Beloved fathers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of the true Orthodox Church!

May the festival of love — THE NATIVITY OF CHRIST, which this year is likewise a long-awaited celebration, both in the heavens and upon earth — be one of great joy in your souls and in your homes. The heavens sang, the earth sang, the angels sang, and throughout the ages shall mankind sing of the inexpressible mercy of the incarnation of the Lord, our God.

Let us, O beloved Christians, also join together, in imitation of that heavenly host of 2000 years ago, in order that we, too, might glorify the wondrous infant Christ, born in a cave, in a manger in Bethlehem of Judaea. Everything in the material world is transient, only the virtue of love is eternal. Let the love of God the Father, Who sent us the promised Messiah (Gen. 3, 15), bring us salvation through His Son, Who will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of Whose kingdom there shall be no end (Luke 1, 31-35).

Let the wonderful feast of the Nativity bring you the most radiant and goodly feelings and spiritual joy. May the Holy Spirit teach us to love the Lord God. For love observes His commandments, inasmuch as it is through love of the Lord that the soul loves its neighbour as itself.