Letter 25: Festal.

Festal. When the only-begotten God took on human flesh and accomplished our salvation, those who lived in those days and saw with their own eyes the source of these blessings held no particular feast in response. But in our time, land and sea, city and village, though unable to see their benefactor with bodily eyes, keep a feast in memory of all he has done for them. And the joy that flows from these celebrations is so great that streams of spiritual gladness run in every direction. We greet your piety now, therefore — both to share the cheerfulness the feast has brought to us, and to ask your prayers that we may keep it faithfully to its end.

Letter 25