THE MIRROR OF THE THEOTOKOS
Blachernitissa or Platytera, the Virgin Orans with Christ Emmanuel in her womb A MEDITATION ON THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY OF THE MOST HOLY THEOTOKOS By Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West) The Church begins her liturgical year with a birth, and a birth of one from whom all the theological assumptions about the salvation of the world, all the drama of God struggling to take back His beloved creation from man’s fall, pertains. Before Bethlehem, before the angels sing to shepherds, before the star rises over Judea, before the Word is heard crying from the manger, the Church pauses to remember the birth of a little girl whose coming into the world passed almost entirely unnoticed by the powers of the earth. Caesar issued no decree concerning her. Herod trembled at no report of her birth. No Magi came from the East bearing gifts. No angelic multitude appeared above Jerusalem. Yet in the hidden providence of God something had begun which would overturn the history of mankind. A ...
