A Child of The Slave or A Child of The Free

It's easy to reduce my Faith to a set of mindless practices and live on the fumes of nostalgia. But Orthodoxy calls me to a vibrant and purposeful Faith that sets me free!

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It’s always so fascinating to me to see the wisdom of the Orthodox Church year. Here we are approaching the birth of the Messiah, the God-Man, the Savior of the World, and today we celebrate the miraculous Conception of the Theotokos by St. Anna, her mother. Of course, you know this story. It is a familiar one to anyone who has read the Old Testament: An elderly couple has never been blessed with children, and they pray to God over and over again to give them children, and God finally answers “yes” when it would be a miracle for a woman to conceive at an older age.

Every time this happened in the Old Testament, it heralded a great person's birth! And here it is happening again. St. Anna conceived the child who would one day be visited by the Archangel Gabriel and told she would conceive and bear the Logos, the Word of God, the Messiah expected for thousands of years.

Today, we celebrate St. Anna's miraculous conception with a powerful sermon from St. Paul inviting us to leave the slavery of fallen worldly passions for the freedom of life in Christ! What a powerful lesson as we approach the celebration of Christmas.

You are today either living like the child of the slave woman or the child of the free woman.