Day 1 · The Nativity Fast
The Fast Begins
“I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”Genesis 3:15
Reflection
Today the Nativity Fast begins: forty days of preparing for the birth of Christ. It is also called the Christmas Fast, or the Fast of St Philip, because it begins the day after his feast. We start where the Bible's story of hope starts, in the garden, just after the fall. Even as God names the consequences of sin, he makes a promise: the woman's offspring will bruise the serpent's head. Christians have long called this verse the “first gospel.” Everything we will read in these forty days unfolds from this one promise, kept at last in Bethlehem.
A prayer
Lord God, from the very beginning you did not abandon us. Even when we turned away, you promised a Saviour. As this Fast begins, open my heart to receive him. Help me to fast with humility and joy, to pray more, and to love more, so that I may greet your Son with a clean heart. Amen.
Carry this with you
What one simple practice will you keep during these forty days?