As we come back to our daily routine from the festivities of the Nativity season that had embraced every Christian household, the Indian Orthodox Church coats herself in much sorrow for the innocent male babies slain by King Herod’s cruelty.
This is our God Who has come to reside among us! See His unsurpassed love for us. The great wall that divided man from God through sin and disobedience has been destroyed by the babe Jesus in the womb. As we go around giving gifts to our loved and fear ones and also seeking ways to give gifts to the less privileged children of the world and as we engage ourselves preparing wonderful food for all those who come knocking at our doors, let us ask this question of ourselves: What do we offer Christ this day for coming to reside among us?
CHRIST IS BORN, GLORIFY HIM! Christ from heaven, go out to meet Him. Christ on earth, be you exalted. Sing unto the Lord all the earth; and that I may join in one word, Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad, for Him Who is of heaven and then of earth. Christ in flesh, rejoice with trembling and with joy; with trembling because of our sins, with joy because of our hope. Christ of a Virgin; O you Matrons live as Virgins, that you may be Mothers of Christ. Who does not worship Him That is from the beginning? Who does not glorify Him That is the Last?
Verse for reflection: St Mathew 1:7-17 St Mathew divides the generations from Abraham to the coming of Christ into three phases; each of these includes 14 generations- we note spiritual messages from these 3 phases. from Abraham to David- a journey of glory of kingship/royalty. Kingship signifies greatness. In the book of Genesis, the Triune…
Verse for reflection: St Mathew 1:6 The next woman we encounter is king David’s wife, the mother of king Solomon. We see in Old Testament that her name was Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah. Uriah was killed in the battlefield in a plan set by David so that he could take his wife who was…
When we read the names of the ancestors of Jesus, some which we know, strike us because these are the names of the saints, the great men and women of the spirit. But there are also names of sinners and also of people who were forced into the ancestry. In this ancestry, holiness and human frailty and sin are interwoven in a way that should strike us. For more, please read
Even though the message of Christmas is about a birth of a baby boy, the core reason for the commemoration is to remember that God chose by His free will to become man to save us from our sins. This core message is the central point of our faith. Let us understand the Icon of Nativity of Jesus Christ.
If we compare to the life of the saints, like many of them who have stepped onto the world’s stage for a brief period of time and then disappeared from the records, we have only the barest of facts regarding St. Joseph. He appears in the Holy Bible prior to the birth of our Lord Jesus until the 12-year old Jesus is found in the Temple of Jerusalem. Then he disappears from the pages of history. God had chosen Joseph for a particular role… Let us try and understand his role and learn from him…
As the church celebrates the Children’s Day, let us as parents and teachers, learn from the life of Zacharias and Elizabeth and trust in the Lord even unto our old age to believe in the promises of the Lord and bring forth prophets and prophetesses, priests and lay leaders who will dedicate their life to the service of the Lord.
In a world where people are looking towards influential personalities as their icons and role models, the Church shows us a role model whom we can easily emulate in our daily life: St John the Baptist, who is also titled as prophet and forerunner of the Messiah.
