Nativity Epistle of Metropolitan SERAPHIM of Moscow (TOC-R)
HIS HOLINESS SERAPHIM,
METROPOLITAN OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA, PRIMATE OF THE TRUE ORTHODOX CHURCH OF RUSSIA
CHAIRMAN OF THE WORLD’S HOLY SYNAXIS OF TRUE ORTHODOX CHURCHES
TO ARCHIPASTORS, PASTORS, MONASTICS
AND TO ALL FAITHFUL CHILDREN
OF THE TRUE ORTHODOX CHURCH
“Wisdom, Word and Power, this Son of the Father and radiance,
Christ God… renewed us in man.”
(From 3rd Troparion
1st song of the canon for Nativity)
More than two thousand years have passed since that one and truly blessed night on which the Savior of the World, our Lord Jesus Christ, appeared in human form, incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was born in Bethlehem for our salvation.
The great father of the Church, Saint John Chrysostom, says that the day of the Nativity of Christ is the most important of all holidays, the mother of all holidays, their beginning and foundation. “For what the forefathers strived for so much, what the prophets foretold, what the righteous wanted to see—all this happened on the day of the Nativity of Christ: God appeared on earth in the flesh and dwelt among people” (Creations, in Russian translation, vol. I, St. Petersburg, 1895, p. 541; vol. II, St. Petersburg, 1896, p. 387) .
The Holy Orthodox Church annually with reverence solemnly glorifies this greatest and saving event for the human race – the Nativity of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, and with love preaches to people “the great mystery of piety: God revealed in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16) , who appeared from the beginning as a baby in the form of the Son of Man, in order to save human nature from ancestral sin, to free us from corruption and death, to help us, people, to fully realize our nature and the great happiness of being true sons of God, participants and conductors of His Divine will and heirs of His immortality, and so that people can acquire knowledge of God the Father Himself, for the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the visible “radiance of glory and the image of the Hypostasis of God” (Heb. 1:3).
“He who has seen Me has seen the Father,” said the Lord. “If you knew Me, you would also know My Father” (John 8:19; 14:7.9).
Beloved in the Lord,
archpastors, shepherds, honest monasticism,
pious laity, dear compatriots
and those located outside the borders of our Motherland
all the faithful children of the church!
With all my heart I congratulate you on the great and joyful holiday of the Nativity of Christ!
Over the centuries since the birth of Christ, the history of mankind has been carved on the tablets of heaven and earth with light and truth, blood and torment, wars and betrayal, mercy and forgiveness. And even through the years, shrouded in darkness and unbelief, we managed to carry and preserve in our souls the light of the Truth of Christ, His boundless love and the great power of saving faith that the Lord will never abandon His children.
Today, more than ever, we stand on the threshold of great upheavals and great trials. We see how the foundations of morality are crumbling in the Western world, and the face of the beast is increasingly manifested in man. Values that are alien to us are glorified, and what yesterday seemed vile and shameful is presented as a model of virtue and ethical principle. Depravity and permissiveness, aggressively cultivated by Western culture, become the norm of behavior, pushing new adherents of the bacchanalia of godlessness to corruption and seduction.
In Europe and America, Christmas trees are banned under the pretext of not offending the feelings of believers of other religions. And at the same time, in the USA, Satanists openly preach their terrible cult.
Almost all “canonical” churches are switching to a new style, rejecting thousand-year-old traditions and canons, and the Roman Pontiff is allowing same-sex marriages.
It’s time to ask, where is this crazy world going?
And such a question would be appropriate.
If not for Russia.
Which has always been, is and will forever remain Holy Russia. A power that from time immemorial has stood on the very principles of morality and faith that the Lord bequeathed to us. A country that has gone through great trials, and despite everything, has preserved the purity of faith and the greatness of the human soul.
No one has ever managed to break the Russian spirit, destroy the Russian world and stain the Russian soul with abomination. And perhaps it is precisely thanks to our spiritual strength and the truth of our faith that the invisible and awe-inspiring presence of God is always felt in our churches.
The Nativity of Christ, the New Year and Epiphany holidays have always evoked in our hearts the feeling of a kind and very joyful fairy tale. When your deepest dreams come true. And when miracles become reality.
And these days I want to call on all true believers, all true children of the Church of Christ, with love in their hearts and with faith in the Child Christ, in the Born Christ, in the Redeemer incarnate in man, to offer their prayers to the Throne of the Most High for peace between people and nations, about ending fratricidal wars, about returning to primordial values, about opposing evil and violence, about the goodness of the air and the abundance of earthly fruits, about the salvation of the souls of each and every one who comes to the temple of God in the name of the Lord.
And I sincerely believe that through our prayers, the born Christ will send down to us what we humbly ask Him for during the days of Christmas miracles.
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14).
For Christ, our True God, who was born in a den and reclined in a manger for our salvation, will have mercy and save us, for He is Good and Lover of Mankind.
Amen.
METROPOLITAN OF MOSCOW AND ALL-RUSSIA
+SERAPHIM (MOTOVILOV),
PRIMATE, TRUE ORTHODOX CHURCH OF RUSSIA,
CHAIRMAN OF WORLD SYNAXIS OF TRUE ORTHODOX CHURCHES
Mother See of Moscow,
Nativity, 2024.
