Dear Family, Friends and Parishioners

My thoughts are with you at this Christmas time as we again seek to find meaning and Christ in our lives. I have chosen the picture above and inserted Jesus because I truly want us to believe that the Christmas story isn’t just a historical event but rather a reality right in the heart of where we live. The incarnation, ‘Jesus alive and with us’ is real. I know many of us have a hard time believing this because we are overcome with doubts and often a sense of hopelessness in the face of loss of loved ones, loss of jobs due to Corona, the aches of growing older, the suffering in our families and in broken relationships… you can certainly name your own reality here. Let us remember that Jesus wasn’t born in a secure and sheltered environment with warmth and fine clothes. He was born in a dirty, smelly barn on straw shared with the animals. From the beginning of His life to His death on the Cross Jesus knew suffering… and the good news is that He identifies with us in our pain too.

I encourage us to place among your Christmas decorations and gifts a symbol of Jesus, a crib, a cross, a picture… to remind you that in the midst of all that we think Christmas is about, Jesus is the real reason.

Be assured of my prayers for you all at Midnight Mass, Menzingen.

United in Christ