The Eastern Liturgy: Christmas Joy
Christ is born! Tell forth His fame!
Christ from heaven! His love proclaim!
Christ on earth! Exalt His name!
Sing to the Lord, O world, with exultation!
Break forth with glad thanksgiving, every nation!
For He has triumphed gloriously!
Man in God’s own likeness made,
Man by Satan’s lies betrayed,
Man by sting of death dismayed,
Banished from hope of life and of salvation,
By Christ today is made a new creation:
For He has triumphed gloriously!
God the Maker, when His foe
Dragged us down to death and woe,
Bowed the heavens and came below,
And in the Virgin womb His palace making
Became true man, our human nature taking:
For He has triumphed gloriously!
Christ the Wisdom, Word and Might,
God and Son and Light of light,
Concealed in Mary from sight
Of worldly monarch and demonic spirit,
Was born on earth, that we might heaven inherit:
And He has triumphed gloriously!
Cosmas the Melodist
Canon for Christmas Day[1]
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you, all my readers! I pray you have a blessed time together with family and friends, reflecting on the Light of Light who indeed is our Lord. Praising Him together with all of the saints of His wondrous reality as the Theanthropos, the Godman (who was first the Godbaby) for us. What a blessed Hope and glorious Appearing we have to look forward to, but only because He first appeared as the most infamous babes of all, wrapped in swaddling cloths; away in the manger.
Joy to the World!
[1] Nick Needham, 2000 Years of Christ’s Power: Volume 2: The Middle Ages (Scotland, UK: Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 2016), 142-43.