost inevitable that we would begin to look at ourselves in the same way. Without a true understanding of our humanity, then we cannot see the tragedy of sin. And if we do not see our sin, then salvation becomes irrelevant to us. What this means for us as Christians who desire to live the Gospel and to preach the Gospel to others is that we now have the task of articulating a vigorous theology of humanity. We have arrived upon an age when we will have to show ourselves and the world just what it means to be human. Because if we do not, then we have cut ourselves off from the one conduit toward divinity that God gave us. When we look at Jesus Christ, before us stands the perfect Man. But what good is His perfection to us, if we do not even know what a man is? The Gospels miraculous good news is that God became a man. But if we have forgotten what a man is, then how is this good news? (To be continued in the next issue.)

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t=t=c~=_=k~= E`~F=
By Vincent Martini
feast of the Nativity of Christ (i.e. Christmas) is, through the wisdom of our holy fathers, intended to be a time of purposeful asceticism, almsgiving, and learning to say yes to God while saying no to ones own desires. Christmas (especially in the present day) has become a time of great anxiety and materialism for many, despite the fact that most every song one hears, most every retail ad that one reads, and most every film with Christmas as a theme that one watches will try to convince them that Christmas is a time for warmth, joy, spending time with ones family and even taking a break from the regular hustle and bustle of everyday life. If only this were to be the case. On the contrary, Christmasa period of time that seems to grow longer and more arduous by the yearis preceded by ominous social media status updates that lament, I cant believe it is already November; Christmas is just around the corner, or My children wont stop bothering me about [insert the latest and greatest video game or electronic gadget here]; I cant wait until Christmas is over with, and so forth. Many will also simply write or say things like: Wow. I am not ready for Christmas. Where has the time gone? This palpable grief and anxiety should not be so, beloved ones. No, we have certainly missed the purpose of this feast of Nativityand the time of preparation and fasting that precedes itif all we can do is approach it with great stress and sorrow. As I mentioned from the very beginning, the time before NativityAdvent (or Coming) in the west, and the fast of Saint Philip the Apostle (due to its beginnings on the eve of this Saints feast) or simply the Nativity fast in the Orthodox Churchis intended to be utilized for ones spiritual benefit (and indeed, for the life of the world), not for remorse and regret.

he time of preparation before the great

The fast of Saint Philip/Nativity fast (at least in its present form) dates to the year 1166 and a Synod of Constantinople, where our holy fathers inaugurated a 40 day period of fasting and preparation before the annual celebration of Christs Incarnation. This period of 40 days is analogous to the 40 days that the prophet Moses fasted before receiving the statutes of God. Of this connection, a great Saint writes: The Nativity Forty-day Fast represents the fast undertaken by Moses, whohaving fasted for forty days and forty nightsreceived the Commandments of God, written on stone tablets. And we, fasting for forty days, will reflect upon and receive from the Virgin the living Wordnot written upon stone, but born, incarnateand we will commune of His Divine Body. Saint Symeon of Thessaloniki (AD 1381-1429) If nothing else, then, the time of prayer and fasting before Nativity reminds us that we, as Orthodox Christians, are given the immense and unthinkable blessing, privilege, and honor of receiving the very Body and Blood of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ. But as we say yes to Christ in the holy mysteries, we must also learn to say no to ourselves and to make it a point to both follow Christ and to serve those in need. It is no coincidence that Christ, in the Gospel reading on the eve of this fast (according to the old or Church Calendar), exhorts the Church with whoever does not bear his cross as well as forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple (According to Luke, 14:27,33). While the faithful prepare to receive Christ through his Incarnation on the feast of Nativity (and through the mysteries of the Orthodox faith), one must also be prepared to relinquish whatever it is one possesses or holds onto that might keep them from the uncreated light and glory of his everlasting kingdom.

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But as the faithful are called to a period of Spiritual quietude and asceticism during this fast, one does not engage in asceticism and bear their own cross as an end unto itself. Rather, we learn to say no to ourselves so that we can say yes to God. And in saying yes to the poor and the needy, we are saying yes to Christ, so that we might share in the vision of Cornelius, and hear: Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God (Acts of the Apostles, 10:4). An effective remedy for the anxieties and desires of this time of year is found in a concern for our fellow man. Rather than being so caught up in the materialism and me too nature of popular celebration, Orthodox Christians should play a pivotal role in showing a wholly better and more noble way. Incidentally, the subsequent Gospel lessons of this fast remind the faithful not only why they are participating in it, but also how one can make the most of it: We should not lay up treasure for ourselves, while neglecting God (Luke 12:16-21), but should rather be rich towards God (and by consequence, those who are in need). We should never make excuses when it comes to serving or helping those in distress (Luke 13:10-17). And, of course, we should be willing to sell all that [we] have and distribute to the poor (Luke 18:22). It is in these virtues and in a genuine concern and care for others that we can be released from the false cares of this world, especially as they are typically found during the Nativity or Christmas season. If we give to the poor, we are giving to God. If we say no to our own desires, we can

fulfill the needs of those who are looking for someoneanyonethat is willing to say yes on their behalf. As families, we can help our children give or donate to a family, friend, or even a complete stranger that is in need, rather than providing them with more unnecessary stuff. As individuals, we can honor the fast, spend more time in prayer, and make a conscious effort to love our neighbors as ourselves and to dedicate this season to be a time for ascetic, Spiritual growth. We can practice the religion of Saint James that is pure and undefiled before God: to visit orphans and widows in their afflictions and to keep oneself unstained by the world (Epistle of St James, 1:27). So then, beloved brothers and sisters, rather than approaching this Nativity season with feelings of anxiety and distress, dedicate yourself to the true spirit of the season and the greater purpose that lies within: the salvation and healing of the world. What are some other ways that we as Orthodox Christians can make the most of the Nativity fast, and avoid the burdens and desires that are regularly associated with the Christmas season?
Vincent Martini has a BA in Philosophy from Indiana University and is an Orthodox convert / layman in the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America. He resides in northwest Arkansas. For more articles written by Vincent, visit his blog, On Behalf of All.

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by Bishop Basil (Rodzianko)
Christ is Born! The main message of Christmas is in one single word. In one single name. The name of Jesus. Just as the main message of Easter is in the other name of our Savior: Christ. Messiah. And the main message itself is in the words of the angel to Joseph, that He will be called Jesus! Savior! Because He will save His people from their sins. Not to save the people from others. Not to save the people from anything from outside. Not just only to forgive sins. Not just only to save us from the consequences and from the punishment of sins. But to save us from sin itself! That is why God is born today in this world. Because this world is in a tragic situation because of our sin, and modern science confirms this, both in our own nature, and in the nature around us, and in the entire universe. A tiny, invisible creature enters into the cells of people, and it is doomed to death. And it is linked with sin. Clearly. Or the nuclear energy of the atom is released by our sins and devastates everything. And we learn now from modern science that all stars, and the sun, and everything in the universe is under that threat, and constantly there are such explosions in the world. That is the meaning of salvation through the star of Bethlehem, showing us the other world the world created without sin. And the star of Bethlehem is not only a symbol, but something which still is from the lost Paradise. Amen.

His Grace the Right Reverend Bishop Basil (Rodzianko) of San Francisco was a prominent Orthodox personality through his religious radio programs that were broadcasted to the Soviet Union over a period of forty years in the late twentieth century. He also lectured widely about Russian spirituality and Orthodox Christianity. A wonderful account of him can be found in Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov)s book, Everyday Saints. For a brief biography as well as photos and sermons given by Bishop Basil, visit the website dedicated to him at http://www.rodzianko.org/.

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Appalachian Old Christmas

he people of Appalachia, with whom we at the monastery share a home in West Virginia, are a people who have been Protestant for many generations past. Though they arent Orthodox, and though many of their ancestors in America may never have been exposed to the Orthodox Church, they are people who, in their own way, hold a deep faith in God and have preserved many traditions that hearken back to ages past.

The Scotch-Irish pioneers who settled in the deep hollows and rugged hills of the Appalachian Mountains carried on with many traditions that they preserved from the Old World. While some of those traditions and beliefs might seem rather like superstitions to most modern people, they were held by a devout majority whose very survival and well-being could be attributed to their observance of each and every detail of their surroundings whether it be the height of a hornet nest, the date of a killing frost, the place in the woods where some rare herb grew, or an arcane bit of Scripture printed upon the yellowed pages of an old family Bible. As a Russian Orthodox monastery which observes the Julian, or old, calendar, we were surprised to learn about Appalachian "Old Christmas", which is a most solemn and reverent time for families living in the mountains. The initial change-over from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar by the British Empire and the American

colonies in 1752 caused a difference of eleven days. Thus, the date of new Christmas on December 25th was eleven days ahead of old Christmas, which fell (at that time) on January 5th. Some Protestants refused to honor the new calendar because it was decreed by the Pope, so their celebration of Christmas remained on the Julian calendar which now falls on January 7. In the Appalachian Mountains, the celebration of Old Christmas remained until about World War I. Though they might also observe new Christmas on December 25th, the festivities were very different. December 25th was marked with revelry and parties and visiting, but January 6th was primarily a reverent family observance. The people of Appalachia regarded Old Christmas Eve as a night when the Holy Spirit would manifest Himself upon the earth in many subtle ways. On that night, mountain folk believed, no matter how hard the ground was frozen, elder bushes would sprout up out of the ground. More miraculously, however, it was believed that if a person would stay awake until almost midnight on Old Christmas Eve, then sneak quietly out to a barn or a field where any cattle or sheep were kept, they could hear the animals pray. Supposedly, at the exact stroke of midnight on Old Christmas Eve, the animals would start moo-ing and baa-ing in a peaceful way as they reverentially knelt on the ground. This belief undoubtedly harkened back to the stable in Bethlehem, and to the animals

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that were present when the Christ Child was revealed to the Magi. Today, hardly anyone knows of Old Christmas. But, the elder bushes and the animals of the barn and field have surely not

forgotten... should anyone like to find out for themselves, on Old Christmas Eve.
Source: The Tellico Plains Mountain Press http://www.telliquah.com/OldXmas.htm, and Garys World Appalachia http://garysworldblog.blogspot.com/ 2006/12/appalachian-christmas.html. Photo by http://www.forestwander.com/.

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Since the Feast of the Nativity of 2003, it has been the tradition of our monastery to sing Christmas carols. On the day of Nativity, after Divine Liturgy and breakfast at the monastery, the monastic community visits the Orthodox Church of Christ the Savior in the town of Wayne to greet our brothers and sisters in Christ with the joy of the Feast. We sing many of the traditional and more familiar Christmas carols, such as What Child is This, God Rest You Merry Gentlemen, Good Christian Men Rejoice, and many other classic carols that we remember from childhood. However, these carols are a warm-up for a special treat: shape-note carols. Having done some research into early American Christmas music, we discovered this nearly forgotten form of singing. Shapenote is a type of traditional, rural religious singing, and it is called shape-note because the notes appear in different shapes to help the singers to identify the pitch. Full of bold and rustic harmonies of a sort generally eschewed by classical musicians, shape-note singing was popular in late colonial America. Such music was stamped

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out in northern states after the American Revolution by a wave of educated musicians immigrants who considered the music they found in the New World too rough and unsophisticated for their delicate ears. In the rural South and in the Appalachians, however, these indigenous harmonies thrived and grew, so that shape-note singing is still practiced even today by some groups of enthusiasts in the southern states. These Christmas songs are Orthodox in content, and the musical aesthetic is sometimes surprisingly similar to that of Slavic folk-songs and carols. They sound vastly different from the Christmas music one is likely to hear in the shopping malls or on the radio, and their words are as striking as if they were lifted straight from the Gospels, Isaiah and the Prophets. Shape-note singing is a dear tradition to the monks and local parishioners every Nativity, and we are happy to carry on this nearly lost tradition in our own small way.
To learn more about shape-note singing, we highly suggest the wonderful documentary film, Awake, My Soul: The Story of the Sacred Harp.

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The basic shapes of shape-note singing. These notes were developed so that ordinary people who had no musical training or background could easily know which note to sing.

A page from Southern Harmony, a shape-note hymn and tune book compiled by William "Singin' Billy"Walker. The book was released in 1835 under the full title of The Southern Harmony, and Musical Companion.

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In this section, we hope to regularly include glimpses into the working life of prayer at our monastery in the form of small stories and articles such as this one. This article first appeared in our 25th Anniversary Commemorative Book which was printed and released in the Summer of 2011.

participating in it more actively and invisibly warming his soul by the visible light of the candle. As with other monastic obediences, candle-making is a prayerful and sacramental work. Candles are used in every act of worship throughout the entire church year, and it is for this reason that candles are often needed in large quantities by parishes, monasteries and individuals. It takes a large amount of bees to create a significant amount of beeswax, and the beehives at the Hermitage are simply not large enough to create the wax needed for candle-making. Thus, the wax that goes into Hermitage beeswax candles is primarily supplied from other beekeepers, as well as from recycled candles stubs. All of the candles produced at the Hermitage are traditionally made by dipping. Beeswax is first cleaned through a process of fine straining to remove any natural impurities. Then the candles are carefully dipped to produce many varieties of candles for many different purposes. On a normal day, anywhere from 700 to 4,000 candles are handmade at the Hermitage the number depending on the size and diameter of the candles being produced. Beeswax candles have always been the traditional candle of choice of the Orthodox Church, partly for their purity

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For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness. - Psalm 18:28

n the order of the Blessing of Bees in the Book of Needs, the priest asks the Lord to bless and sanctify these bees by Thine own deep compassion, that they may abundantly bear fruit for the beauty and adornment of Thy temple and Thy holy altars. Pure beeswax, like wine, wheat, and olive oil, is an important element of worship in the Orthodox Church, and pure beeswax candles are used both in private and liturgical worship not simply to illumine dark spaces, but to symbolize the Eternal and Uncreated Light of Christ. In the words of Metropolitan Vitaly: By lighting a candle, each Christian enters into closer contact with the church and the service,

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and beauty, but also because of their cleanliness. Paraffin candles, a popular (and cheaper) alternative, are made from petroleum and other chemicals, and they create smoke and fumes that are not only unhealthy for people, but over time can destroy icons and frescos. The use of beeswax candles ensures the longer life of icons and the beauty of the church. Candles have always had a vital role in the life of the Church both in the corporate cycle of divine services and in the

private prayers and piety of the Faithful. The spiritual meaning of the candle was beautifully expressed by Met. Vitaly when he said: The burning candle represents the entire life of the faithful, from birth to death. It stands for the inner flame of love for and devotion to God. A Christian should burn like a candle before God, and his whole being should gradually be consumed by this divine flame thus marking the end of his earthly life.

I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
John 8:12

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h~=n~=J==Nativity 2012

A Few Words Concerning those Christ-bearers Who Have Gone before Us

God is Wondrous in His Saints

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(November 24/December 7)

A Sermon
But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake. And it shall turn to you for a testimony. Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. But there shall not an hair of your head perish. In your patience possess ye your souls. (Luke 21:12-19) ships, communion of the human soul with the Living God in prayer: not into the saying of prayers, not into many words, but into the deepness if the sacred shrine which made her the Mother of God. On the day of the Entry into the Temple of the Most Pure Theotokos the greatness of man is revealed before us, for man is able to enter into these mysterious, wondrous depths and commune with God in His holy place. We celebrate today also the day of St. Catherine of Alexandria. She was also young girl, eighteen years old, when she had to stand before human judges. Betrayed by her pagan parents for believing in Christ, she was abandoned by all her blood relatives, the closest people she had, and she was left to stand alone before the judge from whom she could expect no mercy, surrounded by a crowd from whom she could expect nothing but enmity. And to her also occurred what we read today in the Gospel passage appointed for her commemoration day; about what will happen when the end of time approaches: There will be wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, people will rise up against people, nations against nations; hatred will possess thousands of people This hatred first of all crashes down upon those who believe in Christ, because we who

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

e behold today three events. We are still basking in the radiance of the feast of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple. For mankind, this is one of the brightest, most wondrous feasts: One of us, the Virgin Mary, entered into the very depths of God's mystery. Her Entry into the temple, her life in the Holy of Holies are an image of how from an early age she entered into Divine realms, into the very depths, the very treasure-house of relation-

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believe in Christlike the Mother of God, like the young, fragile and unconquerable Catherinebelieve in the one Lord, the one King, and worship God alone, refusing to worship those idols, be they the authorities or others set up around us. We must be ready to be like Catherine and be brought to human judgment to witness, as Christ says; in order to stand before people, and while condemned to imprisonment, to torture, and death, we would triumphantly preach our love for God and our faithfulness to Him, and demonstrate our unfailing love not only for those who love us, but also for those who hate us, who wish us evil, and who do us evil. Then, we will not need to search for words of wisdom; then, we will not need to find convincing arguments faithfulness, love, truth, and holiness can shine forth in that moment before people through each one of us far more convincingly than any words. Therefore, when we see that the prophecies of Christ are now being fulfilled, and love truly is going cold, that there really are rumors noised about wars, kingdom is rising against kingdom, nation against nation, betrayal is increasing, and people of faith, people with pure hearts, even the closest

relatives of persecutors and man-haters are giving themselves into their hands, we should remember Christ's words: When you hear all this, look up, and lift your heads (Lk. 21:28), because it means that the time is nearing of the final freedom, the final victory of God, the triumph of love, the triumph of Christ Therefore let us learn from the Most Holy Virgin and the fragile and unconquerable Catherine, and from the innumerable witnesses of Christ, to live without fear in a terrifying world, to fearlessly await all that can happen, and be afraid of only one thing: that faith fade in our hearts, that love die in our hearts, that we would cease to be faithful to the end. In patience, in firm faith we will save our souls from destruction and decay, and then thousands will be saved around us; in the words of St. Seraphim of Sarov: "Acquire the spirit of peace, and thousands will be saved around you." Amen. - Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
From:

Translation by OrthoChristian.com

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Some Final Thoughts

e Unholy Saints. Though the phrase unholy saints may sound strange in English, it is this sense of the rough around the edges spiritual life as it is lived and practiced that is immediately and personally understood by many of us. This is a book about common people who, with Gods help and by Gods grace, go on to do un-common and quite extraordinary things. Whether it is the saintly fatherliness of Fr. John Krestiankin, the shrewd but deep wisdom of Fr. Nathaniel, the touching love and forgiveness of Mother Frosya, the patient compassion of Bishop Basil Rodzianko, the big-hearted spiritual bravery of Abbot Alipius, or the humble repentance of Bishop Gabriel, we find in each and every one of these stories (these true stories) something to motivate, admire and emulate. It has been said that saints are made, not born. We see in Everyday Saints this process. We see how, even with all of our flaws and imperfections, God has a plan for each of us and, if we are only willing to let God act in our lives, we can become instruments for Gods work on earth. Archimandrite Tikhon speaks of this in his book when he writes:
My friends were all ordinary people. There are many like them in our Church. And of course they are very far indeed from canonization Yet, at the end of the Divine Liturgy, when the great mystery of the Eucharist is finished and the Holy Gifts are placed upon the altar table, the priest proclaims: Holy things are for the holy! What this means is that the Body and the Blood of Christ are now being taken in by holy people. But who are these people? They are the people who are now in our Church, priests and laypersons alike, coming here to us with faith and waiting for Communion. They do this because they are faithful Christians who are yearning to draw closer to God. It turns out that in spite of our frailties and sins, we, the people who compose the Church on earth are, to God, also saints. (pp. 488-9)

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by Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov)

t seems by now that anybody who may be reading this will most likely have read Archimandrite Tikhons wonderful book, Everyday Saints. This book, first published and released in English in early November, has become an instant success and is widely popular with people of all ages and backgrounds. The book is very popular in our monastery as well and was an instant favorite among the brotherhood. Since its reading in trapeza, it has spawned numerous discussions on prayer, the spiritual life, and on the many wonderful people and places woven through the narrative of the book.

It is no wonder why this book is so popular. Archimandrite Tikhon, a former film student with experience in script writing, has a style of writing that is equally entertaining and engaging. His stories and images come alive and pull you into his world of Holy and sometimes un-Holy Russia. This, indeed, is the literal translation of the title of his book from the original Russian

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In reading the lives, stories and struggles in Everyday Saints, we not only learn about people and events that happened in a passive way, but we find that we begin to love these people as if we knew them ourselves. These stories become our stories. We get a sense, as well, of the Church as a family. In a place like Russia, with its long history of Orthodoxy and its intricate connection with the land and the people, as well as the years of open persecution and hardship under the Communist yoke perhaps this sense of family is stronger. The love within family is unconditional. Like the father in the story of the Prodigal Son, this love Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things (1 Cor. 13:7). This sense of family comes across through the pages of Everyday Saints, and it reminds us that, yes, the Church is more than jurisdictions, committees, meetings, brain-storming sessions, lectures and legal definitions. The Church is a family, with a common Father. On this note, we plan to include a regular section in this journal entitled Our Orthodox Family, which will provided glimpses into the lives and stories of Orthodox Christians both saints and un-holy saints, who have paved the way for Orthodoxy in North America and the New World our own Orthodox family. In reading the lives of St. Tikhon of Moscow, St. Raphael of Brooklyn, St. Alexis Toth, St. John of San Francisco, and many other saints that have graced our land, we catch glimpses of this sense of family in our Orthodox Church. This understanding of family, it often seems, is missing from our personal faith. We must learn the history of our common Orthodox ancestors in America not merely for the sake of knowing history, but also to know who we are, and where we came from. Having a common ancestry and a common history, and knowing more about our Fathers in the Faith, St. Tikhon, St. Raphael, etc. we will have a better sense of family. We could not do better than to end this first journal with the words of St. Nikolai

Velimirvich another saint who was no stranger to America. In response to a concerned layperson about the state of the world, he nicely sums up the idea of family and this first issue of Kairos in general when he writes:
You write how things are difficult for the world, and yet the world knows not why. If the world does not know, the Church of God does. Things are difficult in the world because people are not brethren. Kinship between individuals and nations as been forgotten and people act towards their neighbors as towards strangers in a foreign land Christ said, All ye are brethren (Matt. 23:8). You are brethren because you have one Father who is in Heaven, and you will remain brethren as long as you confess your one Father So, things are difficult for people because of the lack of brotherhood, nothing else. A man is estranged from his neighbor and cannot call him a brother. A man has isolated himself. A man feels like an orphan without any kin no kinship in heaven means no kinship on earth. Estranged brothers are trying to divide their earthly treasure, but are not succeeding. A field is never justly divided for contending brothers. Progress would mean renewing brotherhood among men. And this can be achieved only through confession of one common Father. The Heavenly Father expects this from His children. Today, He could say the same thing as He did long ago, I have nourished and brought up children, And they have rebelled against Me (Isa. 1:2). Blessed are those who have not fallen away. They will never feel as lonely, abandoned orphans without a Father and many brethren. Blessed are they, for they will know an even closer kinship of Gods people closer than brotherhood. They will know unity in Christ which has been promised to Christs disciples. That higher kinship is a unity like that of God in the Holy Trinity indivisible and unmingled. That they may be one as we are (John 17:11). This was Christs last wish. This is what the Son of God said to the Father through the Holy Spirit. And this is the ultimate unity of men, the ultimate perfection. This is the final goal, and it is only in striving for this final goal that people can say without lies or doubt the lofty words forward and progress. Peace and blessing of God to you. 6

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the incarnation
(A Poem)

With every breath of our soul we await Thee in hope, O King and Savior; With the longing of our heart we grasp for Thee in love, O Most High Creator. As the prophet of old, we do now make bold, To set all our hope in Thee, yea, in Thee alone; A mighty thirst does all mankind, in common, have, To unite with Thee, O Almighty and Infinite Godhead. Ancient Memory; Unquenchable Desire; Creator of all, of searching after Thee, we shall never tire; And even as Thou didst descend and become a babe of old, So do Thou now come to meet us, O Immanuel. Espying the perfect Virgin whom Thou didst choose according to Thy will; Taking flesh of her, Thou made her to be the door to heaven for all; Therefore, disdain us not, but prepare our souls, through her, to receive Thee; Sanctifying us with Thy chastity, beauty, and sacred, most comely purity. As angels, as thrones; as the Virgin, the throne, O Father, by Thy Spirit, each one of us also, make a God-bearing one. Make all things new, eternally alive, enlightened, joyous and true; Christ is born of the Most Holy, and we too partake, though very lowly. Let us never cease our upward gaze, That we may be filled with the Spirit even today; For behold: now is the day of salvation. Let us never cease fixing our hearts upon the One, in simplicity and purity, That we may not be put to shame when He cometh to judge all impartially; For behold: the kingdom of heaven is within each and every one. Christ cometh from the heavens, into the bread of mankind, as leaven, That His Very Self would find, in us, a heaven of rest greater than heaven. Amen.

With the eyes of our mind we seek Thee in faith, O Redeemer;