Bishop of Ferns Denis Brennan
AS WE APPROACH Christmas Day this year – with the priests, religious and lay active members of the parishes and agencies of the Diocese of Ferns – I say a word of well wish and blessing to all within the Christian community and beyond as we celebrate the birth of the Christ child in our churches, schools, halls and parishes.
The birth of the Christ child was the clear visible moment of something fundamentally new, the revelation of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as a family focused outwards and towards us, the unveiling of who our God is and how totally loved each of us is.
This Christmas, as we prepare for World Meeting of Families in August 2018, I invite you to not only thank God for the family that is yours, I invite you to spend quality time in its company and to discern how more beautiful you can make it, today and in the days ahead.
No earthly family is perfect, but none is outside the watchful and mindful gaze of our God.
Make contact with members living away from home and discern how best to reach out to those who have become adrift or cut off.
The simplicity of the current Holy Father is always striking when he engages pastorally with us. Speaking to young couples preparing for marriage in 2014, he offered the following wisdom:
‘Living together is an art, a patient, beautiful, fascinating journey. It does not end once you have won each other’s love... Rather, it is precisely there where it begins! ‘This journey of every day has a few rules that can be summed up in three phrases which you already said, phrases which I have already repeated many times to families, and which you have already learned to use among yourselves: “May I?”, “Thank you” and “I’m sorry”.’
In conclusion, may the generosity and peace of the family of Bethlehem be yours this Christmas and may it act as your role and inspiration in the year ahead.
• Bishop Brennan has written a pastoral letter to the families of the diocese. It will be distributed at Masses in the diocese on Christmas Day. It focuses on family life and the upcoming World Meeting of Families, which takes place in Dublin from August 21 to August 26, 2018.