“THE HOUSE OF GOD AND THE CHURCH SERVICES, 2” 

On the day of the feast of Christ’s Nativity itself, the Vigil service begins with Great Compline instead of Vespers, in which we chant the Old Testament verses, “God is with us,” which contain prophecies concerning Jesus Christ, but after the Liti the rest of the Vigil follows the usual order. During the Liti itself the verses chanted tell forth the celebration which joins heaven and earth, angels and men, who together rejoice in God’s advent on earth, and they speak of the spiritual-moral change which this fact works within people. The verses for the Aposticha repeat the same thoughts that we heard on “Lord, I have cried” and at the Liti, although the hymns themselves are not identical with those earlier ones. The most wondrous miracle, that the “Word was born incorruptibly from the Virgin and not separated from the Father,” is also proclaimed in these hymns.

Troparion: Thy Nativity, O Christ our God,
hath shined the light of knowledge upon the world;
for thereby they that worshipped the stars
were instructed by a star to worship Thee,
the Sun of Righteousness,
and to know Thee, the Dayspring from on high.
O Lord, glory be to Thee.

Contakion: Today the Virgin giveth birth
to Him Who is transcendent in essence;
and the earth offereth a cave
to Him Who is unapproachable.
Angels with shepherds give glory;
with a star, the magi do journey;
for our sake a young Child is born,
Who is pre-eternal God.

[Fr Antonov gives these hymns in Church Slavonic & in a Russian translation for those of his readers who would not understand the former.]

In the Canon the thought is expressed that the One born of the Virgin is not a mere man, but is God, Who has appeared on earth in the flesh for the salvation of men, as was prophesied of Him in the Old Testament. Jesus Christ is addressed in the Canon with the names that the prophets in the Old Testament called Him. He is also called therein the Benefactor, Who reconciles us with God the Father, Who frees us from the power of the devil and saves us from sin, the curse and death.

In the prokeimenon we have the thought that all creation worships Jesus Christ - “Let all the earth worship Thee and chant unto Thee, and chant unto Thy name, O Most High.”

The Apostle reading (Gal. 4:4-7) proffers the thought that through the incarnation of Jesus Christ we are made children of the Heavenly Father.

The Gospel reading (Matt. 2:1-12) announces the worship of the Wise Men before the Lord Who has been born.

The Megalynarion is as follows:-

It would be easier for us, because free from all danger,
to keep silence in fear:
While it is hard indeed, O Virgin,
in love to devise songs harmoniously put together.
But do thou, O Mother, give us strength
that we may fulfil our good intent.

[Again also repeated in Russian in the original work.]

The communion hymn is “The Lord hath sent deliverance to His people.”

The celebration of the festival of the Nativity of Christ was, in the Russian Church, made more magnificent (!) by the commemoration of the deliverance of Russia and the Church from the incursion of the French and the twelve peoples with them in 1812 (i.e. from the Napoleonic forces). Because of this after the Liturgy, they used to serve a special moleben of thanksgiving, in which they chanted Many Years to the Sovereign and the Imperial Family and Eternal Memory for the Emperor Alexander I. [This generally omitted nowadays].

On the feast of Christmas the clergy also hymn the new-born Saviour in the homes of their parishioners. This custom recalls the angels who announced to the shepherds the Saviour’s birth, and that the shepherds then themselves worshipped the Lord Who had been born. This “praising” consists simply in the chanting of the troparion, the contakion and sometimes the following hymn, which is also chanted in church at the Vigil after the reading of the Gospel:-

Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace.
Today Bethlehem receiveth Him
that at all times sitteth with the Father.
Today Angels glorify with holy hymns
the Babe that is born.
Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace,
good will among men.

. . . to be continued with the “Services of the Feast of the Lord’s Baptism”