{"id":10718,"date":"2021-12-25T12:46:43","date_gmt":"2021-12-25T17:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/?p=10718"},"modified":"2021-12-24T09:47:22","modified_gmt":"2021-12-24T14:47:22","slug":"metropolitan-serafeim-of-kastoria-%e2%80%a0-on-the-nativity-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/?p=10718","title":{"rendered":"Metropolitan Serafeim of Kastoria (\u2020) on the Nativity Season…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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God humbled himself so that we could clothe ourselves in the garment of his humility, which gives us the opportunity for communion with him. With these thoughts, which come from my heart, and my unfailing concern for your progress and prosperity by God\u2019s grace, I\u2019d like to remind you of the following, as regards the great feast of the Twelve Days:<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Church attendance from the beginning of the service will bring us a special experience, an understanding of the Holy Sacraments, the power to enact God\u2019s really very simple commandments, and participation in the life of Christ, since the center of the feast of Christmas is Christ himself.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Participation in the holy services during these days, especially the sacrament of the Divine Eucharist- after suitable preparation- helps us experience the holy Twelve Days in a spiritual manner, far removed from the secular spirit of prodigality, consumption, individualism and unbelief.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Offering our time to our neighbor, giving love, comfort, companionship, kindness support, the light of Christ, optimism and hope will fill us with the grace and joy which the child Jesus gives to the meek and humble in heart.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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So come during these days and let us enjoy the real pleasure which is concealed in the cave at Bethlehem.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Come and let us take \u2018the things of paradise within the cave\u2019, as the holy hymnographer so beautifully puts it.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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– Nativity Message<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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God humbled himself so that we could clothe ourselves in the garment of his humility, which gives us the opportunity for communion with him. With these thoughts, which come from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-modern-orthodox-elders","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10718"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10720,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10718\/revisions\/10720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}