2025 CHRISTMAS LETTER
Adoration of the Magi by Florentine painter Giotto di Bondone (AD 1267–1337) Beloved Clergy and Faithful in Christ, Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who for us men and for our salvation was made man. In this holy season, when our Church once more bends low before the mystery of the Word made flesh, I write with a heart full of gratitude, wonder, and sober joy for the past year. Christmas is not merely the remembrance of a sacred birth long ago, but the loud proclamation that God has entered into history, culture, flesh, and suffering, that nothing human is now beyond His redeeming reach and transformation, and that "the glory of God is man fully alive!" The Incarnation declares that love is not an abstraction. The Son of God did not save us from afar, nor by decree alone, but by taking our nature upon Himself, and entering poverty, exile, danger, misunderstanding, and ultimately the Cross. The fact that He is willing to ...
