"What can we offer you, Oh Christ..."

“What can we offer you, Oh Christ, which would be worthy of your gifts…” wonders the psalmist in the vespers of Christmas Eve. The poet presents all creatures associated with the Birth of Christ in a unique way, offering their “gifts” of thanksgiving and gratitude to the God-Man, each according to their own ability and in their own way.

Everything participates in divine worship and everything is sanctified by it. Nature provides the materials and man devoutly dedicates everything to God in praise: the space, the materials, the buildings, the ritualistic utensils, the artistic decoration. Within the Church, the faithful believer lives by and participates in this process.

This section attempts to present this partnership of all Creation and its mystical conversation with God, through a number of ecclesiastical objects, which are thematically separated according to the natural materials with which they are associated and their liturgical use, into five separate sub-sections: Holy Myrrh, Beeswax, Oil, Incense, Wheat and Wine.