Dear Friends:
Wishing you all “A Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year 2010”.
Christmas is a feast of great joy and celebration, because God became man so that man may become Godlike. Jesus was born in a manger. This means he did not come with power, prestige or loud acclamation. He came silently as a ray of light, as the fragrance of a flower, as a life-giving dew on a winter morning. He came even more surprisingly as a poor child with the minimum comfort of an ordinary family.
God gave himself as the most precious gift to humanity so that the self-giving of God may be the model and motive of all our gifts to others especially the gift of oneself. It is the example of self-giving that inspires thousands of men and women to give themselves to God in the service of our brothers and sisters.
By entering humanity, Jesus has made us members of God’s own family. “Even when man disobeyed God and loss his friendship, God did not abandon him to the power of death but helped all men to seek and find Him.” Jesus restored joy and happiness in our lives in the world.
Christmas also celebrates God’s covenant of love and forgiveness. Jesus came to reconcile us with the Father and with one another. Therefore we would appreciate love and forgiveness. St. Paul expresses beautifully his faith that the Christ is a manifestation of God’s love for us: “the kindness and love of God our Saviour was revealed in Jesus.” (Tit.3:4)
Soon we will be ending year 2009. As we look back, we have every reason to thank God for the many blessings and graces received during this year, through the events of our lives, through the people we live with and the people we met. They are the ways in which God has come to us. It is they who have helped us to learn and to grow. Let us therefore offer our thanks to God, our Father and express our gratitude to one another. It is my privilege to thank all our parishioners for your service and support and involvement in the parish community.
One of the tragic sentences in the whole Bible is, “There was no place for them, (Mary, Joseph and the child Jesus) in the Inn.” (Lk.2:7)
We are sometimes preoccupied with ourselves that we have no place for God, for our neighbour and for our parish community. Let us welcome the New Year with our hearts open to God, to our neighbour and to our parish community so that we can enrich one another with our involvement. Let us make our parish community strong and vibrant.
May you continue to enjoy His love, joy and peace in the coming year 2010.
Fr. Chris
