4 Jan 08: Nativity Epistle of Metropolitan Laurus, First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad
Eminent Fellow Hierarchs,
Dear Fathers, Brothers, Sisters and Children in the Lord!
With a feeling of great spiritual joy I greet all of you on the world-saving feast of the Birth of Christ, foretold by the prophets, and bringing heavenly joy to all people, for there has been accomplished the “great mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16). I congratulate all of you with this great joy! May the Divine Infant Christ grant all of us this joy. The struggle of faith and its fruits in our days must be that joy which comes from hearing the heavenly doxology and the feast of the Incarnation of God. (more…)