My Dear Family in The Lord,
I will greet you with the greeting of “The Most Wonderful Time of the year”, Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year 2019 to you and your families, Καλά Χριστούγεννα και ευτυχισμένο το νέο έτος.
It is Christmas, a Season of Joy, Peace, Health and Salvation! This is why The Lord came into the world, to bring to us His Heavenly Love and peace and to make us to be better human beings, to make us love each other and share with others our faith in Him!
I know that we are “bombarded” with all the beautiful Christmas trees and decorations, with Christmas gifts and all the “irresistible” shopping offers that come to us, which are created for all of us to make this celebration a very special one! That’s fine, there’s nothing wrong with all these things! But let’s also try to put aside all these things for a moment and to reflect only on Jesus Christ Our Savior!
The Virgin Mary and righteous Joseph come and knock on the doors of our souls to let them in. She is looking for a place to give birth to Her Beloved Son, Jesus Christ! Are we going to let Her in? to let Christ to be born in the “secret room” of our souls and to be laid down there in that manger? Or we are going to slam the door in their face telling them to go away, because there’s no room in our house? If I ask anyone, including myself, what are we going to do about that, I’m sure that no one will say that they will not let them in!
But it is not that simple, it’s easy to say, harder to do! Because we have to show that to Christ! And the best way to do that is through our daily works and actions! We have to let Christ come in our souls and then to make Him stay there to live with us forever!
Not to turn Him away with our daily actions! Let’s try this Christmas to offer our special gifts to Christ, faith. Hope and Love! Let’s pray to Him for a better world, to help us share His Gospel with all the people who thirst and hunger for Him and His Salvation that comes through His One, Holy, Catholic (Universal) and Apostolic Church!
Let’s pray for the peace in the world, and as we say at The End of The Divine Liturgy: “for every good and perfect gift is from above. Coming from You The Father of lights…”
Wishing you and your families, a Very Merry Christmas I embrace you all with The Love of Our Lord and in the anticipation of Christmas Day, I greet you with the greeting of His Birth,
Christ Is Born! Glorify Him!
With all my love in Christ, I remain always prayerfully yours, His humble servant,
+Father Catalin