Christ is born! Glorify him!. We have much to be thankful for this Christmas. The year 2021 was a major improvement over the horror of 2020. Yes, covid is still with us and the new variant called omicron is surging around the world.
But we are in a much better place than we were last Christmas. There have been no lockdowns and people are celebrating with family and friends once again. Most importantly, religious services are being held.
It remains to be seen what the next year will bring but some news reports indicate that the pandemic will become an endemic. Covid will be permanent but will be like the flu and people will live normal lives again. We can thank God for providing us with Doctors and Nurses who have worked hard to help the sick.
We can thank God that the past year brought us much greater freedom than we had last year. Let us pray to Christ our God, vanquisher of death that this pandemic will be eradicated with his divine birth. Orthodox Christians live in the world, but are not of the world.
We believe that Christ is God. All things are possible through him. There is no power greater than the power of faith. We are cognizant that we live in a fallen world and we are all sinners. What is not possible with man is possible with God.
Faith is the refuge of the follower of Christ. Throughout the centuries, Christians have overcome persecution, diseases and other evils. We ask the Saints to intervene on our behalf and to help us.
We ask the Evangelists and Apostles. Saint Luke comes to mind who in addition to being the author of the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles was a Doctor. We have the example of Saint Justinian, Emperor of Constantinople who used the resources to the Empire to provide support for the population when plague struck in the sixth century and was resulting in the deaths of ten thousand people per day. We pray for the sick and the vulnerable, for the Doctors and all those working to alleviate the present crisis.
But in the end we hope for the divine intercession of he who was born in a manger because there was no room at the inn. Let us ask the Lord through prayer and worship for liberation from covid. Let us ask for the merciful intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos and Saint Joseph.