I would like to wish you a Happy Christmas and every blessing for the New Year. Enjoy these lovely few days and whatever your plans are remember the beautiful message of Christmas, that God is with you, that God loves you and that you are precious and special.

(All the normal bits and pieces here will return on Jan 2nd 2024. Photo is from Pixabay)

I have just shared my short Christmas Message with a new video below

Video for the Week🎥

The video for this coming week is called ‘Celebrating Light and Good News this Christmas’ The video is updated each Wednesday

 

Here is my Thought for the Week:

 

“Everyone has inside of them a piece of good news.” ~Anne Frank

 

I have great respect for Fr. Tom Clancy who is now a retired priest living in Dennehy’s Cross. He was a dean of formation in Maynooth when I was training for the priesthood many years ago. His beautiful Cork accent always made up for any homesickness I may have felt. Tom always translated scripture into beautiful and simple language. I have always tried to follow his example and translate the message of scripture into simpler language, that people can relate to and connect with.

Fr.Tom always told us that when you are preparing your Sunday homily, have the scriptures in one hand and the newspaper in the other hand. Again his advice was so important for me, to make it relevant and connect it to people’s lives. I always try to follow Tom’s advice every Sunday. Thankfully this newspaper The Echo, always connects us to local stories and local news. Yes some of these stories can be sad sometimes but there is also a lovely balance with good news stories too from all our communities.

On  Sunday we celebrated the third Sunday of Advent which is called ‘Joyful Sunday’. We celebrate good news and good news only. But as we know so well it’s bad news that always makes the headlines. It simply has quicker and faster legs than those of good news.  We need to bring the balance back in. That is why ‘Joyful Sunday’ is one of those days that is so important. There are good news stories all around us but they often get squashed and pushed to one side. These good news stories do not have to make the headlines. It is often the small and insignificant good news stories that really are the best of all.

Christmas can rightly be called a ‘Celebration of Good News’ but especially a celebration of your good news. The message of ‘Joyful Sunday’ is that you are special and always worth celebrating. If we cannot do that, then there is no point having Christmas. Christmas celebrates you and celebrates the something special you bring to each day.

(Thought For The Week is updated each Monday)