Commontide
Liturgical Color: White/Gold
The 4th Sunday in Advent
Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and as we are sorely hindered by our sins from running the race that is set before us, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
Advent
Because you sent your beloved Son to redeem us from sin and death, and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life; that when he shall come again in power and great glory to judge the world, we may without shame or fear rejoice to behold his appearing.
Most liturgical texts are from the Book of Common Prayer (2019) of the Anglican Church in North America.
The New Coverdale Psalter, © 2019 by the Anglican Church in North America. Used by permission.
Red Letter Day
The feast of the birth of Jesus Christ at Bethlehem. Kept on December 25 at Rome by the mid-fourth century, the earliest surviving witness being a calendar entry of 354 reflecting a practice usually traced to the 330s, and carried east city by city over the following century, reaching Constantinople about 380 and Antioch by 386. Scripture gives no date for the birth itself.
The Nativity is narrated in two complementary Gospel accounts. Luke (2:1-20) places the birth in Bethlehem during a census ordered by Augustus, when Joseph and Mary traveled from Nazareth. Finding no room in the lodging place, Mary gave birth and laid the infant in a manger. Shepherds watching their flocks by night received the angelic announcement — 'To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord' — and came to see the child. Matthew (1:18-2:12) focuses on Joseph's dream, the visit of the Magi, and the flight to Egypt.
The December 25 date appears first in the Roman Chronograph of 354, reflecting practice from approximately 336 CE. The Calculation Hypothesis — that early Christians believed Jesus was conceived and died on the same date (March 25, the spring equinox), placing birth nine months later — is attested in Hippolytus and Sextus Julius Africanus (c. 221). The Sol Invictus theory, once popular, is now questioned by recent scholarship (Hijmans) since the pagan festival may not have been fixed to December 25 before the Christian celebration.
The feast spread from Rome: Constantinople adopted it by 379, Antioch by 386 (Chrysostom's homily defending the date notes it was a recent Western import), and Jerusalem not until the sixth century, having retained January 6 longer. By the early fifth century, December 25 was normative across Christendom.
The liturgical celebration unfolds across multiple services. Egeria (381-384) describes a midnight vigil at Bethlehem — the earliest recorded midnight Mass. Pope Leo I (c. 440) established the Roman pattern of three Masses: midnight, dawn, and midday, each with distinctive readings. The Christmas octave extends the celebration for eight days.
The midnight birth tradition — that Christ was born at the darkest hour of the longest night — is ancient though not scriptural. The ox and ass at the manger derive not from the Gospels but from Isaiah 1:3 ('The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib') and appear in Christian art from at least the fourth century. The cave tradition (rather than a wooden stable) comes from Justin Martyr (Dialogue with Trypho 78, c. 160) and the Protoevangelium of James, and is reflected in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, built over a cave. Archaeological evidence supports continuous veneration at this site from at least the fourth century.