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Dear Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I greet you with great joy and love in the Name of our Incarnate Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as we celebrate the Feast Day of His Nativity. It is a day when once again the compassion and mercy of God is revealed to us. I give thanks to Almighty God by whose grace we have been given the opportunity to celebrate the Birth of His Son. We joyfully sing, “God is with us”, remembering all that has been done for us on this great day when God entered the world as one of us, born as a little baby to save mankind!
As we seek reconciliation with God and with each other, we realize the battle that rages between mind and heart, knowledge and faith, secular society and the Church. Today every family has to find its way to live an authentic Orthodox life in a secular sometimes hostile world. Although our modern society does not recognize, and is even antagonistic to the religious meaning and significance of the season, it has gotten into the habit of celebrating what we might call a worldly or secular Christmas, especially in a commercial or materialistic way. So the season of frantic “busyness” and commercialism takes a spiritual toll on all of us..
