As we greet with joy the festival of Jesus’ birth, I pray that Christmas will be both a presence and a promise in your life.
May Jesus be present to you as Light for your life; a guide and counselor calling you to the Christmas vocation of loving God and loving neighbor, generously and humbly giving–even sacrificing, for the care and welfare of others; working for peace, justice and the dignity of all human beings; and offering yourself to the ministry of hospitality, forgiveness and reconciliation.
May Christmas be the Light that, present within you, calls you to shine into darkness wherever darkness is found.
But may Jesus also be to you a promise that despite the abiding darkness in this world–the shadows of human suffering, injustice, fear, division and death, the Light of Christmas shines on. When your strength wanes or the Light in you dims for want of hope, the promise of Christmas, the Light of Jesus, shines on.
“In him was life, and that life was the light of all humankind. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not [and cannot] overcome it.”
May the Blessing of the Light and Life of Christmas fill your hearts, strengthen your spirits, and guide your steps in the way of Peace and Holy love.*
Merry Christmas.
