Ornament - Stone Tablets
Materials - Oven-hardening clay, tooth pick, twine
Read Exodus 24:12-18
The Royal Hours of the Nativity, Epistle of Paul to the Galatians (3:23-29)
Before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be
revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified
by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children
of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on
Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female:
for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according
to the promise.
(Vespers of 13th Sunday after Pentecost)
O Christ God, Who once on Mount Sinai didst inscribe the tablets, now in the flesh in the city of
Nazareth Thou hast Thyself received the book of the prophet to read of God, and, unrolling it,
Thou didst teach the people so as to fulfill that which was written concerning Thee.
-St. Ephraim the Syrian
Great misery exists where life is not guided by lawful rules.
-St. John of Kronstadt (My Life in Christ, Part 1; Holy Trinity Monastery; pgs. 33-34)
Begin to fulfill the commandments relating to small things, and you will come to fulfill the
commandments relating to great things: small commandments everywhere lead to great ones.
-St. Maximus the Confessor, Century 1
He that loves Me, saith the Lord, will keep My commandments; and 'this is My commandment, that
you love one another.' He therefore who does not love his neighbor does not keep the commandment.
Nor is he that does not keep the commandment able to love the Lord.
-St. Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Moses
The true Lawgiver, of Whom Moses was a type, cut the tablets of human nature for Himself from our
earth. It was not marriage which produced for Him His 'God-receiving" flesh, but He became the
stonecutter of His own flesh, which was carved by the divine finger, for 'the Holy Spirit came upon the
Virgin and the power of the Most High overshadowed her.' When this took place, our nature regained
its unbroken character, becoming immortal through the letters written by His finger. The Holy Spirit is
called 'finger" in many places by Scripture.
See also Law of God, Sacred History Chapter 27, God Gives the Law on Mt. Sinai,
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