Message for the New Year 2026
To the devout Holy Clergy and the pious people
of our Sacred Metropolis
A new year has dawned once again in our lives, as a good gift from our all-good God. A new year, filled with visions, plans, goals, and many hopes. All these are beautiful and worthy of our effort and our labor.
Yet the new year is also an opportunity for faithful Christians to set other visions as well — visions that never disappoint and never embitter. Truly, why should we not envision this new year as a time to become better, spiritually stronger, more consistent and more authentic Christians?
The exhortation of the Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul, is clear: “Seek the things that are above… set your mind on things that are above, not on things on the earth” (Col. 3:1–2). Behold, a single spiritual vision — beautiful and supreme. Behold, a vision that fills our soul with heavenly longings. Let our principal aim be, beyond the constantly fleeting concerns of daily life, the steady acquisition of holiness, of the true and higher life. Here lies the value of the Christian’s inner cultivation of our very being.
Thus, amid the darkness — at times — of the varied moral decline of our age, let the divine teaching of the Gospel of Christ become a guiding light along the course of our lives.
In this way, the new year 2026 will be a saving year. This is what we wholeheartedly wish.
With many blessings,
THE METROPOLITAN
† CHRYSOSTOMOS III OF MANI
† CHRYSOSTOMOS III OF MANI
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
