SAN FRANCISCO: January 4, 2021
Nativity Epistle of Archbishop Kyrill of San Francisco and Western America

Reverend Fathers, Venerable Monastics,
and Pious Faithful

Christ is born! Glorify Him!

When first the angels came to announce the Good Tidings to the shepherds, they brought a word of peace into a world that knew little of it. When they beheld the eternal Son of God born beneath a star, they beheld Truth, Who had come into a world despairing of truth. When the Virgin cradled her divine Son in her arms, she beheld joy, come into a world that had forgotten joy.
Christ was born, then, to grant unto the world what it most needed; and He is born, today, to bring the same salvation to our generation. The past year has brought many reminders of the fragility of our world, made weak through sin. We have faced disease, political uncertainty, cultural upheaval; and the tendency of our society, like that at the time of Christ’s birth, is to despair, to seek purely worldly solutions. Man grows fearful and angry and proud - and ever more possessed by its suffering. But Christ comes humbly, now as always, to offer healing to His beloved creation, and to every person who will let this singular reality into his heart: God is born in the flesh, and good will conquer all evil. Christ is born, and even the stars above recognise that the Source of joy has come into the world.

Keep this message in your hearts, my beloved flock, and there will be no challenge that cannot be overcome by the hope that is in you.

Christ is born: glorify Him!

+Archbishop Kyrill

The Nativity According to the Flesh of our Lord, God and Saviour, Jesus Christ 25 December 2020 / 7 January 2021