"Why did the Protestant Reformers abandon the Greek Septuagint for a rabbinic textual tradition?"

I regret buying corn through KYC rails 😔

Friendly reminder: 12 days of Christmas starts now. Next stop, Theophany!

From the perspective of the Theotokos, the Nativity shines as the mystery in which she offers her full and fearless obedience to God, not as a rival to Christ but as the one who freely receives Him in her flesh and becomes the living gateway of our salvation. In her womb, the Creator fashions for Himself a human nature taken wholly from her, and she bears Him in love while confessing, with deep humility, that the child she nurses is the One through whom all things came to be. Saint Gregory Palamas speaks of her as the boundary between the created and the uncreated, because in her person the human will responds without reserve to divine grace and makes possible the coming of the Word in the flesh (Gregory Palamas, Homily on the Entry of the Theotokos). Her motherhood never diminishes Christ but proclaims His full divinity and full humanity, since He receives from her what He does not possess eternally — our mortal life — while bestowing upon her, and through her upon us, the pledge of glorification. In the Feast of the Nativity, the Church honours her not as the source of salvation, but as the one who consents to become its vessel, and whose joyful assent echoes in every heart that dares to say yes to God.

Christ is born! Glorify Him!

The grotto of the Nativity, Bethlehem, birthplace of our Lord After many types and prefigurings, messengers and heralds, prophets and righteous men, wise men and kings, finally He appeared, the Lord of the world and King of kings, to perform the work of the salvation of mankind that could not be performed by His servants. May His be eternal glory and praise! Amen. Today the Virgin gives birth to the Transcendent One, And the earth offers a cave to the Unapproachable One! Angels with shepherds glorify Him! The wise men journey with a star! Since for our sake the Eternal God was born as a Little Child! Kontakion for the Nativity of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ

The Jews are preparing to celebrate “Nittel Nacht,” a parody of Christmas, where they mock the “hanged” with “latrines,” while reading “Toledot Yeshu,” a medieval story mocking the the Gospel which describes the life of Jesus, from birth to death, and is filled with blasphemous insults. Modern Judaism is not an "alternative continuation of the Second Temple religion, which evolved differently from Christianity,” but a false religion primarily built on rejection and opposition to Christ and Orthodox Christianity. "Is there not a great gulf between us and the Jews? Is it not for the most important of matters that this dispute exists? Why do you mix what cannot be mixed? They crucified Christ, whom you worship." ☦️Saint John Chrysostomos

What a wonderful time of year! Without the incarnation of the God-Man Jesus Christ we would not have His Theophany, Transfiguration, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension! “What was prefigured at that time in the flame of the bush was openly manifested in the mystery of the Virgin… Just as on the mountain the bush burned but was not consumed, so also the Virgin gave birth to the light and was not corrupted.” —St. Gregory of Nyssa in The Life of Moses and On the Birth of Christ☦️

Let's hear it!

From Anthony of Westgate* God entered His creation here 🫂

Meditate on these words 🙏

“Of the kingly office one kind is divine, -- that which is according to God and His holy Son, by whom both the good things which are of the earth, and external and perfect felicity too, are supplied. "For," it is said, "seek what is great, and the little things shall be added." And there is a second kind of royalty, inferior to that administration which is purely rational and divine, which brings to the task of government merely the high mettle of the soul; after which fashion Hercules ruled the Argives, and Alexander the Macedonians. The third kind is what aims after one thing -- merely to conquer and overturn; but to turn conquest either to a good or a bad purpose, belongs not to such rule. Such was the aim of the Persians in their campaign against Greece. For, on the one hand, fondness for strife is solely the result of passion, and acquires power solely for the sake of domination; while, on the other, the love of good is characteristic of a soul which uses its high spirit for noble ends. The fourth, the worst of all, is the sovereignty which acts according to the promptings of the passions, as that of Sardanapalus, and those who propose to themselves as their end the gratification of the passions to the utmost. But the instrument of regal sway -- the instrument at once of that which overcomes by virtue, and that which does so by force -- is the power of managing (or tact). And it, varies according to the nature and the material. In the case of arms and of fighting animals the ordering power is the soul and mind, by means animate and inanimate; and in the case of the passions of the soul, which we master by virtue, reason is the ordering power, by affixing the seal of continence and self-restraint, along with holiness, and sound knowledge with truth, making the result of the whole to terminate in piety towards God. For it is wisdom which regulates in the case of those who so practise virtue; and divine things are ordered by wisdom, and human affairs by politics -- all things by the kingly faculty. He is a king, then, who governs according to the laws, and possesses the skill to sway willing subjects. Such is the Lord, who receives all who believe on Him and by Him. For the Father has delivered and subjected all to Christ our King," that at the name of Jesus every knee may bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.' Now, generalship involves three ideas: caution, enterprise, and the union of the two. And each of these consists of three things, acting as they do either by word, or by deeds, or by both together. And all this can be accomplished either by persuasion, or by compulsion, or by inflicting harm in the way of taking vengeance on those who ought to be punished; and this either by doing what is right, or by telling what is untrue, or by telling what is true, or by adopting any of these means conjointly at the same time.” - Saint Clement of Alexandria; Stromata (book 1, chapter 24)

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Finished Paul's book earlier this week. I cannot recommend it enough. Just fired up another Fr. Florensky book, so far.... mind blowing. #bookstr What are y'all reading?

The Nathan Jacobs Podcast: How the Devil Tried to Steal Christmas | The True Story of the Nativity Starting from: 00:00:00 Episode webpage:

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How the Devil Tried to Steal Christmas | The True Story of the Nativity by The Nathan Jacobs Podcast

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"Brethren, let us show repentance and conversion from the depths of our hearts, and let us leave off our former evil ways, and let us cleanse ourselves of every stain of the flesh and the spirit. For the day of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ is near, on which we are to commune the divine and life-giving sanctification of His Mysteries. So let us keep ourselves well, brethren, and every idea that is thorny and not pure and is unworthy of a devoted activity let us weed out, and in every way let us cleanse ourselves." St. John Chrysostom :: Commentary on the Gospel According to St. Matthew