Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Christ is born!

Let us glorify Him!

Христос Раждается!

Славим Его!

I sincerely greet you, my dear, and your family with the Nativity of Our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ!

Outside the window white snowflakes circle about, snow crunches under foot and again today the singing in the churches is about the Saving and Mystical Birth of Christ: “A mystery strange (unheard of) I see and most glorious (unbelievable, literally paradoxical): heaven – a stable, the cherubic alter – the Virgin” (Irmos of the 9th song of the Christmas Canon).

The stable, the cave in which Christ was born became heaven. For us the real heaven is not above. Our heaven is there where God is. Christ was born in a stable – and He made the stable a spiritual heaven. Before the Incarnation of Christ only a few heavenly beings were allowed to be close to the Divine One in which the Lord was named “The One Who sat on the cherubs and rode on the seraphims“.

But now God became so close to the Virgin Mary that She went over the cherub alters and became the most perfect of them. And through Her God came nearer to us and united with us forever.

Everyone of us can and should say to what our church calls us in this wonderous singing: I see, I see Christ and His Birth among men on Earth! To do this a bit of precious time needs to be taken and one needs to stand at the entrance of a stable in wonder. In that stable imagine some farm animals and straw, the Virgin Mary and Angels from on high. In this stable is our main treasure. Presently it is an infant and needs the protection of the Righteous Joseph. But in general, in reality, we are the infants and not Him. We need Him and His protection. We should constantly strive toward Him because only He can enrich us. To get the most precious gifts from the Incarnate God we need to enter with bowed head into that place, the stable of the human heart, where He dwells.

In the New Year I prayfully wish that the Almighty and Gentle Christ Child will bless you with good health, spiritual joy, with His great and varied blessed help in your pastoral work for the good of the Holy Church, in your prayers and spiritual struggles, in your homes and at your work.

With Christmas greetings and prayers for you,

                        +Iov (Job),

                        Bishop of Kashira,

                        Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes

                        Of the Russian Orthodox Church in Canada