{"id":26419,"date":"2016-12-28T14:09:03","date_gmt":"2016-12-28T19:09:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stpeterorthodoxchurch.com\/?p=5655"},"modified":"2016-12-28T14:09:03","modified_gmt":"2016-12-28T19:09:03","slug":"st-peter-newsletter-december-28-2017-christ-is-born-preparing-for-theophany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stpeterorthodoxchurch.com\/st-peter-newsletter-december-28-2017-christ-is-born-preparing-for-theophany\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Peter Newsletter December 28, 2017 — Christ is Born; Preparing for Theophany"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!<\/h2>\n

Feasts of Circumcision of Christ and St. Basil the Great<\/h2>\n
\n\"St.<\/p>\n

St. Basil the Great of Cappadocia (329–379)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Saint Basil was born in the year 330 at Caesarea, the administrative center of Cappadocia. He was of illustrious lineage, famed for its eminence and wealth, and zealous for the Christian Faith. The saint’s grandfather and grandmother on his father’s side had to hide in the forests of Pontus for seven years during the persecution under Diocletian.<\/p>\n

Saint Basil’s mother Saint Emilia was the daughter of a martyr. On the Greek calendar, she is commemorated on May 30. Saint Basil’s father was also named Basil. He was a lawyer and renowned rhetorician, and lived at Caesarea.<\/p>\n

Ten children were born to the elder Basil and Emilia: five sons and five daughters. Five of them were later numbered among the saints: Basil the Great; Macrina (July 19) was an exemplar of ascetic life, and exerted strong influence on the life and character of Saint Basil the Great; Gregory, afterwards Bishop of Nyssa (January 10); Peter, Bishop of Sebaste (January 9); and Theosebia, a deaconess (January 10).<\/p>\n

Saint Basil spent the first years of his life on an estate belonging to his parents at the River Iris, where he was raised under the supervision of his mother Emilia and grandmother Macrina. They were women of great refinement, who remembered an earlier bishop of Cappadocia, Saint Gregory the Wonderworker (November 17). Basil received his initial education under the supervision of his father, and then he studied under the finest teachers in Caesarea of Cappadocia, and it was here that he made the acquaintance of Saint Gregory the Theologian (January 25 and January 30). Later, Basil transferred to a school at Constantinople, where he listened to eminent orators and philosophers. To complete his education Saint Basil went to Athens, the center of classical enlightenment.<\/p>\n

Read the entire history on the St. Peter’s website<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The Circumcision of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ<\/h2>\n
\n\"The<\/p>\n

The Circumcision of Christ<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

On the eighth day after His Nativity, our Lord Jesus Christ was circumcised in accordance with the Old Testament Law. All male infants underwent circumcision as a sign of God’s Covenant with the holy Forefather Abraham and his descendants (Gen. 17:10-14, Lev. 12:3).<\/p>\n

After this ritual the Divine Infant was given the name Jesus, as the Archangel Gabriel declared on the day of the Annunciation to the Most Holy Theotokos (Luke 1:31-33, 2:21). The Fathers of the Church explain that the Lord, the Creator of the Law, underwent circumcision in order to give people an example of how faithfully the divine ordinances ought to be fulfilled. The Lord was circumcised so that later no one would doubt that He had truly assumed human flesh, and that His Incarnation was not merely an illusion, as certain heretics (Docetists) taught.<\/p>\n

In the New Testament, the ritual of circumcision gave way to the Mystery of Baptism, which it prefigured (Col. 2:11-12). Accounts of the Feast of the Circumcision of the Lord continue in the Eastern Church right up through the fourth century. The Canon of the Feast was written by Saint Stephen of the Saint Sava Monastery (October 28 and July 13).<\/p>\n

Read more on the Orthodox Church of America website<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The Theophany of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ<\/h2>\n

In the Orthodox Church, the Christmas seasons begins on December 25 and ends on Theophany (January 5-6). This constitutes the “12 Days of Christmas” (see the essay The Twelve Days of Christmas<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Theophany means “the revelation or revealing of God” and happened at the Baptism of Christ. It is a great feast day in the Orthodox Church. The schedule for Theophany 2017 is:<\/p>\n