Christ is Born!

 

Glorify Him!

Merry Christmas! I know I haven't been active around here lately. In the past that has usually coincided with some kind of long-term hospital stay or other health-related incident within the family. Thank God that is not the reason this time around. Rather, my gaming attention for the last several months has shifted away from RPGs and back to my other love, wargaming. I have been planning on doing some posts about that, but time hasn't permitted. Hopefully, the new year will see me back in this space sharing some of the things bouncing around inside my head and taking place on the table. In the meantime, God bless you all.

Christ is Born!

Notice that the Christ child is wrapped in burial clothes and lying in a tomb underground

 I wanted to take a moment on this strange and lonely Christmas to not only wish you joy and a Merry Christmas, but to remind all of us that Christ is born today because we are in pain. The peace and the joy the Christian world proclaims today may seem hollow, but contemplate the following hymn of the Orthodox Church:

Born of a Virgin, O Good One who also endured crucifixion for our sake, who by death took the spoils of death as plunder and showed resurrection, being God, O despise not the ones that You formed with Your own hand. Demonstrate Your love for man, O Lord of mercy, and accept Your Mother, the Theotokos, who intercedes on our behalf, O Savior, and save us a despairing people.

He who holds all things in His hand is lying in a feeding trough. He is preparing to go to the Cross, to suffer and to die so that we might have a path through the pain and the despair into the hope and joy of His Kingdom. I am always reminded that He knew me then, when He was born. He knew me when he went to the Cross. Despite this, He still went, for me and for you.

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

Merry Christmas

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men! — Luke 2:14

As a kind reminder (especially to myself) the peace offered today is not man's peace. It is not the peace we make by signing treaties or settling old feuds. The peace offered today is God's peace.

We all make war on God every day. We are the ones who opened fire. We are the ones who created the dividing wall between ourselves and God. We are the ones who chose darkness over the light.

Christ is born today in order to eradicate all of that. Sin has been forgiven. Death no longer has its sting. Only love and forgiveness remain, despite everything we are and everything we have done.

Today, Christ reminds us of everything He was willing to do in order to give us a path to His loving embrace.

Merry Christmas.

Happy St. Nick's!

The Real Santa Claus

One of the wonderful things about being an Orthodox Christian parent is that at this time of year I get to declare with full confidence that Santa Claus is real. Go read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas again. While the physical description may very well conform to our modern conception of the guy in the red suit, he is referred to as St. Nick.

In the Orthodox Church, St. Nicholas is held up to be the exemplar of what it means to be a bishop. Hymns are sung about him all year long and he is one of the most popular saints in the Orthodox world.

Many of the Christmas traditions associated with Santa Claus we have today are actually in memory of real events from this great bishop's life. For example, we hang stockings above the fireplace because he was know to sneak into the night to place gold into the stockings of those in need. Specifically, he overheard a poor man lament that his daughters would be better off as slaves because he had no dowery money to marry them off. To prevent this, St. Nicholas secretly provided those dowries by placing gold in the daughters' stockings as they were drying over the fire.

So, today on this the Feast of St. Nicholas, I wanted to share a cool dad moment related to St. Nick. Yesterday, as my eldest was confirming that we were going to celebrate a liturgy for the feast, she related to me her favorite story from the life of St. Nicholas: she smiled as she said, "When he slapped Arius!"

For those who don't know, Arius was the heretic that held that Christ was created and was the impetus for the First Ecumenical Council, of which St. Nicholas was an attendee. In an attempt to snap Arius out of his delusion, the great bishop tried to slap him back into his senses.

Can you tell we play D&D in this house?

Something Different

In the Orthodox Church, Advent begins on November 15th. While not as rigorous as Great Lent, it is still a time of fasting and prayer. (I highly recommend this approach, by the way, it radically reduces Christmas burnout and fatigue and I have found that over the years, Christmas has become one of my favorite holidays).Thus, during this period of the year, I do my best to live life a little more ascetically and spiritually. One way that I do that is to find a Church Father I have yet to read and take a deep dive.

This being the first Saturday of Advent, it occurred to me that I have not blogged in almost six months. Part of this was due to some personal health issues and the fact that I haven’t really been all that interested in or inspired to think about gaming. When I cracked open Volume 1 of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, however, I had a rather interesting thought: What if I used one of the letters found within that volume as source material for an FRPG world-build?

So, for the rest of Advent, I will endeavor to extrapolate an entire campaign idea from a letter written some 1700-1800 years ago. For those interested in the actual source material I will be using, you can find it online here:

The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus

Christ is Born!

Merry Christmas!

A great and paradoxal miracle has taken place today. A Virgin has given birth, and there is no damage to her womb. The Word becomes flesh, and He is not separated from the Father. Angels and Shepherds give glory, and we join them in shouting: "Glory in the highest to God, and on earth let there be peace." — Aposticha of Christmas

Christ is Born!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

O my soul, magnify her who is greater in honor and in glory than the armies of heaven.

I see here a strange and paradoxical mystery. For, behold, the grotto is heaven; cherubic throne is the Virgin; the manger a grand space in which Christ our God the uncontainable reclined as a babe; Whom in extolling do we magnify. — Ode IX of the First Canon of Christmas

Christ is Born!

Mary, why are you amazed and awed by what was done in you? And she answers, “For in time I have brought forth a timeless Son. But I have no understanding of His conception. Husbandless am I: how can I bear a son? Who has ever seen seedless childbirth? But where God wills, the order found in nature is overcome, as it is written.” So Christ was born from the Virgin Maiden, in Bethlehem of Judea. — Kathisma of the Nativity

He whom nothing can contain has been contained in a womb. He is in the Father’s bosom and His Mother’s embrace. How can this be, but as He knows and willed and was well pleased. Fleshless as He was, He willingly took flesh. And He Who Is became what He was not, for us. And while departing not from His own nature, He shared in our nature’s substance. So Christ was born with dual natures, wishing to replenish the world on high. — Kathisma of the Nativity

Here is to hoping and praying that this Christmas brings everyone many, many blessings. Merry Christmas.