Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

We here at St. George Church of Prescott wish every good thing for you and your loved ones this Nativity. If you are traveling, travel safely by God’s grace. If you are with loved ones, cherish and savor the time together.

Keep the day in high festival! Celebrate the mystery of our faith with gladness, thanksgiving and joy!

Join us on Christmas Eve for the Divine Liturgy at 10 am, or even better for the Festal Midnight Liturgy beginning at 10:30 pm.

Don’t be alone on these glorious days of the Nativity feast!

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

The Christmas Encyclical of his eminence, Metropolitan Gerasimos of San Francisco

“I too will proclaim the greatness of this day: the immaterial becomes incarnate,

the Word is made flesh, the invisible makes itself seen, the intangible can be touched,

the timeless has a beginning, the Son of God becomes the Son of Man, Jesus Christ,

always the same, yesterday, today and for ever.”

St. Gregory the Theologian, Oration 38, For Christmas

Dearly Beloved in the Lord,

Amid all the holiday cheer, the decorations, and the gift-giving is hidden the most radical of professions of our Orthodox faith: the ineffable, bodiless, and timeless God becomes human. The Almighty God takes flesh, dwelling in the womb of Mary; born as any child is born. He is bathed, wrapped and nursed as any newborn. But in this event we are confronted with a great mystery. Through the irresistible nature of a baby, we are drawn closer to God. As we can imagine placing our finger in the palm of an infant’s hand to have the infant grasp our finger, we are in utter amazement that the hand that holds our finger is the Lord Himself; the One who holds the universe in his hands.

We find that newborn depicted in the icon of the Nativity. As we look more closely we can see that the icon places a family at the center of the scene of this great day. In the cave we see Mary, the Mother of God, seated next to her newborn Son. Nearby sits Joseph, pondering the events. While many icons portray him being challenged, a hymn for the Nativity reminds us that Joseph does know the true identity of the child born to Mary and that “he proclaims clearly all he heard“. While Joseph is not the biological father, he accepts Jesus as his own and cares for him, providing for all His and His mother’s needs, to the point of relocating to a new land to protect them from harm, and as a result becoming a model for all fathers today.

Families today can look to that Holy Family and the events of the Nativity for inspiration and guidance during this festal season. First, this family is together, reminding us that the celebration ought to be a celebration that unites our immediate family to be sure, but also all the families of our parishes through our participation in the shared Eucharist of Christmas. Second, these are days of joy. Angels sing hymns of praise and Magi bring gifts. We, too, lift our voices in song and offer gifts to one another to express and to share our joy, especially with the poor, the lonely, or those at the margins of our society. Third, as we will learn of the care of Joseph for his family in the Scriptural readings of these days we, too, may reflect on the state of our family members, their health and wellness, their fears and concerns, and their hopes and dreams.

No doubt you will celebrate this Christmas with the best you can offer to your families and friends and, indeed, you should. Through our celebrations, decorations, and gifts we proclaim all that we have learned about the greatness of this day. Through the unity and love of our families and communities we proclaim that God has shown His love for us and united us to Him.

For Christ is born! Glorify Him!

Praying that He Who condescended to be one of us for our salvation grant you all a most blessed Christmas and a Joyous New Year, I remain

With Love in Our Newborn King Jesus Christ,

+ G E R A S I M O S
Metropolitan of San Francisco

“We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks! For Your wondrous works declare that Your Name is near.”

- Psalm 75:1

Beloved in the Lord,

Because I will be on a pilgrimage to Constantinople and Rome over the Thanksgiving holiday, I will not be able to share in the joy of the holiday with you personally. I will extend your prayers and respectful wishes to our Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew while in Constantinople and our fraternal greetings to Pope Benedict XVI while in Rome. And throughout my journey I shall remember you in prayer and give thanks to the Almighty God for all that you offer to our Holy Metropolis and Archdiocese throughout the year.

The Thanksgiving Holiday has become an important celebration of family in our country. Family members will often travel thousands of miles to share the feast and, most importantly, to thank our Lord for the many gifts He bestows upon us daily. We will go to great lengths and expense to share our unity and love for one another as a family for just a few days or even just our Thanksgiving Dinner. We will go into our storage areas to pull out the extensions to our tables in order to fit everyone at the festal table.

As members of the Body of Christ, the Church – our concept of family – transcends our immediate relatives, and thus we want to expand our tables to their fullest length so that we can extend Thanksgiving invitations to our friends and neighbors, to those unable to travel, or to those who are alone. The Lord has blessed us abundantly and in thanksgiving we share our abundance with others.

Thanksgiving Day is also a time to observe many family traditions, from the meal we prepare, how we pray at the table, the stories we tell, to how we spend the day together. These customs connect us to one another, to our past and, as we hand them to the next generation, to our future. Use the holiday to share these family practices, to share the stories of our forebears, and to express our hopes and dreams for the future.

Lost amid all the preparations and the family gathering itself is the act of offering thanks. It is not an empty gesture before consuming a feast. The act of thanksgiving, perhaps, is a supreme mark of our humanity. To be able to give thanks to God and one another is a uniquely human activity. But to give thanks is also a holy and sanctifying act, one of the actions of our worship. By bowing our heads and offering a prayer to God, we acknowledge our dependence on Him and that all we have is His gift to us, given out of His immense love for us.

On this special holiday, I pray that you will open your hearts and arms, embracing one another in this Divine Love, giving thanks to Him always.

Happy Thanksgiving!

With Love in Christ,

G E R A S I M O S

Metropolitan of San Francisco