.jpg)
Cardinal Seán Brady At Christmas we turn our minds to Bethlehem.
It was my great privilege to visit Bethlehem twice this year.
I went there in the company of other Christians to express our support for the beleaguered Christian population who live in the Holy Land.
We went to pray at the shrine of the Nativity and at the Shepherds’ Field in neighbouring Beit Sahour.
Pope Paul VI called the Holy Land, the ‘Fifth Gospel’, and I shall never forget what I heard and witnessed of that Fifth Gospel during my recent visits to Bethlehem.
The people there feel greatly troubled and oppressed. It is not easy to live there, to find education or to get a job. The town is completely surrounded by a huge security wall, cutting it off from the rest of the world.
While we were there we visited the Holy Family hospital where volunteer doctors and nurses cared for the mostly Muslim mothers and new born children. Sometimes they did not have enough oxygen for children or mothers who were critically ill.
It took time for the bottles of oxygen to receive clearance from the authorities to be allowed through the gate in the wall. We also visited a large refugee camp where living conditions are very difficult.
One of my happiest memories was the service of prayer for peace at the Church in the Shepherds’ Field. There young Christians sang and proclaimed the message of the angels to the Shepherds: ‘I bring you news of great joy. Today a saviour has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord.’ Then they went on to sing: ‘Glory to God in the highest and peace to all people of good will.’
I pray that they will know the peace of Christ.
I pray that whatever their troubles, whatever their fears about the credit crunch or the year to come, that they will allow Jesus to be born anew in their hearts.
Every human heart, every human mind is a new Bethlehem awaiting the birth of the Saviour in the midst of its troubles and fears.
It is this Saviour who will guide our feet in the ways of peace.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce
(Source: TU)