Ode 6. The Irmos.

Iambic. The Irmos.

‘The monster from the deep spat Jonas from its bowels like a new born babe, just as it had received him; while the Word having dwelt in the Virgin and taken flesh, came forth, yet kept her incorrupt, for being himself not subject to decay, he preserved his mother free from harm’.

Christ our God, whom the Father begot from the womb before the morning star and who holds the reins of the immaculate Powers, is laid in a manger of dumb beasts; he is swaddled in rags, but looses the tangled cords of offences.

A young child has been born from Adam’s matter, and a Son has been given to the believers; this is the Father and Ruler of the age to come, and he is called the Angel of great counsel; this is the mighty God who holds by his authority all creation.

‘Enclosed in the uttermost depth of the sea,

‘Jonas entreated you to come and still the storm;

‘And I, O Christ, pricked by the dart of the tyrant,

‘Call upon you, the slayer of evil,

‘To come quickly and deliver me from my sloth’.

Who was with God in the beginning, God

The Word, seeing our nature powerless

To guard what it once was, now gives it strength,

Lowers himself, by second fellowship

Showing it once again from passions free.

From loins of Abraham for us he came,

To raise as sons those sadly fallen in

The dark of sins that bowed them low. He dwells

In light, yet in a manger now to dwell

For man’s salvation he has been well pleased.

3rd Tone. Model Melody.

(A Composition of St Romanos the Melodist)

Today the Virgin gives birth to him who is above all being,

And the earth offers the Cave to him whom no one can approach;

Angels with Shepherds give glory,

And Magi journey with a star;

For us there has been born

**A little Child: God before the ages.**

Bethlehem has opened Eden, come, let us see;

We have found delight in secret, come let us receive

The joys of Paradise within the cave;

There the unwatered root has appeared whose blossom is forgiveness,

There has been found the undug well

From which David once wished to drink;

There a Virgin has borne a babe

And has at once quenched Adam’s and David’s thirst.

For this let us hasten to this place where there has been born

**A little Child: God before the ages.**

On the 25th day of the same month, the Nativity according to the flesh of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

God the one born, the Mother too a Virgin:

What greater wonder had creation seen?

Mary the Virgin bore God on the twenty fifth day of December.

God, who loves mankind, seeing the human race under the tyranny of the devil, took compassion on it, and sending his Archangel Gabriel, he said to the Mother of God: ‘Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you’. And at once our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son and Word of God, was conceived in her immaculate womb. And when the nine months were completed from her conceiving, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus for the whole inhabited world to be enrolled; and Kyrinios was sent to Jerusalem to make the enrolment in Bethlehem. Joseph the guardian of the Mother of God went up with her to be enrolled in Bethlehem. And when the Virgin was about to give birth, not having found lodging due to the great number of people, she entered a poor cave, and there, without corruption, she gave birth to our Lord Jesus Christ, and she wrapped him like a babe in swaddling clothes, and laid down and put in the manger of the irrational beasts the Creator of all things, as he was about to deliver us from our unreason.

On the same day, the worship by the Magi.

Men from the nations worshipped you, O Word,

Showing your future honour from the Nations.

In those days there was a Seer called Balaam in the country of the Persians who prophesied many things, among which he said: ‘A star will dawn out of Jacob, and will crush the princes of Moab’. The other Seers then, holding this prophecy in succession, taught it to the kings of the Persians. And it came to these men, three in number, and they were keeping watch for when they might see such a star. But being astronomers, when they saw that Christ’s star did not follow a course like the other stars, from east to west, but from north to south, knew that it showed the birth of a great king; and having followed the star, they found Christ the Lord, and falling down they worshipped him and offered him gold, incense and myrrh. And so, on the orders of an Angel, they returned to their country.

Herod, the prince of the Jews, having learned from the Magi that a great king had been born, who was going to subdue the whole world, summoned the Magi secretly and said, ‘Go, inquire diligently about the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may go and worship him’. He said this to learn where he was and that he might send and kill him. Then, having summoned the Scribes, he asked, ‘Where does Scripture say that the Christ will be born?’ They said, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea’. Then he sent his troops to slaughter the boys in Bethlehem of two years and under. Because of this an Angel was sent from God who said to Joseph, ‘Rise, take the Child and his Mother, and flee into Egypt’. Joseph did so, and taking the Child and his Mother he went away into Egypt.

On the same day, Commemoration of the Shepherds who saw the Lord.

The Shepherds, leaving their own flock behind,

To see Christ the Good Shepherd went with haste.

To him be glory to the ages of ages. Amen.