Orthodox Portal

St. Andrew, by the Spirit enlightened, and the first-called Apostle of Christ, proclaimed the Lord day after day, and baptized the people with the Cross. Like a gardener in his own garden, through village and town he walked, and skillfully grafted wild trees, watering them with Living Water, until he came to the end of his days, and saw the Cross awaiting him. Joyful Andrew said to the Cross: “Greetings, O Cross! God sanctified thee, Christ sanctified thee with His body. O Cross, be thou my resting place. From the dust of the earth, take me; to God in the highest, raise me up, and let Christ take me from thee – The very Christ Who, because of me, was crucified on thee.” Disciple of the holy Baptist, and apostle of Christ the Savior, O Andrew, first called star, by your prayers, help us.

In the late 1800′s a candy maker in Indiana wanted to express the meaning of Christmas through a symbol made of candy. He came up with the idea of bending one of Ms white candy sticks into the shape of a Candy Cane. He incorporated several symbols of Christ’s love and sacrifice through the Candy Cane. First, he used a plain white peppermint stick. The color white symbolizes the purity and sinless nature of Jesus. Next, he added three small stripes to symbolize the pain inflicted upon the Lord before His death on the Cross. There are three of them to represent the Holy Trinity. He added a bold stripe to represent the blood Jesus shed for mankind. When looked at with the crook on top, it looks like a shepherd’s staff because Jesus is the shepherd of man. If you turn it upside down, it becomes the letter J symbolizing the first letter of the Lord’s name. The candy maker made these for Christmas so everyone would remember what Christmas is about.
(Taken from The Mustard Seed.)

The Fast of the Nativity is the Church’s wise reassurance and aid to human frailty. Like Great Lent, the fast of Nativity is a journey, “Come, O ye faithful, and let us behold where Christ is born…”
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The Hours of Holy Pascha
(Sung in place of Morning and Evening prayers during
Bright Week)

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One of the most ancient cities of the Promised Land was Shechem, also called Sikima. Near to this town, Jacob, who had come from Mesopotamia in the nineteenth century before Christ, bought a piece of land where there was a well. This well, preserved even until the time of Christ, was known as Jacob’s Well. This town, before it was taken into possession by Samaria, was also the leading city of the kingdom of the ten tribes. It was the first city in Canaan visited by the Patriarch Abraham. Here also, Jesus of Navi (Joshua) addressed the tribes of Israel for the last time. Almost three hundred years later, all Israel assembled there to make Roboam (Rehoboam) king.

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