Message from Canon Kristian

Dear brothers and sisters

I wish you a very happy and blessed New Year!

2021 has been a tough year for many in our parish community, particularly for those who have lost loved ones.  The restrictions necessitated by the on-going presence of the Coronavirus have also continued to impact on our life as a parish, liturgically, socially and in school. However, as a people of hope and belief in resurrection, we are watchful for those glimpses of new life which every now and then we see with the eyes of faith.  On this first day of the new civil year, dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God, let us pray fervently for her intercession for ourselves, our families, our parish community, our wider community, our country and indeed the whole world that, like her, we may be open to the transforming action of the Holy Spirit and be willing to put ourselves at the service of God’s will – “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord.  Let it be done to me according to your word”, so that the presence and the light of Christ and the values of the Reign of God may shine out through us bringing light where there is darkness, truth where there is falsehood, justice where there is injustice, peace where there is discord, healing where there is pain, unity where this is division and life where there is death.

We continue with the Season of Christmas for another week, culminating in the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord on Thursday and the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord next weekend.  It is important that the full message of Christmas is celebrated by us.  Although we adore the wondrous and world-changing union of our humanity with the divine nature in the birth of the Christ-Child in Bethlehem, it is in the ministry and teaching of the ‘adult’ Jesus that we come to understand the enormity of the choice of God to “become flesh and live among us” and who willingly laid down that life, not to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through him (cf John 3:17).  Let us witness to the fullness of the Christmas story – that the wood of the Manger leading inevitably to the wood of the Tree – by at least maintaining some signs of the Christmas Season in our homes and school until the evening of 9 January.

Thank you again for the generosity of the cards and gifts that you have given me this year.  It is truly appreciated.

Together with the Newsletter, Monika Manser offers a guide to prayer on the Gospel of today’s Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, and Deacon Peter shares with us some suggestions to living and praying the Sunday Mass throughout the week in Inspire 10.

As we look in faith, hope and trust to the coming 12 months, it is most appropriate to conclude with the “Aaronic Blessing” that is contained in the First Reading for today’s Solemnity:

May the Lord bless you and keep you.
May the Lord let his face shine on you and be gracious to you.
May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace.

May each of us and our world be indeed blessed with that “shalom” – that universal unity and harmony between God and the whole creation and within the whole of creation itself – with that peace which the world itself cannot give.

Canon Kristian