The Office of Vigils: The Gospel

The Office of Vigils in the Western Orthodox tradition is a core part of the celebration of the Nativity of the Lord, and is prayed immediately prior to the Divine Liturgy offered on Christmas Eve.
There is not usually a reading from the Gospel at Vigils. However, on this night, we hear the Prologue to St John's Gospel (John 1: 1-14), focusing not on the practical details of the Nativity of the Lord but rather on the theological significance of the great mystery that we celebrate at Christmas: the Word, the eternal Logos, Who was before time began, entered the physical world. He became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
This Gospel reading is chanted here to a common Russian chant, as an homage to the restoration of the Western Orthodox tradition by the Russian church in the 1930s. This "rising from the grave" chant fits well the climactic nature of the message of this Gospel passage.