2023 Pastoral Encyclical for Christmas (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

Pastoral Encyclical for Christmas

2023

Beloved children in the Lord,

Once again we celebrate the feast of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh and we are given the opportunity to see its importance and to realize the great value of being Christians, disciples of Christ. It is not a typical name, but a name that shows the rebirth of our life. We are Christians and even Orthodox and we should respond to this mission.

The occasion for the formulation of these solemn thoughts is given to me by some words of Saint Ignatius the God-bearer in his letter to the Magnesians. Saint Ignatius was Bishop of Antioch in Syria during the first century AD, a disciple of John the Apostle and Evangelist. So he is one of the Apostolic Fathers of the Church, a successor of the Holy Apostles. He was martyred in Rome.

Homily One on the Nativity of Christ (St. Luke of Simferopol)

 

 By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered in 1947)

Almost two thousand years ago, near the small Palestinian town of Bethlehem, in a cave that served as a pen for cattle in inclement weather, an unknown young Jewish woman gave birth to a Son. Could there have been a more inconspicuous, more unimportant event in the eyes of the world of that time?

Who was He, for whom did He come into the world? The world did not know this, but the angels in heaven sang of this birth as the greatest of all events in the world. The sky opened over the field of Bethlehem, where the shepherds were guarding their flock at night, the heavenly light shone upon them, and the Angels, singing, announced great joy, for at that hour the Savior of the world, the Messiah, Christ our God was born in Bethlehem.

Compared to all those events in history that were considered the most important and greatest, this event was so huge, so immeasurable, like a boundless ocean compared to an insignificant rain puddle. But people did not know that this birth in the cave of Bethlehem radically changed everything, gave new life to humanity.

The Ecumene is the Church That Christ Established (St. Luke of Simferopol)

 

The Ecumene is the Church That Christ Established

A Homily on Luke 2:1

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered on February 19, 1948)

Why does it say in the ninety-second Psalm: “For He has established the ecumene, which shall not be moved” (Ps. 92:1), and in the ninety-fifth: “For He has established the ecumene, which shall not be moved” (Ps. 95:10)? In Church Slavonic, “утверди” and “исправи" ["ἐστερέωσε" and "κατώρθωσε" in the Septuagint]. But there is nothing to be perplexed about. You need to know that the word “утверди” means almost the same as “исправи” - to make her right, to establish her on her path. Therefore, there is no disagreement.

Awaiting Christmas (Archim. George Kapsanis)

 

Awaiting Christmas

By Archimandrite George Kapsanis

In these days the Orthodox Christian world is called to celebrate or rather to truly live the great event of the salvation and redemption of people and the world from the woes of the wicked and the devil. They are called to receive the mystery of the incarnate economy and to be filled with Divine Grace and Blessing.

The holy Fathers invite us to open the eyes of the heart and contemplate this great mystery, which literally changed the shape of the world.

What is the purpose of the Lord's incarnation? All the teachings of the Fathers about the incarnation of the Lord is contained in the phrase of Athanasios the Great: "The Word became flesh, to make man receptible to divinity." Christ did not come to earth to simply bring us a new teaching, but to transmit to us the Divine Life, the life of God. To make us sharers of Divine Life by grace. God becomes man, so that man may become God by grace. This is the central and essential meaning of this great and important celebration.

Homily for the Epistle Reading on the Sunday Before Christmas (St. Luke of Simferopol)

We Don’t Have a Permanent City Here, But We Are Looking Toward the Future

(Hebrews 11:8-16)

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered on December 26, 1947)

In his Epistle to the Hebrews, the holy Apostle Paul says that the entire life of the Old Testament righteous was organized according to their ardent faith, like that of Abraham: “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going” (Heb. 11:8).

Abraham lived in Ur of the Chaldees, his father was a pagan, and he himself believed in one God. Having received an order from God to go to a land hitherto unknown to him, which God promised to give to his descendants, he, without thinking at all, without doubting or delaying at all, left his father and went where the Lord called him.