A Nativity Homily of St Isaac the Syrian This night bestowed peace on the whole world; so, let no one threaten; This is the night of the Most Gentle One - let no one be cruel; This is the night of the Most Humble One - let no one be proud. Now is the day of joy - let us not revenge; Now is the day of good will - let us not be mean-spirited. In this day of peace let us not be conquered by anger. Today the Bountiful impoverished Himself for our sake; so, rich one, invite the po

The above is a translation of the kontakion of the Nativity/Christmas composed by St Romanos the Melodist in the late 5th or early 6th century. Originally this kontakion was one stanza of a much larger work which might best be described as a sung homily. As Archimandrite Ephrem Lash, the translator of many of St Romanos’ kontakia describes it, “The main body of a kontakion was chanted from the pulpit by the preacher after the reading of the gospel, while a choir, or even the

For the past couple of weeks we have been comparing the hymns before Christmas with another set of hymns which inspired them, those of Holy Week. Let’s continue that exploration with the canon of Holy Saturday, ode 1, verse 2. A sense of amazement and wonder pervades this hymn: He who is at once in Heaven upon the throne as God and in the grave with His body as man causes both angels and demons to tremble by His death and descent to the grave. Now let’s look at the correspond

Last week we noted that the hymnographers who composed some of the hymns of the forefeast of Nativity deliberately modeled them on the hymns of Holy Week, in several instances borrowing directly from those hymns of the Passion but setting them in the context of the birth of our Lord. This week let’s continue our examination by looking at another example, a hymn from Holy Friday and its corresponding hymn from the canon for the forefeast of Nativity sung on December 23 (ode 9,