Blessed are you, O Maiden; blest The fruit which dwells within your womb, Beloved in that holy rest Whose secret comes to sacred bloom. And blessed is this virgin birth Which shall uproot sin from the earth.
Who grants this favor to me now, That you should come, O Blessed One, Bearing the great who is made low? By his own will this thing is done. The mother of a king, and yet, It’s at my wooden door we’ve met.
Let every mouth speak out your praise, And all the seraphim stand shaken. Your womb contains the brilliant rays That from a living flame shall waken This world, whose sleep in sin-black night Gives way before new life and light.
The gardener who clears the thorns; A lion’s cub whose jaws shall roar Louder than all of Joshua’s horns, And drive all craven wolves before: Such is the sun that all shall see Arise from you as from the sea.
But who am I that you should come Bearing the one who made the world, Who is its savior and its sum, And yet within you now lies curled? I am unfit, Ancient of Days, To welcome you or speak your praise.
But, Lady blest and full of grace, I see your beauty and rejoice; The radiant flush upon your face, A living water in your voice, Disclosing what alone you know, That light and word within you grow.
No angel spoke this truth to me, But he who grows within me stirred The moment that my eyes could see You, still far off, and my ears heard Your call, as down the hill you came, Bearing that secret, ancient flame.
Seraph – Fresco by Theophanes the Greek, 14th century
From the Akathist to Jesus Conqueror of Death, composed by St. Nikolai Velimirovich on Pascha 1923 — Kontakion Nine, “The Choir of Seraphim”:
“We are the first light of Thy light and the first song of Thy voice; all the angels’ tongues together cannot express the glory and light of the seraphim, just as we seraphim cannot express Thy glory and radiance, Thou only begotten One, Beloved of the Father and the Holy Spirit. Among seraphim Thou art Seraph, among cherubim Thou art Cherub, among angels Thou art Angel, among men Thou art Man. Thou art all in all; and since Thou art all in all, Thou art servant of all and Lord of all; therefore, we who rule countless worlds below us serve in humility amid the unburning flame of the Divinity of the Trinity, carrying Thy love downward to Thy creature and the love of the creatures upward to Thee, singing the triumphant hymn: Alleluia.”
Last year for the Feast of Archangel Michael and the Other Bodiless Powers, I shared the songs that St. Nikolai gives to the Angels and Archangels. But I’m not sure I’ve posted a link to this article before: “The Divinely-Revealed Appearance of Angels in Icons.” It is so full of the mystery and glory of angels, as they reveal God’s great love toward us, that my heart was near to bursting from considering a small part of it.
This is a good day to join with cherubim, seraphim,
and all the ranks of angels as they sing
praises to the Holy Trinity.
This year in my parish the birthday of St. John the Baptist, June 24th, falls on Holy Spirit Day, and our youth are also heading off to church camp, so I wasn’t paying close enough attention. Ideally I’d have shared about it last night, on St. John’s Eve, because this year that is the day that has captured my imagination.
Father Malcolm Guite has written more than one sonnet for the celebration of St. John’s Day, the birth of St. John the Baptist. Here is one of them, prefaced by his notes on the feast:
“Now, with the summer solstice, we have come to midsummer and the traditional Church festival for this beautiful, long-lit solstice season is the Feast of St. John the Baptist, which falls on June 24th, which was midsummer day in the old Roman Calendar. Luke tells us that John the Baptist was born about 6 months before Jesus, so this feast falls half way through the year, 6 months before Christmas!
“The tradition of keeping St. John’s Eve with the lighting of Bonfires and Beacons is very ancient, almost certainly pre-Christian, but in my view it is very fitting that it has become part of a Christian festivity. Christ keeps and fulfills all that was best in the old pagan forshadowings of his coming and this Midsummer festival of light is no exception. John was sent as a witness to the light that was coming into the world, and John wanted to point to that light, not stand in its way, hence his beautiful saying ‘He must increase and I must diminish’, a good watchword for all of those who are, as the prayer book calls us, the ‘ministers and stewards of his mysteries’.”
Midsummer Eve Bonfire – Nikolai Astrup
ST. JOHN’S EVE
Midsummer night, and bonfires on the hill Burn for the man who makes way for the Light: ‘He must increase and I diminish still, Until his sun illuminates my night.’ So John the Baptist pioneers our path, Unfolds the essence of the life of prayer, Unlatches the last doorway into faith, And makes one inner space an everywhere. Least of the new and greatest of the old, Orpheus on the threshold with his lyre, He sets himself aside, and cries “Behold The One who stands amongst you comes with fire!” So keep his fires burning through this night, Beacons and gateways for the child of light.
I just now figured out from this Wikipedia entry the source of the word bonfire:
“In England, the earliest reference to this custom occurs in the 13th century AD, in the Liber Memorandum of the parish church at Barnwell in the Nene Valley, which stated that parish youth would gather on the day to light fires, sing songs and play games. A Christian monk of Lilleshall Abbey, in the same century, wrote:
“‘In the worship of St John, men waken at even, and maken three manner of fires: one is clean bones and no wood, and is called a bonfire; another is of clean wood and no bones, and is called a wakefire, for men sitteth and wake by it; the third is made of bones and wood, and is called St John’s Fire.'”
The summer solstice always marks in my mind the beginning of summer, so I’m out of sync with the ancients who called it Midsummer…. even though the other end of the year does seem like Midwinter. Where I am, the heat is just now escalating, and definitely not at its peak, and for that reason I think my personal date for Midsummer would be sometime in July or August. When I get that certain feeling, I’ll let you know what date I choose.
Jules Breton – Midsummer Night Dance in Courrires
Only recently did I learn about St. John’s Eve celebrations at all. [Update: see the video link from Lisa in the comments below, for much more history of the day.] Some online Christian friends in England and Ireland gathered around bonfires last night — while I in California was still at church celebrating Pentecost. I doubt I will ever be able to join such festivities over there… maybe I should try to rouse interest in planning a West Coast Midsummer Fest for 2025. Does that sound fun to you? And do you feel that where you are, it is truly Midsummer — or Midwinter?
The Sun — Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo
(If you enjoy the sonnets from Malcolm Guite, remember that most of them have been published in his several collections. The one here can be found in Sounding the Seasons, his cycle of seventy sonnets for the Church Year.)
This year in my parish the birthday of St. John the Baptist, June 24th, falls on Holy Spirit Day, and our youth are also heading off to church camp, so I wasn’t paying close enough attention. Ideally I’d have shared about it last night, on St. John’s Eve, because this year that is the day that has captured my imagination.
Gladsome Lights 