My Beloved the Benevolent                    November 2025

Grace and peace, wishing you every goodness and blessings

I am pleased to congratulate you all on the beginning of the blessed Nativity Fast, which starts this year on Tuesday, November 25, and concludes with our celebration of the Glorious Feast of the Nativity on Wednesday, January 7, 2026. Wishing you all a blessed and acceptable fast.

The Nativity Fast reminds us of the Divine Incarnation and of God’s love for us in coming for our salvation: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16–17) The purpose of the Incarnation is our deliverance from the bondage of death, sin, and corruption.

The fall of the first man led humanity into bondage to sin through separation from God. Therefore, the Son of Man came and took our human nature, with a rational soul, and offered Himself as a living, holy, and acceptable sacrifice for our salvation.

+ I would like to reflect with you on God’s care for us. God’s love for us is practical and revealed through His care for humanity. We must constantly remember His care for us so that we may perceive the depth of His love and our hearts may burn with love for Him. “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:9–10) “We love Him because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)

+ God cared for humanity when He created him: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.” (Genesis 2:7–8) We pray in the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil: “Holy, holy, holy, truly O Lord our God, who formed us, created us, and placed us in the paradise of joy.”

+ God cared for humanity even after the fall. He gave Adam a commandment to protect him from evil and death, saying: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16–17). The devil deceived Adam and Eve, so they ate from the tree and fell into sin. Adam and Eve were stripped of grace by being separated from God, which is eternal death: “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked.” (Genesis 3:7).

We pray in the Liturgy of St. Basil: “When we disobeyed Your commandment by the guile of the serpent, we fell from eternal life and were exiled from the paradise of joy. So, what did God do for man? Did He leave him to perish? “You did not abandon us to the end, but You have always visited us through Your holy prophets. And in the last days, You manifested Yourself to us who were sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, through Your only-begotten Son, our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ.” (The Basil Liturgy)

+ God’s care is also revealed in calling us to faith in Him and in His redemptive work, granting us a new nature through baptism and making us the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. As we pray in the Liturgy of St. Basil: “was incarnate and became man, and taught us the ways of salvation, He granted us the birth from on high through water and Spirit. He made us unto Himself an assembled people, and sanctified us by Your Holy Spirit.”

+ God continues to care for us in our daily lives. Therefore, we pray in the Prayer of Thanksgiving: “O Master, Lord, God the Pantocrator, the Father of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ, we thank You for everything, concerning everything, and in everything. For You have covered us, helped us, guarded us, accepted us to Yourself, spared us, supported us, and have brought us to this hour.”

+ God’s care for us moves us to care for one another. Saint John poses this important question: “But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?” (1 John 3:17) Therefore, he urges us: “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:18)

+ The blessed fasting period helps us remember God’s care for us and our responsibility to care for one another with practical love, helping those who are in need, suffering, or afflicted.

+ The Santa Verena Charity Programs offer you the opportunity to express your love for God by caring for His brethren in need.

May the Lord bless your offering to support Santa Verena’s Charitable programs.

Metropolitan Serapion