Christ Is Born! Glorify Him!

Today, under the vast and merciful heaven, where angels descend with tidings of peace, my long-standing and fervent wish is fulfilled once again, the joy of greeting you, beloved brothers and sisters, with a living word from the St. Basil of the Desert Orthodox Hermitage.

First, I bow my heart in gratitude. Thank you for the many generous forms of support you have shown us throughout this year, your prayers, your words of encouragement, your sacrifices, your steadfast remembrance of us even when the desert winds howled their loudest. Whether through acts of charity, partnership, outreach, or simply lifting our mission before God in the silence of your homes, you have strengthened our humble hermitage and our call to serve children and families in hardship, refugees seeking safety, and souls longing for Christ-centered peace. Your kindness has been the human echo of God’s providence.

And second, on this radiant and saving Feast of the Nativity of Christ, I greet you most warmly with the ancient proclamation of the Eastern Church:

“Christ is born!”
And you answer with the triumph of faith: “Glorify Him!”

This is not a feast of mere memory, but of divine reality, when heaven bends low to kiss the earth. When the eternal Word takes flesh. When the uncreated God becomes a swaddled Child. When the Light that no darkness can overcome shines from a manger carved not by human glory, but by divine humility.

The Son of God is born in Bethlehem, not only for us, but to us. He comes to save His whole world, to reconcile God with man, to open again the once-closed doors of Paradise, to mend the shattered image of the human heart, to make a home for the homeless soul, to gather the orphaned world into His embrace.

Even here, in the American Southwest, where the saguaros stand like silent monastic witnesses and the desert teaches us the language of stillness, Christ’s birth resounds like a bell through stone canyons. From the heights of Pusch Ridge to the quiet folds of the Sonoran sands, the desert now sings what the Carpathian mountains have always known: that God draws near to the humble, and His glory is gentle, intimate, and personal.

And in that same spirit, I remember the sacred echoes of my ancestral Subcarpathian village, small, pious places surrounded by ancient spruce forests, where winter carries the scent of resin and wood-smoke, and carols rise like incense into the night. Where although the homes were poor, the faith was rich. Where children played on straw beside warm hearths in wooden, thatched dwellings. Where the melody of carols carried theology more profound than any written tome:

Christ became small, that we might become whole.
Christ descended, that we might ascend.
Christ is born in time, that we might be born into eternity.

So today, I greet you not only from the desert, but from the mountains of memory, and from the Church that gathers them both into one hymn.

On this beautiful Feast of Love, I pray and proclaim over you these blessings from the depths of my heart:

• May the newborn Christ grant you mutual love without pretension, sincere and uncalculated.
• May He bestow peace in your homes, communities, and ministries.
• May He kindle holy joy in every heart gathered around your table.
• May His Light dispel every shadow of discouragement, fear, and isolation.
• May He crown your families with unity and guard your coming and going.
• May He remember especially the suffering, the displaced, the orphaned, and the wounded through your hands and your intercessions.

And I extend to you, beloved brothers and sisters, the blessing of a guardian who knows his own smallness, yet glorifies the God who became smaller still:

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Receive also my heartfelt blessing, offered not from authority, but from service, gratitude, and brotherly love in Christ.

Christ Is Born! Glorify Him!
In the peace of the desert,
In the song of the mountains,
In the joy of the Incarnate God,

Fr. Vladimir
Guardian of St. Basil of the Desert Orthodox Hermitage