Old Calendar Theophany

When You, O Lord were baptized in the Jordan
The worship of the Trinity was made manifest
For the voice of the Father bore witness to You
And called You His beloved Son.
And the Spirit, in the form of a dove,
Confirmed the truthfulness of His word.
O Christ, our God, You have revealed Yourself
And have enlightened the world, glory to You!

The Orthodox Church unfortunately follows two calendars, the Julian (Old Calendar) and the Gregorian (New Calendar). All of us follow the Old Calendar when it comes to Easter (Pascha), because despite disagreements within the Church about which calendar to use, we all want to celebrate the Lord's resurrection together. So Pascha and all the time leading up to it, Sarakostí (Lent), and all the time after it up to Pendekostí (Pentecost) are on the Old Calendar. The rest of the year, Orthodox churches in the Western World (Greek mainly, and American Orthodox in the lower 48) follow the New Calendar (the standard calendar reformed during the pontificate of Pope Gregory XIII) so as to be in line with the rest of Christendom. There are now 13 days between the Old and New Calendars, so Theophany (January 6) is observed on January 19 in terms of the standard calendar. Numerically speaking, more Orthodox Christians follow the Old Calendar, and most of the monasteries on Mount Athos use it also. There may be a very good reason for doing so. Two public miracles happen regularly every year in the land of Israel on Old Calendar dates: Pascha (Easter) and Theophany (January 6, but 19 as the world reckons it).

I have known about the public miracle that occurs on Pascha for many years: God sends a mysterious "fire" (phos, in Greek) in the Church of the Resurrection's kouvouklion (the actual tomb of Jesus, inside the church), which lights two bundles of candles that the patriarch takes with him into the tomb. He is searched ahead of time, and so is the tomb, by Israeli authorities, to make sure that there is nothing on him or in the kouvouklion that can be used to make fire. Then the patriarch is sealed into the tomb. After he prays, he waits until the fire appears and lights the candles, which he shoves through two apertures in the wall to worshippers waiting outside. When the Latins (Roman Catholics) took over the church during the Crusades and ejected the Orthodox patriarch, they tried to obtain this "holy fire" but were unable to. In the end they decided that the fire must be some kind of Greek trickery, and left it at that. The fire only appears on Orthodox Easter, except in those years when Orthodox and Western Easter fall on the same day. More about this miracle can be learned at this site.

The other public miracle, I think I heard tell from a Greek priest once, but I forgot all about it until today, when I noticed this post on Fr Milovan's blog, Again and Again. This miracle is the reversal of the flow of water in the Jordan River every year during the Great Blessing of the Waters that takes place on Old Calendar Theophany. Someone correct me if I'm wrong about this, but it seems that this happens only on Old Calendar January 6. As I wrote earlier, this gives one pause to consider whether there is something to the Old Calendar, or at least what it represents, after all. You can see a video of this miracle (or phenomenon, for those who don't believe in miracles) and read about it, by going to Fr Milovan's post, The Jordan Reversed Its Flow!

I just wanted to share this with my brother Christians, as another testimony that Jesus Christ is among still, just as He said He would be, ‘till the end of the age.’

Glory be to Him, to His Father and to the Holy Spirit. Amen.