Christmas Message
Dear Fellow Parishioners,
The year is almost over and we look forward to a better year with our new Dean Fr. Jim Mckeon as our head.
2008 was filled with so many ups and downs:
These included our feelings about losing our identity as a parish when we became a Cathedral, but we celebrated such a momentous occasion with much gusto and energy! We felt sadness when Fr. John Hodgson was moved to another parish. This sadness was again felt when Fr. David Taylor had to leave, due to illness, so soon after arriving.
Our parish spirit showed through when we managed to welcome, entertain and feed over 400 young WYD pilgrims. We triumphantly got together as a community and pooled all our resources. We had so much food for dinner that our pilgrims had seconds and thirds, like the miracle of the loaves and fish. We gelled together and showed our community’s inner strength. What a journey of God’s chosen people!
Yet, looking at the big picture, our parish experience this year is just like our earthly journey. So full of twists and turns, joys and sadness, departures and arrivals. It is so much like a pilgrimage of our human family on earth.
As we prepare to welcome the coming of Jesus at Christmas time, let us not lose sight of the fact that our parish journey is also our life journey: so ambivalent, so temporary and so uncertain. So much part of the preparation to meet Him at His final coming in glory!
In Matthew 26: 40, we are reminded: “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
Whatever happens next, let us watch and pray. As human beings, we are always tempted to give up, lose hope or escape away from it all.
But, weak as we are, let us all exercise our baptismal priesthood through our participation, each according to our own vocation, in Christ's mission as priest, prophet, and king. (Ref CCC1546)
May our Christmas preparations and celebrations truly reflect our baptismal call!
The year is almost over and we look forward to a better year with our new Dean Fr. Jim Mckeon as our head.
2008 was filled with so many ups and downs:
These included our feelings about losing our identity as a parish when we became a Cathedral, but we celebrated such a momentous occasion with much gusto and energy! We felt sadness when Fr. John Hodgson was moved to another parish. This sadness was again felt when Fr. David Taylor had to leave, due to illness, so soon after arriving.
Our parish spirit showed through when we managed to welcome, entertain and feed over 400 young WYD pilgrims. We triumphantly got together as a community and pooled all our resources. We had so much food for dinner that our pilgrims had seconds and thirds, like the miracle of the loaves and fish. We gelled together and showed our community’s inner strength. What a journey of God’s chosen people!
Yet, looking at the big picture, our parish experience this year is just like our earthly journey. So full of twists and turns, joys and sadness, departures and arrivals. It is so much like a pilgrimage of our human family on earth.
As we prepare to welcome the coming of Jesus at Christmas time, let us not lose sight of the fact that our parish journey is also our life journey: so ambivalent, so temporary and so uncertain. So much part of the preparation to meet Him at His final coming in glory!
In Matthew 26: 40, we are reminded: “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
Whatever happens next, let us watch and pray. As human beings, we are always tempted to give up, lose hope or escape away from it all.
But, weak as we are, let us all exercise our baptismal priesthood through our participation, each according to our own vocation, in Christ's mission as priest, prophet, and king. (Ref CCC1546)
May our Christmas preparations and celebrations truly reflect our baptismal call!
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