One of the joys of coming from England is that we don’t have termites over there, so tenting has never been something I have had to experience before. The staff have excelled themselves in the preparation, and organization of the parish whilst we are unable to operate as normally. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
This great big “Cover-up job” has made me think, a dangerous thing I know, but it seems to be the opposite of what the Christmas season is all about, the revealing of God. The Christ child has come as the Emmanuel, the God who walks with us, and as we hear in the preface prayer for Christmas we have now seen the invisible made visible which we say in the Creed. Epiphany is the feast of extending that revelation to others, to all in fact. The Feast of Epiphany, which celebrates the arrival of the Magi, is the whole world coming to see Christ. It is an opening up of the gift of Salvation to the whole world. But how is this done in our age? It is done firstly by not being afraid to be people of faith. Secondly, our approach must not be defensive nor arrogant or self-righteous and exclusivist. We just need to witness to our beliefs by the manner in which we live our lives and thirdly, we must remember that this is our mission, “to go out and spread the Good News”. So 2017 must be for us a real sense of mission, taking all we learnt and grew into from the year of mercy and apply it in our daily lives.
Again, I hope you all have a very blessed New Year. May 2017 be for us a time of growth and mission in the service of the Lord.
God bless you and your families and the week ahead,
Fr Aidan Peter CJ
May God bless you, your families, and the week ahead,
Fr Aidan Peter