وجبـــــــة روحيـــــ(†)ــــــــــة يوميـــــــــة

[Mary Naeem]

The Nativity of the Son and Word of God is the fulfillment of Divine Promise given in the Garden of Delight concerning man’s salvation, and which begins with the birth at Bethlehem and leads to the Crucifixion on Golgotha, the glorious Resurrection, the Ascension in Heaven and the Enthronement on the right hand of God the Father. Through this Divine Economia, the Son and Word of God ended the rule of Satan who held mankind under the bondage and tyranny of death. Christ grants to all those who will believe in Him eternal Life.
Christ’s Nativity gave to mankind the Light of the True Knowledge of God. Man, free from the darkness of not knowing God, can know the True God through the Light of the Holy Gospel and His Holy Orthodox Church. Freed from the falsehood of idolatry, man is able to worship the One and Only True God, the Holy Trinity. He knows the way, which leads him to conquer virtues and holiness. As a free person, man can walk on the path of salvation.

[Mary Naeem]

God leaves Heaven and comes down on earth. He becomes a perfect Man, in order to raise man to the heights of the Deity. The One Who is without flesh, takes up flesh. The One Who is Bodiless, receives body. He, Who cannot be contended by the Universe, is restricted in the boundaries of human nature, and simultaneously fills all things with His Presence.

[Mary Naeem]

God and Man. Two Natures and two Wills, which remain unmixed and unconfused, united in the One Person of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
“And the Word became flesh”, not that man became god, neither that man ascended into Heaven, but that God the Word out of love towards man took up all the human nature in order to sanctify and save it. God the Word, with His birth, overcame sin and freed mankind from mortality and death. Without this Divine Economia, no one could have inherited the eternal Kingdom of God.
God the Word reveals Himself to man and invites everyone to become a member of His Kingdom. He invites all men to enter through the narrow path. He does not want anyone to be lost. Everyone can become ‘sons’ of God by adoption and Grace and co-heirs of Christ.

[Mary Naeem]

The Nativity of our Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ, the Incarnated Son and Word of God the Father, addresses us, today and sends us an important message and one special invitation:
Let us follow the Star, which guides us to Bethlehem of Judaea. Let us kneel with the humble shepherds before the Creator of all. Let us become co-travelers with the three Magi and let us offer to the Divine Infant our tears of repentance. Let us open our hearts and souls in order to welcome within us the Divine Infant which was born by the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary. Let us abandon the sinful pleasures of this world of vanity. Let us receive with the simplicity of our hearts the angelic message, that “today a Saviour has been born, who is the Lord Christ” and let us sing “glory to God in the highest and on earth peace amongst men according to God’s Good Will”. Amen

[Mary Naeem]

The beginning of an essay penned by Bob Black in 1985 entitled “The Abolition of Work” read, “No one should ever work. Work is the source of nearly all the misery in the world. Almost any evil you’d care to name comes from working or from living in a world designed for work. In order to stop suffering, we have to stop working.” In a leisure-loving culture, many would wholeheartedly echo Black’s sentiment. Americans spend approximately 50 percent of their waking hours devoted to work. Is work a curse, or is it something that humans were uniquely designed to do? In stark contrast to the assertions of Bob Black, the significance and beneficial nature of work is a resounding theme in the Bible.

[Mary Naeem]

The origin of work is depicted in the book of Genesis. In the opening passage, God is the primary worker, busy with the creation of the world (Genesis 1:1-15). The Bible states that God worked for six days and rested on the seventh day. These passages reveal that God was the first to do work on the earth. Therefore, legitimate work reflects the activity of God. Because God is inherently good, work is also inherently good (Psalm 25:8; Ephesians 4:28). Furthermore, Genesis 1:31 declares that, when God viewed the fruit of His labor, He called it “very good.” God examined and assessed the quality of His work, and when He determined that He had done a good job, He took pleasure in the outcome. By this example, it is apparent that work should be productive. Work should be conducted in a way that produces the highest quality outcome. The reward for work is the honor and satisfaction that comes from a job well done.

[Mary Naeem]

Psalm 19 says that God reveals Himself to the world by His work. Through natural revelation, God’s existence is made known to every person on earth. Thus, work reveals something about the one doing the work. It exposes underlying character, motivations, skills, abilities, and personality traits. Jesus echoed this principle in Matthew 7:15-20 when He declared that bad trees produce only bad fruit and good trees only good fruit. Isaiah 43:7 indicates that God created man for His own glory. In 1 Corinthians 10:31 we read that whatever we do should be to His glory. The term glorify means “to give an accurate representation.” Therefore, work done by Christians should give the world an accurate picture of God in righteousness, faithfulness, and excellence.

[Mary Naeem]

God created man in His image with characteristics like Him (Genesis 1:26-31). He created man to work with Him in the world. God planted a garden and put Adam in it to cultivate and maintain it (Genesis 2:8, 15). Additionally, Adam and Eve were to subdue and rule over the earth. What does this original work mandate mean? To cultivate means to foster growth and to improve. To maintain means to preserve from failure or decline. To subdue means to exercise control and discipline. Rule over means to administer, take responsibility for, and make decisions. This mandate applies to all vocations. The 15th-century Reformation leaders saw an occupation as a ministry before God. Jobs should be acknowledged as ministries, and workplaces should be considered as mission fields.

[Mary Naeem]

The Fall of Man depicted in Genesis 3 generated a change in the nature of work. In response to Adam’s sin, God pronounced several judgments in Genesis 3:17-19, the most severe of which is death. However, labor and the results of labor figure centrally in the rest of the judgments. God cursed the ground. Work became difficult. The word toil is used, implying challenge, difficulty, exhaustion, and struggle. Work itself was still good, but man must expect that it will be accomplished by “the sweat of his brow.” Also, the result will not always be positive. Although man will eat the plants of the field, the field will also produce thorns and thistles. Hard work and effort will not always be rewarded in the way the laborer expects or desires.

[Mary Naeem]

It is also noted that man would be eating from the produce of the field, not the garden. A garden is symbolic of an earthly paradise made by God as a safe enclosure. Gardens also symbolize purity and innocence. The earth or field, on the other hand, represents an unbounded, unprotected space and an emphasis on loss of inhibition and worldliness. Therefore, the work environment can be hostile, especially to Christians (Genesis 39:1-23; Exodus 1:8-22; Nehemiah 4).