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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Christ is Born! Glorify Him! Happy New Year 2012! It is the most beautiful time of the year! The celebration for Christmas this year, as always, is wonderful! Christmas is a time that family and friends come together. It is a time when we celebrate Christ’s birth and experience the joy knowing that God the Savior becomes incarnate to save us.

As Orthodox Christians, Christmas is more than just warm feelings around the fireplace. We may experience warm feelings; but they are different; they are hopefully Holy feelings, which permeate our souls, and are warmed by a strange zeal which are from another world. These are from the Holy Spirit which bring the soul and body together to celebrate the living God – Christ in our hearts which brings to us Holy pleasure. These cannot be experienced by anyone who is far from Christ! During these Holy days, the heart of a Christian is full of joy and the sweet fragrance of spiritual illumination.

This joy that we experience at Christmas is long lasting and lifts us up and carries us into the New Year. It carries us to celebrate the twelve days of Christmas. It brings into our hearts a new hope – a new peace and love for all of God’s Creation! This joy and love carries us into the New Year.

With the beginning of the New Year, we always like to think of new beginnings. Here in our Pittsburgh Metropolis, we have a lot to look forward to as we begin anew with our Metropolitan Savas. At his enthronement, he spoke wonderfully about strengthening the programs we have in place now, and moving forward with new ideas as we move further into the 21^st Century.

Having been present at His Eminence’s enthronement, and, hearing him and our Archbishop Demetrios speak, I am encouraged about the future of our metropolis. His Eminence is full of energy, enthusiasm, and love. He plans to visit every parish in our Metropolis within the first year. Unfortunately, he will not be available to attend our Saint John feast day this year, but we will anxiously await his visit to our parish when it fits into his schedule. He is down to earth and we will enjoy meeting him.

As we enter the 2012 year, let us all pray that it will be a great year for us all. May our Lord bless our Saint John parish with prosperity. May He grant all of us good health, and positive spiritual development.

On behalf of my +presvytera Vasiliki and family, I pray we all have a safe, healthy and Happy New Year 2012!

With love in our incarnate Christ,

+Fr Tom