The Lord our God is born today in glory to a Virgin Mother, and in His birth unites our nature to His. The whole world had become scattered in darkness, but the Eternal Son “came down from the Father of lights” as a perfect gift for His creation, and fashioned those who were scattered into one. Today, in Him, we are one Body, one family, united forever in the endless love of the One born in the flesh.

In this world, there are always those who seek to pervert unity and destroy it. Wolves come in the guise of sheep, preferring the darkness to the light. But Christ is not mocked, and the unity of His love is something from which a man may separate himself, but which in its perfection will never be destroyed. Today we rejoice in the confidence of that perfect love, and, clinging ever to it in obedient faith, we know we will never be led from the Truth that today is born in a cave.

In these days of Christ’s Nativity in the Flesh, I pray that the unity of faith that grounds our life in Him will be built up in each of us; that we will keep our eyes ever on the Child cradled in the manger and by that heavenly vision throw off all the error of our modern darkness, embracing the True Light that brings genuine peace to the world, and goodwill — not of earthly design, but of God’s own fashioning. In this newborn Son we find all our life and hope forever.

Conveying to you every blessing from the Newborn Lord,
Archbishop Kyrill

                 The Nativity According to the Flesh of our Lord, God and Saviour, Jesus Christ
25 December 2018 / 7 January 2019