2025 Pastoral Encyclical for Christmas (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

Pastoral Encyclical

Sacred Metropolis of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

Christmas 2025

Beloved children in the Lord, Christ is born,

The feast of Christmas is celebrated within the atmosphere of the Church and in the Divine Liturgy, with the festal hymns and the divine Communion of the Body of Christ. Any other festive expression that is cut off from this atmosphere cannot help our spiritual concerns. The feast, as it is celebrated by the Orthodox Church, is a manifestation of God who became man in order to raise up “the image that had fallen,” and it is a manifestation of divine Grace for the salvation of man.

“Theophany” and “Epiphany” are two words that express the meaning of the feast. The word Theophany comes from the passage of the Apostle Paul: “God was manifested in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16), and the word Epiphany comes from another passage of the Apostle Paul: “The saving grace of God has appeared to all men…” (Titus 2:11). With these two words are characterized the Birth of the Son and Word of God as man and the Baptism of Christ in the River Jordan.

Up to the fourth century these two feasts were connected with one another and were celebrated together; afterward they were distinguished. Nevertheless, within the Twelve Days of Christmas we celebrate three great feasts of the Lord: the Nativity of Christ according to the flesh, the Circumcision of Christ according to the flesh, and the holy Theophany of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ, at His Baptism in the River Jordan by John the Baptist. These events are united and reveal the renewal and rebirth of man.

The Nativity of Christ according to the flesh was served by the Most Holy Theotokos, who gave her body, and by Joseph the Betrothed through his patience; and the Baptism of Christ was served by Saint John the Forerunner. During the days of Christmas, among many theological troparia, we also chant a troparion that expresses the result of the Birth of Christ, with reference to the Prophet Joel, who said: “And I will show wonders in heaven and on earth: blood and fire and vapor of smoke” (Joel 3:3). Having this prophecy in mind, the sacred hymnographer chants: “Blood and fire and vapor of smoke — wonders of the earth which Joel foresaw.” And he interprets it: “Blood—the Incarnation; fire—the Divinity; and the vapor of smoke—the Holy Spirit, who came upon the Virgin and filled the world with fragrance.”

The sacred hymnographer adapts the prophecy of Joel to the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son and Word of God: blood signifies the Incarnation, fire the Divinity, and vapor of smoke the Holy Spirit. Thus, the Incarnation of the Son and Word of God is a fragrance throughout the whole world. We could say that it is a universal censer that continually sends forth fragrant incense to all people, censing them so that they may be freed from the stench of the world of sin.

And for the feast of Theophany — the Baptism of Christ — another troparion is chanted in the Church. Saint John the Baptist is entreated — he who in former times, in the streams of the River Jordan, baptized Christ, who is “the purification of the whole world” — to beseech the compassionate God, as an “acceptable intercessor,” to draw us who are sinking in transgressions and to wash us from every stain. The troparion is:

“You who of old baptized in the streams of the Jordan for the purification of all, O John, draw me up who am sinking in many transgressions, and wash me from every stain, continually entreating the compassionate One, as an acceptable intercessor." (Matins of Tuesday, Octoechos, Kathismata of the First Tone)

The troparia of these two feasts, while referring to the events of the Lord — the Nativity according to the flesh and the Baptism of Christ — are applied to our own life. We are amid the stench of our sins and we seek the fragrance of God; we are submerged in the impurity of our sins and we seek purification. This is the meaning of the feasts of the Theophany and Epiphany of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Therefore, we do not celebrate these feasts in a merely psychological, social, or customary way, because such a celebration offers nothing; rather, it increases inner turmoil and spiritual–existential anxiety. If we do not approach these feasts with repentance, with self-knowledge and self-reproach, we will not perceive the fragrance of Christ, nor the purification that Christ offers, and we will remain uncelebrating celebrants.

I wish you many years, festive according to Christ.

With paternal blessings,

The Metropolitan
† Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

Source; Translated by John Sanidopoulos.