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Christ is born! Glorify Him! Dearly beloved in the Lord, “For truly you did not turn away from your creature whom you had made, Good One, nor did you forget the work of your hands... when the fullness of time had come, you spoke to us through your Son himself...” (Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great) Although our first parents turned away from the Lord God in Paradise, the Lord did not abandon them to their decision. In his mercy, God provided them and their descendants a way back to him, the Way Who is his incarnate Son. The Feast of the Nativity of our Lord is one of the great landmarks of human history, as God the Father fulfills the promise that he made to man so long ago. It is with hearts overflowing with gratitude that we greet the Lord on the day of his birth. We are also grateful for all of the other expressions of Divine mercy that we encounter in our lives – “those we know and those we do not know, benefits manifest and unmanifest, all done for us,” as we say in that other great Eucharistic celebration of our Faith, the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. Let us open our hearts to be receptive to all of God’s great gestures of love for us. And having received such great blessings in our own lives, let us use them for the well-being and sanctification of those around us, especially those in the deepest need of our comfort and support. With love in the newborn King, +Alexander Archbishop of Toledo and the Bulgarian Diocese –Orthodox Church in America  |
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