Christ is Born!

Congratulations to all of you in this great diaspora of the Russian people. 
This diaspora carries in itself a deep meaning of the providence of God. The Lord desired to spread the true faith of Christ over the whole globe with us, the unworthy and sinful.  It is not appropriate for the Truth to be
hidden in dark alleys, for the whole earth and all who live on it belong to
Her (the Truth – transl.).  By now all the nations say and write, willingly or not, that we live in the year 2003 from the Birth of Christ and not any other way.

Do not forget, dear brothers and sisters, that even more has been given to us, because we have an opportunity to partake the true Body and the true Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ at every Divine Liturgy.  By this we are made God-like, we become related to Christ.

The greatest miracle of all miracles happens during a Divine Liturgy; bread is transformed into the Body of Christ and red wine is transformed into the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ through our prayer and we all partake of these great Mysteries.  Let us then remember how good we feel!  To say the truth, we cannot even describe with words what we feel at that moment, only the Lord knows.  Amen.

+Metropolitan Vitaliy

Christ is born! Glorify Him!

Beloved in Christ, brothers and sisters!

Our Great Orthodox Feasts are mysteries of the grace of God, for every feast the Lord grants a special grace-filled gift to a believing soul.  You all
know what an indescribable gift of bright spiritual joy is given by the Lord
to a Christian in the Bright Paschal night.  And on the feast of the Nativity of Christ the Saviour grants a special gift of inner peace and joyous divine calmness to every sincerely believing and humble soul.  We hear about this in the good tidings of the angels when holy bodiless hosts sung on the blessed night of the Nativity: «Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will among men» (Lk. 2, 14).

Peace on earth may very, but the true peace is given by the Lord Himself – it is a spiritual peace, peace between man and God, and one’s neighbors, peace with one’s conscience, which can neither be bribed nor fooled, which always convicts for committed sins.  Our Lord Jesus Christ said to his disciples, while saying goodbye to them at the Last Supper: «Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you». And right away He commented: «not as the world giveth, give I unto you» (Jn. 14, 27).  Peace, which can be given by the «world (which) lieth in wickedness», is not the peace of Christ.  The Lord said for all times about this peace, which in its basis has a denial of Truth or indifference towards Her (the Truth – transl.), compromises with falsehood and even often persecution of Christ’s followers: «Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword» (Mt. 10, 34).  And, according to another Gospel, He says: «Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division» (Lk.12, 51).  What may these words of the Lord mean?

The Saviour brought the light of Truth into the world, and it is namely the
relationship of people towards this Truth, that separates them: some defend Her, confess, and try to preserve it uncorrupted, as the most precious treasure on earth, and others are lukewarm towards Her.  Sometimes they distort Her in their conscience and actions, or simply deny Her and are persistently at enmity with Her.

The time in which we live is the time of particular spreading of Ecumenism and Sergianism in the world – some of the most wicked distortions of the Divine and Ecclesiastical Truth.  You know enough about these heresies, but we should ask ourselves: why so many people now give into these spiritual forgeries with such ease, accept in their heart the lies and falsehood instead of the Truth, leave their recent Orthodox beliefs with particular carelessness and voluntarily choose darkness instead of the light?  It is because, as the holy Apostle Paul writes, «they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved» (2 Thes. 2, 10).  The «gift of discerning spirits» is taken from a believer for this indifference towards the truth.  This is why he lapses into many different calamities, which appear to him as «good things».  The Apostle writes about those, who are lukewarm towards God’s Truth that «God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:  that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness» (2 Thes. 2, 11-12).

These words of the holy Apostle Paul are a clear answer to the question: why do the contemporary Christians leave the Orthodox path with such ease and veer to the spiritual impassable roads?  Another reason «why» is that confessing the truth, which may coincide with certain difficulties or a loss of habitual outer wellbeing, is perceived by them as uncomfortable and back-breaking burden. In their view, the truth itself is not vital and precious.  If they loved the Truth, which exclusively encompasses the true spiritual life and our salvation, then they would be dedicated to Her, no matter any outer circumstances, and they would treasure Her.  For those, who deviate towards paths of apostasy, being indifferent to God’s Truth, the real truth does not exist or appears as some abstract «middle path» between the Truth and the falsehood.

Our third First Hierarch of the ROCOR the ever-memorable Metropolitan Philaret of holy life has said that «in the issues of principle we must always, as they say, dot our «i's» and cross our «t's» – to bear witness of Truth until the end, even if it has to do with complications, troubles and difficulties».  In our modern times it is impossible to bear witness of Truth without the struggle (podvig) of being a confessor for the faith. Archbishop Averky (Taushev) had a good reason to give special attention to the fact that «our time is the time of confessing the Faith.  Such confession is even more important and frightful now than that of the early
Christians.  Then the danger threatened mainly a body – now it threatens a soul much more than a body».  And the souls of many contemporary Christians are, regretfully, entrusted to persons who, instead of guiding them to Christ, draw them into an atmosphere of deadly compromises and indifference towards the truth by their word and example, and thus they guide them away from the path of salvation.

Our time is the time of confessing the Faith.  The faithfulness to the true
faith – the holy Orthodoxy is required of us the most now.  We can show
this faithfulness, with the help of God, first by trying to «hold fast which we have» (Rev. 3, 11) and by diligence to preserve that holy treasure of the Orthodox faith which was left for us by our Spirit-bearing Fathers, who were faithful to the teaching and traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.

Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ!  We need to take care before all else that the Lord would fill our sinful souls with the peace of the light of Christ not only during these holy days, when the Church sings to us of peace, which was proclaimed by the angels, by also during all the days of our earthly journey.  And this peace is possible only upon the firm foundation of the love of truth.  Amen.