I found this message to be very thought provoking. During the Christmas season "time" seems to always be speeding up and at the same time running out before we are really prepared. Then the time between the Feast of the Nativity and Epiphany seems to be one big blur and not even like "real" time. It's like everything stops, and there's hardly any energy left for anything including making our vasilopitas. Sometimes I think during the "blur" time, "This time should in someway be transported to the week before the Nativity Feast because I could certainly use the extra time then. If we could only learn to TAKE the time and use it wisely to prepare and to fast for this greatest gift from God - the gift of Himself to us for our salvation, what a miracle that would be!!!! I will continue to strive.

Father Athanasios always raises important issues in his sermons. This one from the Sunday after the Holy Nativity 2009 was poignant.

Father identifies having felt a little depressed the day following the Feast of the Nativity this year. He made a routine stop at a municipal dump where he saw Christmas decorations already piled from the holiday just ended. These images caused him to reflect on social customs around Christmas, and these reflections brought sad feelings. Why feel depressed over a society’s holiday, I asked myself?

If Christmas decorations were actually symbolic of the Holy Nativity, I could understand sad feelings. But they are not. Rather, they are just sentimental paraphernalia. The error in thinking that could lead to confusion equates a social event called Christmas with the Nativity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Of course, society may always discard its Christmas, as society discards now its youngest and oldest members. These social ills are great, indeed. Nevertheless, we need not feel down about society, for our Savior Jesus Christ has come for those who are ill. He empowers the Church’s therapy to heal society’s ills.

You have heard it said, "Put Christ back in Christmas." Preposterous! I doubt that Christ ever had anything to do with Christmas except in name. Therefore, trying to rescue society from its winter festival called Christmas resembles dieting as a way to lose weight and keep it off. I suggest, on the contrary, that we should fight feelings of depression over trash from Christmas decorations. It is a useless emotion like Christmas decorations in the dump the day after December 25th, and all of the days before when retailers stocked shelves with needless trash. Rather, an Orthodox focus on salvation in Christ compels us to stop participating in the winter charade and re-double our joy this time of year.