The Feast of the Prophet Daniel and the Three Holy Children [in the fiery furnace] has always been closely connected with Christmas. Proper for them are found on the two Sunday before Christmas and today we sing, “Come, O faithful, let us celebrate the forefeast of the birth of Christ; offering a spiritual canticle by way of a star. Let us join the Magi and shepherds in their hymns of praise: Behold, the Savior has come from a virgin’s womb to call back to himself the whole human race.”
Perhaps this was because Daniel foresaw the incarnation of the Word. He foresaw the coming of the Son of Man as a “stone unhewn by human hands,” fulfilled in the virgin birth which as a spiritual kingdom would destroy all worldly might, “whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and whose kingdom endures through all generations,” (Daniel 4:31) and again, I saw coming with the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man. When he reached the Ancient of Days and was presented before him, he received dominion, splendor, and kingship; all nations, peoples and tongues will serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, his kingship, one that shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13-14).
The three children, likewise, survived the burning furnace, and there was a fourth man standing in the flames, who protected them.” The burning fire represented the womb of the virgin, not burnt by the fire of the Godhead borne by her. Our Lord came to baptize us in the Spirit and fire. Just as the fire did not harm the three youths, so that fire of baptism does not “harm” us, but purifies us and gives us life, for in it we find life in the Trinity.
Like Daniel, the “man of desires” so we long intensely for the appearance of Christ our Savior.
Meditation by Archpriest David Petras
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The prophet Haggai, in 520 B.C., preached that the temple must be rebuilt for the sake of the faith of the people. In this way he foreshadowed that Jesus, the Messiah to come, would be the Temple of the New Covenant in his body. His birth, then, is the completion of God’s promise to make his dwelling among his people.
St. Spiridon is commemorated with special solemnity in the Greek Church. The Synaxarion tells us, that “he led the peaceful life of a simple shepherd. He was a plain, unpolished countryman and yet without equal when it came to love of neighbor, meekness, acts of kindness, almsgiving and the practice of virtues.” He was a man of hospitality, who would break his ascetic fast to feed a stranger in need. He was a man of simple and plain words, who put to shame the vain eloquence of a prelate “who wanted to show off by altering certain words of the Gospel too common for his taste.” He was a perfect example of a saint, for through him the love of Christ manifested itself, raising the dead, stopping droughts, looking into the hearts of sinners and forgiving them. Because of his Christ-like virtues, he was called from being a shepherd of sheep in the field, to being the bishop pastor of Christ’s rational sheep in Tremithus. In this way, he was the fulfillment of the shepherds who came to Christ at his birth.
One can easily say that the greatest saint of the Byzantine Church is Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia. Yet the only thing we know of him for certain is his name, and that a holy man named Nicholas was the bishop in Myra in the fourth century. He has become essentially connected with the feast of Christmas. While the details of his life are certainly legendary, the first appearance is the Vita per Michaelem, in the ninth century, and then by Simeon Metaphrastes in the tenth century, yet we cannot help but suspect that there is a tradition of the goodness of his character that prompted such stories. He is the a golden example of all that is good in a true Christian, following the Lord in love for the poor, in joy of salvation, and in greatness of heart. Where, then, the stories written to fit his character. Certainly, the human race is hungry for such a saint, explaining his embrace by Greece and Russia as their patron saint. He gave a dowry to the poor girls, he saved sailors from storms, he obtained the liberation of those falsely accused. When his body was taken from Myra to Bari, the goodness of his life made him a favored saint throughout all the West.
There is little doubt that the legendary story of the Holy Martyr Barbara was embellished a bit by early hagiographers. There is no reason for this, since the mere fact that someone who comes to faith in Christ is willing to lay down their life for him. For this reason, the more plausible facts of her life are a beacon for us who struggle in and for the faith. Her story tells us that she was a philosopher, a “lover of wisdom.” It was her love of wisdom, guided by grace that brought her to faith in the one true God in the Holy Trinity. It is a reminder that our faith is not blind, it is rational, based on an authentic consideration of reality. Clement of Alexandria was one of the first Christians to see the value of Greek philosophy for the Christian faith, and on this same day, December 4, we celebrate the memory of Our Holy Father John Damascene, who wrote a massive work, the Fount of Wisdom, reasoning about our faith.
Ivan Sleziuk is one of the Ukrainian martyrs from the Soviet era persecution of the Church. He was born January 14, 1896, ordained priest in 1923 and ordained bishop in April 1945. Arrested in June 1945 and sentenced to 10 years in a labor camp and then after a release was arrested a second time and sent to a prison camp for another 5 years being released in 1968. Bishop Ivan died on December 2, 1973.
Habakkuk prophesied in Judah during the last half of the 7th century BC. He was one of the temple prophets — that is, his oracles were composed to be sung in temple worship; thus, they took the form of lamentations and canticles. Their liturgical character has persisted in out monastic office where the third chapter of his book is used as the fourth canticle of the traditional matins canon.
Today is the 75th anniversary of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky (+Nov. 1, 1944).
Today, the Church commemorates, “The holy priest-martyr Theodore Romzha. Born in Veliky Bychkiv in Carpatho-Russia in 1911, he came from a poor family and exhibited a vocation to the priesthood. Sent to Rome for studies, he was ordained in 1937 and sent to the country parish of Berzovo. In 1939, he was called to the seminary at Uzhhorod and taught there until 1944. In 1944, despite his youth, he was ordained bishop for the Mukachevo Eparchy. During the Soviet Army’s occupation of Carpatho-Russia, he was tireless in his care for his flock and in his defense of the rights of the Byzantine Catholic Church.
Today, on the liturgical calendar the UGCC Church liturgically remembers Blessed Roman Lysko who died on this date following torture and starvation in 1949. He was born on 14 August 1914 in the Horodok, Lviv District, Ukraine.