Christmas this year comes against the backdrop of early unexpected
and heavy snow as well as a much anticipated and feared budget.
All in all, it has been a very unusual few weeks - economic fear and uncertainty, talk of cutbacks and readjustments while daily life was interrupted greatly by the snowfall, the freezing temperatures and the dangerous ice.
Yet this is not the whole picture.
Neighbourliness made a big return, the need to pull together and help out locally, and a resolve that we can sort out our difficulties re-emerged.
As we welcome the Christchild this Christmas, we are asked to recommit ourselves to Him in ever new ways:
- by active and caring involvement with family and community.
- by service as a volunteer or helper in a local organisation or charity.
- by awareness and sensitivity to those who are vulnerable and in need as a result of the downturn.
- by reconnection with the inner life, the place of prayer and reflection, the place from which the energy of God is transmitted to and through us.
In visiting the crib this year, may we be touched in an ever deeper way by the child Jesus. May we be helped to become the people God needs us to be at this our time and in this our place.
I would like to conclude this short reflection for Christmas by saying a word of gratitude to all at The Free Press for the kind invitation to pen a thought and for the ongoing work and the great and free service they offer us throughout the year.
May Christmas be a time of renewal for all readers - and indeed all of our people - and may next year afford us the chance to grow ever closer and stronger as we accept the blessings and challenges that await us all.
+Denis Brennan
Bishop of Ferns
SIC: DF/IE