Welcome to this first issue of Fr. Ron’s Blog in A.D. 2025. This Sunday, January 5th, has multiple distinctions. It is a) the eve of Epiphany, b) the First Sunday after Christmas and c) the Twelfth Day of Christmas. All twelve episodes of our video series, The Twelve Days of Christmas, are linked from the Welcome page and the Digital Library page. Podcast versions are linked from the Podcast Archive page.
In this week’s Blog post I discuss the Collect, Epistle and Gospel readings for this final Sunday in Christmastide, reserving discussion of Epiphany season, which begins on Monday, Jan. 6th, for next week’s post. My podcast homily for First Sunday after Christmas is linked from the Podcast Homilies page.
The Collect for First Sunday after Christmas Day in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer is not one which Archbishop Cranmer adapted from a Roman Catholic sacramentary. An original composition by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer for the 1549 Book of Common Prayer, it is the same Collect printed as the first of two Collects for Christmas Day. Scholars theorize that this unusual duplicate usage was intended to increase the likelihood that it would be read at least once during the busy Christmas season. The Collect expresses many concepts which are central to Anglican theology. My choice of illustrations from Christian art is one of my personal favorites. I use it on my new Mac Book Pro in the “Start” page.
ALMIGHTY GOD, who hast given us thy only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him,
and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin; Grant that we being regenerate,
and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy Holy Spirit;
through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit ever,
one God, world without end. Amen.
This image of the Nativity mosaic was used as Illustration No. 8 focused on “Angels in the Nativity Accounts,” in the AIC Bookstore Publication, Christmastide: The Nativity of Our Lord, available using the links to my Amazon Author Central page. It also appears in the AIC Video series, The Twelve Days of Christmas, in the episode for First Day of Christmas – Dec. 25th (linked from the Welcome and Digital Library pages).
The Epistle reading, Galatians 4:1-7, is an essay by St. Paul’s on the theological concept of sonship and adoption by grace to which Archbishop Cranmer referred in the Collect for the occasion. After alluding to the context of these events being part of God the Father’s plan (“In the fulness of time”), St. Paul wrote in verses 4b and 5: “God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive adoption as sons.”
The Gospel lesson, Matthew 1:18-25, is St. Matthew’s account of the Nativity of Christ, one of the sources for the mosaic shown above. The account follows St. Matthew’s genealogy flowing through the mostly male line of Jewish kings and includes his account of the angelic dream in which St. Joseph was reassured concerning the Blessed Virgin Mary and emphasizes St. Matthew’s theme of the life of Christ as fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. I discuss and illustrate all three dream sequences of Matthew in Part Three, Christmas: The Nativity of Our Lord, available using the link to my Amazon Author Central page.
As always, thank you for your interest and support. Glory be to God for all things.
Anglican Internet Church 
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