By FR SAJU and the PASTORAL TEAM
We welcome you all to the Christmas Masses, especially all those who are back home from University or their work place to join your family and friends. We wish you all and your loved ones a joyful Christmas.
All four weekends of Advent, we have been reflecting on the four parts of the Holy Mass and subsequently the last weekend’s homily focused on the Rite of Communion and Mission.
The Advent reflection on Holy Mass offers us an opportunity to engage with the liturgy to grow in our preparation, reverence and appreciation for the Eucharist.
Our contemplation of the Eucharist forms into a renewed relationship and to a personal encounter with Jesus Christ; and Holy Mass stays as the source and summit of our personal and parish life.
On Christmas day, the Angels bring us the good news of great joy for all the people, for to us is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. In the words of Pope Benedict XVI, “from the infinite horizon of his love God wished to enter into the limits of human history and the human condition. He took on a body and a heart. Thus we can contemplate and encounter the infinite in the finite, the invisible and ineffable mystery” becomes Christmas.
As we ponder on the love of God, I, as your Parish Priest, thank God and you for all the blessings God continues to bestow upon our parish through your various ministries. The Pastoral Team, Parish secretary, all the Committees and Groups, and other volunteers in the Parish are remembered with gratitude in this season of joy.
Likewise, I thank you for the Christmas cards, generous Christmas offerings and gifts that Fr. Patrick and I have been receiving this season.
We prepare with great hope this year for Christmas as we always do for the celebration of the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. The birth of a child is, in all cultures, a source of happiness and hope for those who receive it as a gift of life, even in the midst of disease, natural disasters and war around us.
With the birth of Jesus, there is a renewal of hope and the desire to build a better future than the present. Let that hope be the gift of Christmas for us to walk as ‘Pilgrims of Hope’, into the New Year 2025.
Wishing you the peace and joy of Christmas,
Fr. Saju and the Pastoral Team