Holy Nativity, Matins and Liturgy

On the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, Fr. Nicholas Frazer explains why the Church fought for the holy icons: because the Son of God truly became man. Drawing on St. Paul's warning against empty quarrels and Christ's prayer that His disciples may be one, he asks whether our Orthodoxy bears fruit — in humility, communion, repentance and love.

Drawing on C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce, Sub Dn. Timothy Grace explores the abundant life God offers us through the day's two readings. From St. Paul he draws the law of sowing and reaping: God loves a cheerful giver, and what we give freely bears fruit for eternity. From the Gospel comes the harder, supernatural call to love our enemies without discrimination — not a loss, he shows, but the path to true freedom, embodied by Christ on the Cross.