Merry Christmas

Our world is complex, isn’t it?
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We witness, on the one hand, beautiful graces, sincerely good people, clever and stunning art and all the loveliness of nature. Frankly speaking, though, there is also much darkness. Both the light and the dark demand our attention. Where will we focus? On the uplifting and ennobling, or on the discouraging and tarnished? Do we even have a choice? We can’t afford to be naïve. But can we wear ourselves out by the broken and sordid?


What I’d like to invite you to do is see things, eyes wide open and taking it all in, as God does. His glance is hardly inexperienced or gullible. As God glances, He’s not seeking to understand...He knows. And with that, it’s curious to observe that God is, essentially, the ultimately informed optimist. His hopes for us, and about us, are great. He desires our happiness and is willing to work with us to achieve it – thus the Baby in Bethlehem.


The Old Testament makes it clear that God always knew what would happen to His Son, and yet He also knew that crucifixion wasn’t a conclusion, and that death wasn’t the end. And with that foreknowledge, God glances on you and me, and sees, yes, the flaws, but also the potential, knowing that our brokenness is not the last word, that there would also be growth and greater goodness, that we might actually achieve the noteworthy and beautiful. And so he risked it all with the birth of this Baby, choosing helplessness and dependence, to achieve a more caring humanity.


I hope that we can all be a part of God’s greater plan for the world, and that with Mary and Joseph we can make a place for Jesus, welcoming Him into our lives, and letting Him lead us to increased kindness and integrity, honesty and virtue. 

​May the Child of Bethlehem make
His way into your heart this Christmas,
and bless you and yours with peace.



Fr. Patrick 

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