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Year: 2008

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Serbian Christmas Hymn – Angels are Singing

Came across this here while I was browsing around. It bears an echo of the Polish Christmas hymn Dzisiaj w Betlejem.

Two images that struck me were the image of Mary and Joseph wandering through today’s busy streets and the image of Mary cradling the Eucharistic bread – very nice.

Here is the English translation.

“Beautiful night, peaceful night,
A star is shining above a cave,
In the cave mother is sleeping
An angel is cherishing Jesus.

Angels are singing,
Shepherds are playing,
Angels are singing,
Sages are revealing themselves:

What the people have been waiting for,
What prophets have been prophesying,
And now the world responds,
The world responds and declares;
Our Saviour, Christ is born
for the salvation of all of us.

Alleluia, Alleluia.
Lord have mercy!”

Everything Else

Hymn for Circumcision Matins

Oh, happy day, when first was poured
The blood of our redeeming Lord!
Oh, happy day, when first began
His sufferings for sinful man!

Just entered on this world of woe,
His blood already learned to flow:
His future death was thus expressed,
And thus His early love confessed.

From heaven descending, to fulfill
The mandates of his Father’s will,
E’en now behold the victim lie,
The Lamb of God, prepared to die;

Beneath the knife behold The Child,
The innocent, the undefiled;
For captives He the ransom pays,
For lawless man the law obeys.

Lord, circumcise our hearts, we pray;
Our fleshy natures purge away;
Thy name, thy likeness may they bear:
Yea, stamp thy holy image there!

The Father’s name we loudly raise,
The Son, the Virgin-born, we praise:
The Holy Ghost we all adore,
One God, both now and evermore.

From The Hymns of the Primitive Church by the Rev. John Chandler, 1837.

Homilies,

The Solemnity of the Circumcision of our Lord

Circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and that shall be the mark of the covenant between you and me.

Jesus Christ’s incarnation marks a radical change in the manner in which the chosen people relate to God.

As you may recall, there was quite a debate in the early Church over the issue of circumcision.

To the Jewish followers of Jesus circumcision was a fact. It was a sign, in their flesh, marking their relationship with God.

St. Irenaeus states:

Moreover, we learn from the Scripture itself, that God gave circumcision, not as the completer of righteousness, but as a sign, that the race of Abraham might continue recognizable… but the circumcision after the flesh typified that after the Spirit.

This thing, symbolized in the flesh of the Jewish people, was a foretelling of the greater and perfect covenant that was completed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The early Church’s debate ended with the Council of Jerusalem, when the Holy Church, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, determined that circumcision was unnecessary for salvation.

This was the radical change. This was the change that allowed us entry into God’s new reality.

We do not need to carry a sign in our flesh. Our flesh is no longer symbolic of our relationship to God. Rather, the flesh taken on by Jesus, the God-man, bears the symbols of our relationship with God.

His resurrected flesh bears the fleshy symbols of the new covenant.

St. Thomas directly experienced those fleshy symbols when Jesus told him:

“Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side…—

What Thomas saw and touched is the new reality, the new covenant in the blood of Jesus Christ.

On this Solemnity of the Circumcision of our Lord we must renew our efforts at recognizing and living within this changed reality. Living with the fact that God’s adoption of our flesh changed everything.

The goal of life is no longer getting through each day, knowing that death awaits us at the end. Rather it is living with our eyes focused on the promise of eternal life. Death is no more.

Brothers and sisters,

Jesus’ perfected and resurrected body bears the signs of our salvation.

As each day passes God sees in His very hands, feet, and side the love He bears for us. In those nail and spear marks He sees us reborn, recognizable not in something that is part of our body, but something that is within us.

He looks within us and sees our adoption. He sees people who by baptism and confirmation have chosen to take up His reality. He sees people willing to walk ever more closely to God, people on the road to perfection in the new and eternal Kingdom.

Look on the symbols borne in the flesh of Jesus Christ. This is the new covenant. This is the new reality. This is our joy and our peace.

Amen.

Fathers, PNCC

January 1 – St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies

Moreover, we learn from the Scripture itself, that God gave circumcision, not as the completer of righteousness, but as a sign, that the race of Abraham might continue recognizable. For it declares: “God said unto Abraham, Every male among you shall be circumcised; and you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, as a token of the covenant between Me and you.” (Gen 17:9-11) This same does Ezekiel the prophet say with regard to the Sabbaths: “Also I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord, that sanctify them.” (Ez 20:12) And in Exodus, God says to Moses: “And you shall observe My Sabbaths; for it shall be a sign between Me and you for your generations.” (Ex 21:13) These things, then, were given for a sign; but the signs were not unsymbolical, that is, neither unmeaning nor to no purpose, inasmuch as they were given by a wise Artist; but the circumcision after the flesh typified that after the Spirit. For “we,” says the apostle, “have been circumcised with the circumcision made without hands.” (Col 2:11) And the prophet declares, “Circumcise the hardness of your heart.” — Book IV, Chapter 16

Fathers, PNCC

The blog plan for 2008 – The Fathers

Continuing in the tradition of my daily posts, I expect to post a short excerpt from the Church Fathers every day in 2008.

In the document Apostolic Succession in the PNCC we read:

The Polish National Catholic Church has the same type of government that Christ gave to the apostles, has the same faith that He deposited with them, believes in the doctrine, government, and worship of the primitive Apostolic Church.

The doctrine of the Polish National Catholic Church is founded on the Holy Scriptures, the Holy Traditions, and the dogmatic decisions of the first Seven Ecumenical Councils.

The Holy Scriptures are interpreted strictly in accordance with the teachings of the first Seven Ecumenical Councils and the Holy Fathers of the Catholic Church.

Therefore, I pray that these brief excerpts will be enlightening to you and in keeping with the Holy Faith of our Church.

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