Entering the Nativity Fast, November 15-December 24
This post comes from an email in the "Walk Through the Church Year" series which goes out to folks who sign up to receive two emails per month about major feasts and selected commemorations in the liturgical calendar. To receive these emails in your inbox, sign up here.
The original email was sent out in November of 2024.
by Brendan
The Lord Jesus is already present to us; but the grace of Advent allows us a more vivid, and quite new, awareness of this presence. Jesus is near us and in us. All the same, he makes himself known to us, during this period, as ‘He who comes,’ that is to say he makes himself known as wanting to be with us, and as if adapting us better to his intimacy. (1)
Nativity of Christ with Prophets, 14th century Tuscany, Italy; Through the readings and hymnography of the Church, the prophets accompany our waiting for the Lord Jesus in this season.
Composed of feasts and fasts, our church calendar calls us to remembrance and repentance, to turn away from a preoccupation with the world and toward the Incarnate Lord. While this is relevant every day, it seems particularly appropriate during the months of November and December. All too quickly their worldly frenzy and spectacle can easily overshadow or even substitute for the posture and practice of true worship. Whether by taking Christmas out of its sacred context or ignoring any need of repentance or preparation, either way empties the season of its meaning and power.
In her wisdom, the Church reminds us that it is impossible to truly feast without having first fasted. Thus, we are given the treasure of the Nativity (or Advent) Fast starting on November 15. Similar to Great Lent in the spring, its forty days provide a crucial time for remembrance and anticipation. It is an extended time of giving up specific foods and gaining the opportunity to cultivate a deeper understanding of a person’s true needs. Like other fasts, Nativity prepares the whole person–body, mind, and spirit–to more deeply understand and live out the truth of Christ’s Incarnation. Desires need time to be rightly ordered and sharpened in order to regain sensitivity and appreciation. Through these preparations, we have the opportunity to prepare our whole self for the coming of the King.
Left to Right: Nativity of Christ, 1700s Russia; Christ, Blessed Silence; Theotokos of the SIgn, 20th century Russia; this icon depicts the moment of her conception of Christ at the Annunciation. “Let it be done to me according to your will.” Luke 1:38
Moreover, it is a time for reconsidering one’s own journey through the context of Scripture. During its six weeks of readings and liturgies, the Nativity Fast leads the worshiper through the entire scope of human history. Each day, we are reminded of creation’s ‘very good’ beginning and our subsequent broken relationship with God. Each week’s chants and homilies retell the stories of God’s intervention throughout our history, linking us back to our Old Testament forefathers and saints who hungered for the Light “which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”
As the daylight (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) grows ever shorter, and the year wanes toward its end, the Nativity Fast appears as a bright star reminding us of the Already while simultaneously pointing toward the Not Yet. Its quiet, humble emphasis on repentance takes us back to the original coming of Immanuel, God-With-Us. Likewise, its hopeful anticipation directs us to the Second Coming and Christ’s eternal victory over our enemies.
Each of us, this year, right now, has the opportunity to respond, as the young Theotokos did to the Archangel Gabriel, “let it be done to me according to your will” (Luke 1:38). As a monk of the Eastern Church once noted,
“We are concerned with preparing in ourselves a dwelling for the God who is about to be born, and it is only through the Spirit that we can obtain this indwelling of God. I shall not be able to share in the blessing of Jesus Christ’s coming in the flesh if I do not first of all open my soul to the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” (2)
Whether this is your first Nativity Fast or the latest of many, each of us is invited to walk alongside the saints of old and our own local parish in this daily process of welcoming the King into our life once again, and forever more.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus! (Revelation 22:20)
(1) The Year of Grace of the Lord, By a Monk of the Eastern Church (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Press, 1971) 45.
(2) Ibid, 48.