Today, 25 December, the Orthodox Church celebrates the Nativity of the Lord. On this glorious feast, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated by His Beatitude Daniel, Archbishop of Bucharest, Metropolitan of Muntenia and Dobrudgea, Locum Tenens of the Throne of Caesarea of Cappadochia and Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, assisted by a group of priests and deacons, in the presence of hundreds of faithful.

After reading the Holy Gospel, the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church delivered a sermon for those present in which he spoke about the importance of this great feast of Nativity of the Lord. His Beatitude showed, among other things that the holy pure birth of the Saviour is designed to clean man of sins and deify him; the Saviour came down on earth to raise the humans in the love of God.

“Very significant is the fact that Jesus Christ, our Saviour, is eternally born from the Father as Son of the Heavenly Father, without mother, and born as man from a mother without a father. Thus, He is both Son of God and Son of Man. His Nativity does not take place at the man’s initiative, but at God’s initiative for the salvation of the world. He is born by a sinless Virgin to deliver us from sin. His Nativity is holy and pure because the purpose of His mission is to deliver man of sin and deify him. God comes down on earth so that we, the humans, should be raised to the heavenly life, to the love of the Most Holy Trinity. The Son of God is made Son of man in order to adopt the humans in the grace of the Holy Spirit. All His mission is designed to elevate the humans in the love of God”, explained His Beatitude.

“Jesus Christ, our Saviour, was born during a journey and all His life on the earth He would be a traveller going through the cities and villages of the Holy Land and calling the humans to salvation. He is a traveller who reminds us that we are all travellers on this earth. He is a caroller traveller who announces the love of God for the humans and has only one purpose, to bring us all to the house of the Father from heaven where there are many dwelling places. (...) Jesus Christ, our Lord, is born in much poverty in order to come close to all the humans and to the poor ones too and give them the unlimited richness of the Divine love. He is poor from a material point of view, but enriches the world and the poorest people with the gift of holiness and salvation”, said His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel.

The Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church emphasised the fact that the feast of Christmas is, as the Gospel shows, the feast of the gifts and urged us, in his speech, to bring joy to those less happy and communion where this one is missing.

“God gives us His Son to save us and the eternal life too, while we, when answering Him, we bring His gift in prayer, through every beautiful thing we do in the Church and through the gifts offered to the poor, homeless and aged ones. (...) May God help us think of our childhood, of our parents who gave birth to us, of all those who were just like parents to us and helped us spiritually and materially, and let us visit these days the families with many children and bring the joy of Christmas in the houses where there is little joy, communion and hope”, said His Beatitude.

To end with his speech, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel addressed best wishes of good health to all those who celebrate their name day, wishing them to be the announcers of the love of God just like the shepherds of Bethlehem.

“On the occasion of the Nativity of the Lord or Christmas we convey best wishes of good health and happiness to all those of the name of Cristian and Cristina, Emanuel and Emanuela and derived names. We wish them all many blessed years to come with good health, joy and help of God and to be just like the shepherds from Bethlehem, announcers of the love of God for the humans, like the angels from Bethlehem announcing the light of God and salvation for the glory of the Most Holy Trinity and our salvation”, said His Beatitude.