Please read Chapter 4, "Christmas & Epiphany", in Myth and Ritual in Christianity, and take a look at the Candlemas page in our Church Calendar (nice pictures!)

Then answer the following questions and send to Bishop Katia at the Mystery School / Seminary with the subject line MythRitual Chapter 4 from _____________ (your spiritual or ecclesiastical name)

QUESTIONS

1.  According to St. Jerome, who were Mary’s parents, how long were they married before she was born, and how old was she when she was dedicated to the Temple at Jerusalem?

2.  What was the name of the Messenger of God who told her she would conceive and bring forth a Son, and should call his name Jesus?

3.  Precisely at ___________ there occurred the event which, for Christendom, marks the very _____ __ ____, and from which the years are numbered backward to the _________ and forward to the _____ ___ -- the entrance of eternal life being ever in that ______ which separates ____ and ______.

4.  In what century was the Feast of Christmas fixed and why?

5. Who represents both the Gentiles as well as the height of human wisdom and dignity? Who represents the Jews and the humble peasantry?

6. The rites of the Incarnation are governed by the ______ calendar, since they are connected with the Birth of the Sun, and so fall upon fixed dates.

7. The rites of Atonement, of Christ’s Death, Resurrection, and Ascension, are governed by the _____ calendar, for there is a figure of Death and Resurrection in the waning and waxing of the moon.

8. What three events all have to do with the beginnings of “the power and the Glory”?

9. What is another name for the Feast of the Purification on February 2nd?

10. The Dogma of the Incarnation, as fully formulated by the General Council of Chalcedon in A.D. 451, declares what?

11. Why is the Incarnation unique?

12. The notion of Jesus as the sole historical Incarnation was due to such a simple confusion as the application of the term “only-begotten Son” to Jesus as a man, whereas it refers strictly to the _______ ____ “________ ______ ___ ____”.

13. With the Incarnation, God "so united himself to us and us to him, that the descent of God to the human level was at the same time," what?
[+Katia inserts: This is an awesome idea to ponder, coupled with the knowledge humans are the only creatures that exist at the intersection of human and divine. We are each the rose in the middle of the cross.]

14. That which has been held "_______, __________, ___ __ ___"  is the one common realization, doctrine, and myth which has appeared with consistent unanimity in every great culture, without benefit of "__________ ________" between the various traditions.

 Myth & Ritual Lessons | Arch-Presvyter(a) Study Hall

Questions by Presvytera Ember, 2006, Modified by +Katia, 2010