Christmas 2007
“Magi,
Persian Kings, having clearly learnt
that the heavenly King had been born on earth,
drawn by a bright star arrived in Bethlehem,
bringing chosen gifts, gold and incense and myrrh.
And falling down they worshipped,
for they saw lying in the Cave the Timeless One as a babe.”
(Hymn from the Vespers Liti 25th of December)
Our beloved
brethren in the Born Christ,
We are prepared to celebrate a great and marvelous feast, the Birth of
our Savior.
What really is the Nativity? It is the fulfillment of the sacred decision
of the Merciful God to save fallen man. It is the creation of the new
Adam, Christ. It is the incarnation of God in the Pure Womb of the Ever-Virgin
Mary. It is the Entrance of the Great King and the revelation of the Son
and Word of God to humanity. It is the restoration of all things and the
salvation of the world.
It is for this reason that our Holy Church celebrated with joy and brightness
the feast of the Nativity from the onset of the Christian era. That is
why she decreed a forty-day period of fasting and prayer, as a period
of cleansing and of preparation for Christians.
We all awaited the Born Christ. And Christ came and still comes, searching
for a place to be born. He implores us and asks us to open our hearts
to come in, to become a Permanent Dweller, to enlighten our darkness,
to bring love, peace, and our restoration.
Does this Divine Entreaty really touch our souls, does this great mystery
of incarnation sensitize and arouse the power of our spiritual intellect?
The Magi, the representatives of secular wisdom and intellect, two years
were traveling, “drawn by a bright star” to find Bethlehem
and the Conceived King. They laid down the gifts humbly, gold and frankincense
and myrrh, and bowed down subserviently to the Holy Babe. On the contrary,
Herod, who had near him the King and Messiah, driven by his enormous vainglory,
slaughtered the infants “who were two years old or under,”
in order not to lose the glory of his kingship.
I wonder, my brethren, whether we ourselves are going to find our Bethlehem
and our Conceived Savior. Is it by any chance that Christ is coming at
an unsuspected time this year? Will He, by chance, find us entrapped in
our self-sufficient rationalism and materialism, in the impudence of our
sin, in our vainglory, in our prideful hubris of our innovations? Will
He, by chance, find us with the heavy haze of our passions covering our
dark and moonless souls? Will He, by chance again, not find a humble manger
to be born, a holy cavern of humble loneliness and poverty where He may
be revealed? Finally, will we cause the “flight” of the Child
Jesus to “Egypt”? Let it not be, my brethren!!
Let us humble ourselves as the Magi. Let us bow down subserviently to
the Holy Babe of Bethlehem, and let us offer up in adoration our gifts
to the Sun of Righteousness, and let us cry down on our knees before Him,
and let us ask for our salvation and the salvation of the whole world.
Finally, let us hold the One who is Born in our hearts, genuinely and
rightly, as He was born and as He was revealed to us, “as He willed
and was well-pleased for us”, without alterations and distortions,
not obeying humans decrees, but as He was given to us and was preserved
for us by the Holy Orthodox Church, the Only and True Church, as delivered
by the Apostles.
Humbly, we would like to wish that the light of glory and the peace of
our Born Savior illuminate your souls and your pious families.
Christ is Born!
Blessed be the new year of the Lord 2008
With Our love in Born Christ
Abbess Pavlina
and the sisters |