CHRISTMAS MESSAGE
\nOF METROPOLITAN PAUL OF MANILA AND HANOI
\nTO THE CLERGY AND FAITHFUL
\nOF THE PHILIPPINE\u2013VIETNAMESE DIOCESE
\n\u201cI behold a strange and most glorious mystery:
\nHeaven \u2014 the cave; the Cherubic Throne \u2014 the Virgin;
\nthe manger \u2014 the dwelling place,
\nin which Christ God, whom nothing can contain, has lain;
\nWhom we praise and magnify in song.\u201d
\n(Irmos of the Canon of the Nativity of Christ)<\/p>\n
Beloved pastors in the Lord, venerable monks and nuns,
\ndear brothers and sisters!
\nI cordially congratulate all of you on the great, world\u2011saving Feast of the Nativity of Christ and on the New Year!
\nOnce again the Star of Bethlehem shines over the world, proclaiming the saving event of the Incarnation of God. The Feast of the Nativity of Christ is illumined by divine light, as proclaimed in the Church\u2019s hymns. The joy, triumph, and truly heavenly grandeur of this celebrated event do not fade with time and are never diminished. The holy Apostle Peter proclaims: \u201cFor we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty\u201d (2 Peter 1:16).
\nIn the poor cave of Bethlehem the Nativity of Christ took place, and at the same time in Heaven the Angels of God glorified the newborn Divine Child, singing the hymn so familiar to us from childhood: \u201cGlory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill among men\u201d (Luke 2:14).
\nMay this solemn feast be blessed for us today as well\u2014 inexhaustible in its grace, ever proclaiming that with Christ a new life has been born for us: a life free from sin, filled with peace and love.
\nHow we wish that every person living today would be filled with joy at the coming of Christ the Savior into the world; that the noise of everyday life would not drown out the angelic hymn: \u201cGlory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill among men\u201d; that in our pride we would not neglect the wise simplicity of the shepherds, who were the first to come and worship the Divine Child; that each of us, like the Magi, would follow the star leading to an encounter with God.
\nThe Lord has commanded us to love one another, to bring Christ\u2019s peace and goodness to people, to be gentle and patient, to be steadfast in prayer and in service to our neighbors, and above all to help the weak and those in need. In all this, may God Himself help us and make us worthy of being illumined by the light that shone forth for us in the Nativity of our Lord and Savior!
\nEntering the New Year of the Lord\u2019s goodness in peace and love (Psalm 65:12), let us pray that the coming year may become a time of God\u2019s blessing and prosperity, a year of peace and well\u2011being for our homeland and for each one of us. \u201cRejoice, be comforted, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you\u201d (2 Corinthians 13:11).<\/p>\n
By the Grace of God,
\nMETROPOLITAN OF MANILA AND HANOI
\nTHE NATIVITY OF CHRIST
\n2025\/2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CHRISTMAS MESSAGE OF METROPOLITAN PAUL OF MANILA AND HANOI TO THE CLERGY AND FAITHFUL OF THE PHILIPPINE\u2013VIETNAMESE DIOCESE \u201cI behold a strange and most glorious mystery: Heaven \u2014 the cave; the Cherubic Throne \u2014 the Virgin; the manger \u2014 the dwelling place, in which Christ God, whom nothing can contain, has lain; Whom we praise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11834,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"podcat":[],"class_list":["post-11833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archpastoral-ministry"],"acf":[],"views":554,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phvieparchy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phvieparchy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phvieparchy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phvieparchy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phvieparchy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11833"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/phvieparchy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11838,"href":"https:\/\/phvieparchy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11833\/revisions\/11838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phvieparchy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phvieparchy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phvieparchy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phvieparchy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11833"},{"taxonomy":"podcat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phvieparchy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/podcat?post=11833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}