Diocese of Pallini and Western Europe

Nativity Epistle 2018

Why do you marvel, O Mary?
Why are you amazed at what has come to pass?
“I have given birth in time to a timeless Son”

(Second Kathisma Matins of the Feast of the Holy Nativity)

Our Most-Holy Theotokos was amazed when She gave birth in time to a timeless Son. Wondrous the miracle then, and wondrous our responsibility to serve a timeless God now in time.

God is timeless. He is, by His very essence, timeless. His power is timeless. His message to us is timeless. That is why the teachings of our Church are for all ages and times.

Our life should be composed of serving our timeless God. Man is not only in time, but also restricted by time. We all understand the role time plays in our lives: The lack of time we feel, needing more time, losing track of time, wasting time.

The time we use to serve the Timeless One is never wasted. If we plunge ourselves in the joy of the destruction of the “wall that separated heaven and earth” and in the disappearance of “the sword that barred the way to the tree of life” that we celebrate in this holy feast of the Nativity of Christ, then our time has a sense of timelessness. Our time then has a meaning beyond time itself.

In this holy time may we lift up our eyes to Bethlehem. Our temples are like the God- receiving cave. Bethlehem means “house of bread” and our temples are truly a “house of divine bread”, and in our times in those God-receiving caves, can we receive the timeless Christ.

+ Philaretos
Bishop of Pallini and Western Europe