Pints With Aquinas - The Baptism of the LORD is Bigger than Christmas | Mthr. Natalia

Episode Date: February 6, 2024

Mthr. Natalia tells us why in the Eastern Church Theophany is a larger celebration than the Nativity. She also tells us what this feast can teach us about Forgiveness and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. 🟣 Join Us on Locals (before we get banned on YT): https://mattfradd.locals.com/ 📖 Fr. Pine's Book: https://bit.ly/3lEsP8F 🖥️ Website: https://pintswithaquinas.com/ 🟢 Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/pintswithaquinas 👕 Merch: https://shop.pintswithaquinas.com 🚫 FREE 21 Day Detox From Porn Course: https://www.strive21.com/ 🔵 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattfradd 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattfradd We get a small kick back from affiliate links

Glory to Jesus Christ. I'm Mother Natalia, a Byzantine Catholic nun from Christ the Bridegroom Monastery, and this is Pines with Aquinas. I'd like to start by sharing with you a little bit about the Feast of Theophany. So in the East we have this celebration on January 6th, and it's the celebration of the baptism of our Lord in the Jordan by St. John the Baptist. And the feast itself is on January 6th, but we have this pre-festive period starting January 2nd. And after the feast, we have a post-festive period that goes until January 14th because Byzantines basically just like to make everything longer.

And so we have a ton of prayers about the theophany in this time period. We're actually, as I'm recording this, though not as this comes out, we're still in this post-festive period. So I'm still kind of in the midst of just being surrounded by all of these prayers at all of our services about the Lord's baptism.

Something that I think is really interesting about this feast is there's a much greater celebration than there is for the Feast of the Nativity or for Christmas. And you know as Catholics I think we just kind of have our minds focused on Christmas and Easter, but, actually we spend way more hours in the chapel for the Feast of Theophany at the monastery and in the Byzantine tradition. And there is this what's called the great blessing of water, which is more than a regular blessing of water, I guess. And it takes, I don't know, like 30 or 40 minutes. And then every year for

theophany, we go around the tradition as you have your house blessed. So we have our monastery blessed and our chapel blessed and so on and so forth. And the tradition is you would also bless the closest body of water. So in theory, if every parish is blessing the closest body of water, then all of the bodies of water will be blessed. So anyways, this celebration is greater than the Feast of Nativity in our tradition. One of the one of the hymns that we have on January 2nd says, Radiant was the feast that has just passed, meaning the Nativity. But more brilliant, O Savior, is the one approaching. Before the star proclaimed to the Magi, now the Father shows you to the world." So in a homily

that a priest gave here at the monastery recently, he was talking about this, about what happens at the Feast of the Nativity versus what happens in the Feast of Theophany. And he said, you know, at the Feast of the Nativity, we're invited into the Holy Family. We're invited into the participation of this family of Mary and Joseph and Jesus, and that's this beautiful invitation. But at theophany, we're invited into the family of the Trinity, which is really what the Holy Family is directing us towards, right? These familial relationships are meant to be an icon of the Trinity. And so at the theophany, at the baptism of our Lord, we hear the Father's voice, we see the

Spirit descend in the form of a dove, and we see the Son, the second person of the Trinity, baptized in the Jordan. And so we're invited into this this trinitarian relationship. We're invited into this relationship. On Theophany Eve, which is when we have that great water blessing, we hear this beautiful prayer earlier in the day. this beautiful prayer earlier in the day. The Lord spoke these words to John. Now what you're about to hear is not directly from scripture, it's not the literal words

that we know Jesus spoke to John, but this is what fathers of the church, what hymnographers have prayerfully written to compose the prayers of our liturgical services. The Lord spoke these words to John. your hand on my head and do not doubt. O Prophet, allow it to be this way for now, for I have come to fulfill all justice. Cast away all your doubt, for I hasten to put to death the Prince of Darkness, the enemy who hides in the waters, so that I may release from the world from his hold and grant eternal

life in my love for all." I love the fervor with which the Lord speaks in these words that have been prayerfully written. And I love this theme of light. Part of what I love so much about the Feast of Theophany and also about the first epistle of St. John and St. John's Gospel is there's just this beautiful theme of light. In this prayer, the enemy who hides in the waters." I think that there's really something about, there's something about this enlightenment from the Lord that we all so badly need to hear.

There have been a lot of places in my life recently where I've realized that there's this deep shame that I've been holding on to for many years. And the shame has been over things that I haven't even articulated to myself. So I didn't know that I was ashamed of them. I didn't know that I had these thought patterns. I didn't know that I believed these lies about myself. But as I've come to learn those things things to recognize them in my life, I started to speak them to my spiritual father and my spiritual mother and in confession. And there's just been such a beauty in bringing those things to the light and such a healing of shame. You know, when we, especially in confession, I think a lot of people don't realize that in the Catechism, the sacraments of confession of penance is listed as one of the sacraments of healing. We're meant to go to confession not to simply say, here's this list of bad things I've done.

Now tell me my punishment so that I can move on with life. The point of confession is to say, I'm here because I'm broken and I need healing. To say, there's this place of darkness in my life and in my heart. There's this brokenness that I need you Lord as the divine physician to enter into, to enlighten, to heal. And there's so much power in saying those things out loud. There's also this gift of just when we're willing to say things out loud and acknowledge the reality, there's so much possibility for revelation. I had a conversation recently with someone who I'm close to who he and I We had just like we were both really upset with each other over something that the other had said and For a while for months we were just like not talking about this and kind of pretending like everything was okay. And then finally

I was okay. And then finally, I said to him, look, this thing that you said is so painful. And he was like, interesting, because this thing that you said was also so painful. And then now that it had been out in the open, and we were talking about it, we were each each able to explain to the other what we actually meant when we said that thing. And it turned out that both of us were completely misunderstanding the intentions of the other. And we were able to resolve this and to come to more fully understand each other and to realize that actually we'd both been upset over something imaginary for months because we just hadn't admitted that it was there. And I think something similar can happen when we're willing to bring things to the Lord, when we're willing to actually acknowledge there's this thing in my heart or there's this sin, there's this place of darkness that I want to actually share with you. And what can happen there is the Lord can use that to reveal to us a deeper truth about ourselves. We can come to know ourselves better because this is always the point in prayer in

bringing these things is is that the point in prayer, in bringing these things, is that the Lord wants deeper relationship with us. He doesn't want us to realize these places of sin or these places of darkness because He wants to shame us. The Lord doesn't want to shame you. He brings this because He wants us to understand ourselves better and enter more deeply into relationship with him. On Theophany itself, we have this prayer for Vespers, that evening prayer. You have descended into the waters and given light to all things, that they may glorify you, O Savior, the enlightenment of our souls." We say in this prayer that the reason that Jesus enters in and gives light is so that we can glorify Him.

It's all about relationship. It's all about giving the glory to Him. But I think usually we think it's about shame. But it's just the opposite of that. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Heavenly Father, I thank you for the gift of the incarnation of your Son. I thank you for the gift of the incarnation of your Son. I thank you for the gift of His baptism in the Jordan. I thank you for the gift of the enlightenment that He brings to the world, the light that you send into the world to dispel darkness, to put to death the Prince of Darkness, the enemy who hides in the waters. I ask that

you grant to myself and to all who are listening to this the courage to open to you those dark places, the places that we feel the most shame. Help us to allow those to be opportunities for encounter with you and your son and your spirit, opportunities to enter more fully into relationship with all of you with the Trinity. I ask that you cast out any shame, any shame that we may walk in the light and glorify you. I ask this through the prayers of St. Nathaniel, St. John the Baptist, Saint Fotina, Saint Thomas Aquinas, the Most Holy Theotokos and all the Saints. Amen. In the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.