Blessed Feast of Nativity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!
عيد ميلاد مجيد
With the blessing of His Eminence, Metropolitan Silouan, we celebrated two Divine Liturgies for the Feats of Nativity in our Cathedral Parish of St. George. On the evening of the 24th of December, Sayedna served at St. Mary the Virgin church in Kenton. On the morning of the 25th of December, His Eminence presided over Divine Liturgy at the Maria Assumpta Chapel, where he ordained our brother George Moldoveanu to the Diaconate. His Eminence congratulated the parish with a new deacon and called on the newly-ordained Fr. Deacon George to diligently serve the people as the Church is the Body of Christ. Therefore, serving God is serving His people.
On December 26th, His Eminence, assisted by Fr. Michel, newly-ordained Fr. Deacon George, and Fr. Deacon Dmitry, celebrated Divine Liturgy in the Holy Trinity Missionary in Brighton.
You can find photos from the services in the album following this link
In his homilies on the Feast of Nativity, Sayedna spoke about three different responses to the Nativity of Christ depicted in the Gospel.
The first response is that of Herod, who intended to kill the Child to be born. This is similar to how we kill Christ in the other and ourselves.
The second response is that of the people who closed their doors to the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph, leaving only a small cave for Christ’s birth. Similarly, we close the doors of our lives and families by not following Christ’s commandments and feeling ashamed of His teachings, especially when communicating with our children. This action is equivalent to shutting the door in the face of the Virgin Mary, preventing Christ from entering our families. Saydnah encouraged parents to bring their children to church frequently for Holy Communion, stressing that failing would be like pushing Christ out of their lives.
The third response involves the angels who glorified Christ and the shepherds with the Magi, who came to glorify Christ too and presented Him with gifts. Sayednah suggests that, similarly, we can celebrate Christmas by taking a position of giving, not just materially but spiritually.
Sayedna asked people: “Who do you prefer to be? Herod, villagers who closed the door on the birth of Jesus? Or do you want to be the shepherds, angels and Magies? It is my wish you could be the third”. He concluded by defining the true celebration of Christmas as making a personal decision to follow the example of the shepherds and the Magi in glorifying God.