Поучение на Рождество Господа нашего Иисуса Христа. Из Пролога

Come, my brothers and children, and listen to me carefully: I will tell you about the power and honor of this holiday. On this day, God’s visit to the human race and its renewal took place. The devil deceived man to break the commandment of God, which was laid down in paradise to our forefather Adam. Through the envy of the devil, through his intemperance he lost the glory of God and the sweetness of heaven, and from him all of us mortals came. And so, when the enemy saw that we had all lost the glory of God, he began to seduce people in every possible way in order to snatch them away from God: robbery, theft, fornication, idolatry, and all sorts of evil deeds, so that we would become enemies of God, like himself. But the merciful Lord our God, not wanting to see us fall into such evil, did not forget the work of His hands, but bowed the heavens, descended to earth for our salvation, took upon Himself our flesh in order to unite it with His Divinity. And behold, He is wrapped in swaddling clothes like a Child - He covers the earth with darkness. And He reclines in a beastly manger, always resting on the wings of cherubim, and He does all this so that we do not live like dumb, unreasonable creatures. Therefore, the Uncreated One was contained in His creation and the Intangible One was felt: He, the Son of God, became the Son of Man. He did not cease to be God when He became man in the flesh—He is perfect God and perfect man. As if covered with our flesh, He came down from heaven to look for us. And He found His lost sheep, and laid it on His shoulder, and brought it to His Heavenly Father. The lost sheep is the human race, which was completely lost. And He calls the angelic powers to joy, saying: “Rejoice with Me, for I have found My lost sheep.” That is why we, brethren, must honor His coming - and always fulfill His commandments, lovingly honoring each other, as He Himself commands us in His law when He says: “Thou shalt not kill, do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not lie, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself”; and by neighbor we do not mean the one who is close to us in birth, but every person, especially who lives according to the faith of Christ. To this end, we will feed the hungry, we will clothe the naked. We will honor the servants of God: after all, they have care for our souls. We will be zealous for the Church of God, because there we will strictly keep ourselves from sin, so that with a clear conscience we will approach the Body and Blood of Christ, without having. We will not only show outward love for each other, but also in face and heart we will honor each other, so that we may be sons of the Most High and heirs of the kingdom of heaven. To this kingdom Christ, our true God, who is equal in nature with the Father and the Holy Spirit, came to call us. See Prologue. Moscow. 1887, December, countries. 66; Monuments of ancient Russian church teaching literature. Published. magazine “Wanderer”, edited by prof. A. I. Ponomareva. Second issue. Slavyanorussk prologue. 1896, pp. 121–122. You might be interested in: