Wednesday, December 17, 2025

Nativity Meditation from SVOTS


Where there is abundance of tears, brethren, accompanied by true knowledge, there also shines the divine light. Where the light shines, there also all good gifts are bestowed and the seal of the Holy Spirit, from whom spring all the fruits of life, is implanted in the heart.

Here also the fruit of gentleness is borne for Christ, as well as “peace, mercy, compassion, kindness, goodness, faith, and self-control.” It is the source of the virtue of loving one’s enemies and praying for them (Mt. 5.44), of rejoicing in trials, of glorifying in tribulations (Rom. 5.3), of looking on the faults of others as if they were one’s own and lamenting them, and of laying down one’s life for the brethren with eagerness even unto death.

+ St. Symeon the New Theologian: The Discourses