In the grace-filled days of the Nativity of Christ our hearts are filled with a great gift of God: the gift of heartfelt love toward our neighbours, a special sense of spiritual comfort and peace. At the festive Nativity meal the faithful of a family, in their peaceful and joyful state, are in some way like unto the Holy Family, the Family of those who were close to Christ. This thought belongs to Most Blessed Metropolitan Anthony, the founder of our Russian Church Abroad. Who are these close ones to Christ? The first joy of the Born Saviour of the world was vouchsafed to just about the last people of that contemporary human society, to poor shepherds. They kept the watch then and therefore were deprived of the ability to sleep on that cold Palestinian night. Yet for more than two millennia the entire universe blesses them. History did not keep the names of the majority of the powerful in this world of that time. Even the learned specialists are at difficulty to give us an approximation of the way things were in the world in those years, as they argue with each other. Everything, or almost everything is forgotten, lost. However, the shepherds of Bethlehem, that were found worthy of the conversation with the Angels, who proclaimed to them the Birth of Christ, are remembered and known by all, even by those, who do not belong to the Church of Christ. Beloved brothers and sisters, I would like to draw your attention to the fact, that the Nativity joy of those close to Christ could not be darkened by the malice and hatred that immediately began to rage around the Divine Infant, and by which the enemy of our salvation surrounded Him. As it always happens, to that end he used the weaknesses of the human race: the love of power, the love of honour, the inclination to be first at the gatherings of the people. The impious Herod is afraid of the true King and therefore seeks to kill Him. The soul of the unrighteous one is darkened because it is full of anxiety and trouble. Let us, beloved brothers and sisters, entreat the Lord Who is coming to be born and His Most Pure Mother that They not let the evil one darken our souls in these days of the beginning of our Salvation. And may we be vouchsafed even a small part of the peaceful Nativity joy, being likened, even if only in part, to those, who were close to Christ.