Beloved in the Lord Reverend Fathers, Brothers and Sisters - clergy and laity of the Russian Orthodox Church in the USA!

I cordially welcome you on the Nativity of Christ day – the day of Incarnation of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ!

Today, along with us, people, angels also glorify the Incarnated God. More than others, the saints of Old Testament rejoice – those, who lived before Christ, but lived in hope of His coming, and their hope came true.

On our part, we are called to respond by our love and gratitude to the love of God, which took the human nature and the name of Jesus.

Very often overlooked, not corrected inclinations, obduracy in sin and fatal distraction in everyday hustle and bustle make our hearts insensitive to the goodness of God. We do not appreciate his fraternal care for us. What can I say! How many of us, hand on heart, can say that they properly thank and honor their earthly parents?

My dear! To make a man raise his eyes to heaven and think about his high mission, the Creator had to despise himself before His incarnation here on earth. He came on earth as a historical person, visible reality, which mankind did not need to scrutinize God, "as if through a glass, darkly," but to communicate with Him "face to face" (1 Cor. 13, 12). And if you have evidence of John the Evangelist that "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth" (John 1, 14), and you believe it, it should be of no doubt that the Church is the continuation of the Lord’s deeds on earth, the creation of peace in human hearts and in the world and good will in human beings.

We remember the words of the angelic song which the shepherds of Bethlehem heard, "Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men" (Luke 2, 14). Unfortunately, this is not a statement of what really happened! There is no doubt that in Heaven, God has been continuously praised by the angels and the souls of holy men. But on earth we don’t observe and feel peace and good will among men.

Did angels lie? No, we just need to perceive that the heavenly attendants told us a piece of news about how earnestly and lovingly inhabitants of the Kingdom of God were praising the Almighty God. And it was natural for the saints, for God had made the world for Himself - both angelic and human, for grateful and loving glorifying of the Lord’s Name. And all of humanity and, above all, the Church of Christ are commanded to keep the peace and have good thoughts and will. In fact, the angelic song was a response to the prophet David and all of humanity, who asked God: "Tell me, O Lord, the path that I should go" (Ps. 142, 8). The will of God for acquisition of land and peace in your soul necessarily lead us to the Heavenly Abode where together with angels we will praise the Creator: "Glory to God in the Highest!"

At the Nativity of Christ night, the Divine Child’s Mother, Righteous Joseph, the meek shepherds and the wise men created the Church of Christ on earth. In spite of the malice of Herod and the massacre of thousands of infants in Bethlehem, the distrust of many people, who had learned about the birth of the Divine Child and seriously doubted it, they preserved peace in their hearts and with great desire were intent on serving to Christ the Savior!

God grant that the commandments of peace and good will would be fulfilled in all mankind! And the Church of Christ of our time will preserve peace and grace among Christians, as well as among other men.

We are entering a new -  2012th year – after the Nativity of Christ. It might seem to us that fleeting earthly time more and more alienates us from the great events of that night in Bethlehem. But every year the Church gives us a wonderful opportunity to experience the same spirit of the nearness of God as the shepherds of Bethlehem and the Eastern sages experienced that very night, and worship Him. Let’s thank God for this opportunity, do not alienate yourselves from the communion with God, which can be fully appreciable only in the church fellowship and participation in the life of the Church.

We do not know what awaits us in the year to come, and I am not inclined to frighten you and disturb your hearts, because, according to the Apostle Paul, "God did not give us a spirit of timidity but one of power, love, and self-discipline” (2 Tim. 1, 7). I pray that faith would strengthen all of us in our further work for the good of our Holy Mother Church, for the benefit of the people of the United States and our historical homeland - Russia.

Dear friends! I’d like to express my gratitude to you all: my closest associates - members of the Episcopal Council, as well as rectors and clergy, members of parish committees and lay people for efficient work in 2011. I thank God for the opportunity to visit many parishes and pray with you last year. Remembering with gratitude the work of our deceased in 2011, the clergy and laity, we pray that the Lord would take their souls to His Heavenly Abode and would grant us to be zealous servants of His Church.

Dear Fathers, Brothers and Sisters! Blessed and merry Christmas and happy New Year to you! "Rejoice, perfect, good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace - and the God of love and peace will be with you" (2 Cor. 13, 11).

With love in Christ the Savior,

Justinian
Archbishop of Naro-Fominsk,
Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA
The Nativity of Christ
2011/2012
New York City