CHRISTMAS 2023: WE ARE CALLED TO ANNOUNCE HIM AND WHAT HE HAS BEEN ABLE TO DO WITHIN US, SAYS BISHOP SPROXTON
While reflecting on Christmas, I am thinking of all of you that I have met in the course of the year. To you all, I send my best wishes and prayers. Of course, I remember all of those who have shared the celebrations of Christmas with me over the years. Those Christmases of my childhood were very special where the whole family gathered. Hot days, hot Christmas lunches and the busy mornings of preparation for the women. Memories come back of happy days despite the tiredness; we children singing carols for the adults; and the decorations that honoured the infant Jesus and St Nick. Many years later, I still cherish those times and the places, the homes of our families where we took turns year by year to come together to celebrate the birth of the Saviour. Times and places are part of the story of the birth of Jesus. For St
Luke, the birth of Jesus was tied to the edit of the Roman emperor at the centre of the world that there should be a census taken throughout the empire. The emperor would have had little knowledge or interest in Judaea and Galilee, except for the potential taxes he could enforce on the people. He would have felt allpowerful and in control of all. Yet looking back, St Luke could see how the edict provided God with the opportunity to send his Son, so that a descendant of David could bring about the promised freedom of the human heart. The time was right. So, Jesus came to be born in Bethlehem. This place has its significance. Promises had been made by God through the lips of prophets. These were fulfilled with the birth of the One he sent, his own Son, who is the light for the world, in this place. We can say
that heaven and earth were joined by the incarnation. The long-held desire for this reconciliation on the part of God became a reality with the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, a nowhere place in a growing empire centred in Rome, the place of power and might in the world.
The emperor would one day be replaced by the new King born in obscurity. Jesus announced the kingdom of God that would transform the hearts of people wherever it spread. And the Church would be the means of spreading the kingdom, the presence of God, for people to know and embrace.
A tiny light began to flicker on the outskirts of that town. It has spread to the hearts of millions and millions, and will reach many more, through the missionary disciples that we are.
A silver star marks the traditional site of the birth of Jesus in a grotto underneath Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, Palestine. IMAGE: ADOBE.
CHRISTMAS 2023: JESUS CAME INTO OUR WORLD
ENCOURAGING US TO CHOOSE A LIFE FILLED WITH HOPE AND JOY, SAYS BISHOP MORRISSEY
“The people that walked in darkness has seen a great light; on those who live in the land of deep shadow a light has shone.”
These words we hear from the prophet Isaiah at the Christmas Mass are very relevant for our times. Many places in our world are currently caught up in division, turmoil, conflict and war and there is terrible loss of life and homes on every side.
As we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ over 2000 years ago in Bethlehem, we may find ourselves pondering on ‘Where is the light of hope and joy for people living in darkness and uncertainty?’
There was a wonderful example from the First World War, which was meant to be the war that ended all Wars in Europe. On the Western front around the time of the first Christmas of World War I in 1914, soldiers from both sides of the conflict stopped fighting and exchanged greetings, presents, and even played a soccer game for a brief time. They didn’t see themselves as
enemies but fellow human beings. You can well imagine their action, filled with hope and peace, was very much frowned upon by military leaders. The decision to step up out of the despair of the trenches was not made by political leaders, or those in power, but by ordinary folk who primarily just wanted to live lives in peace and in honour of the birth of the Christ Child who came to bring peace.
It was the ordinary people who, in that moment in time, gave to each other the gift of joy and a glimmer of hope in what seemed impossible. For us it is a reminder of the very deep desire within human beings to want to live in peace. That is one the powers of Christmas and why it is so special. People of all walks of life and levels of faith, recognise the importance of coming together as families or as friends, to celebrate the gift of life, hope and peace, “..as part of the universe, called into being by one Father, all of us are linked by unseen bonds and
together form a kind of universal family, a sublime communion which fills us with a sacred, affectionate and humble respect” [Laudato Si 89]. Jesus came into our world encouraging us to leave behind those things that divide, diminish and hinder, and to choose a life filled with hope and joy. No matter how dark things seem, or how difficult things are, an ‘ordinary’ person has the power to choose a gesture of kindness and goodwill over an act of indifference or hostility. Choose to bring joy and hope in that moment and not despair or anger. Even if it can only be for a moment. A simple message of Christmas, which will never be suppressed, is that God’s love is eternal and present to each one of us in all the acts of kindness and the goodwill in our communities, families and friends. May you have a blessed and happy Christmas as, with the angels, praise God singing, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace, goodwill among people”.
Jesus came into our world encouraging us to leave behind those things that divide, diminish and hinder, and to choose a life filled with hope and joy, writes Broome Administrator and Geraldton Bishop Michael Morrisey. PHOTO: ACBC.
HOW TO CELEBRATE A CATHOLIC CHRISTMAS
For Catholics, great feasts like Christmas don't come at us out of the blue: In the secular world, "Christmas" seems to start in October!
However, our approach to this holiday as Catholics must be different, and it can be. We can put aside the worldly calendar; we can allow the ancient, rich tradition of the church to surround and center us instead. And then, we will be enriched by truly celebrating a Catholic Christmas.
"God's sign is simplicity. God's sign is the baby. God's sign is that he makes himself small for us. This is how he reigns. He does not come with power and outward splendor. He comes as a baby -defenseless and in need of our help," Pope Benedict XVI preached in his homily for Midnight Mass in 2006. "He does not want to overwhelm us with his strength. He takes away our fear of his greatness. He asks for our love: So he makes himself a child."
A child is coming: As for any birth, we must prepare. The Advent season is a gift, rich with opportunities to ready our lives for the embrace of our Savior.
One powerful way to prepare for the gift of Jesus is to turn away from the outside noise and pressure and take a few quiet moments to pray with the church. Use your church bulletin (or look up universalis.com) to look up the Mass readings for each day. If you can, take time to attend daily Mass; use it as a period of refreshment in the midst of the busyness all around.
Even during our most hectic times, we can still "watch and wait" with the church. Everything else that we do during Advent can echo what we hear in God's Word and the church's prayer. Our Advent wreaths and Jesse Trees are physical reminders of the coming light and the prophecies fulfilled. When we celebrate the sacrament of reconciliation, we acknowledge our darkness and need, and rejoice
in the light of forgiveness offered through the Child.
Joining our thoughts and prayers to those of the communion of saints whose feasts occur during this season -- Ambrose, Lucy, John of the Cross, Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, and others -- helps us hear John the Baptist's call along with these holy men, women and even children who have gone before us in faith. Just as they heard and responded, so can we.
During this season, we twice celebrate the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose openness to God models our own patient Advent waiting. On the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception (8 December), we celebrate the truth that she was conceived without sin. On the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (12 December), we celebrate Mary's appearance to the indigenous St Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin ("Talking Eagle") in Mexico in 1531.
The Nativity in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican is seen during the lighting of the Christmas tree event on 9 December, 2023. The tableau is a reproduction of the scene in Greccio, Italy, where St Francis of Assisi staged the first Nativity scene in 1223. PHOTO: CNS/LOLA GOMEZ.
NOTRE DAME’S JUNIOR ENTREPRENEUR INSPIRES CHANGE
A Notre Dame student has used her positive experience of access and inclusion at the University to inspire a global organisation to make itself more accessible to people with disabilities and learning impairments.
Maria Vakafua, who is partially blind, started at Notre Dame’s Sydney campus in 2017, nervous about how her disability would impact on her goal of completing a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Commerce. But six years on, Maria detailed her overwhelmingly positive experience during a stirring speech to more than 300 people from around the world at the Junior Enterprise World Conference 2023 (JEWC23) in Italy.
Maria and her fellow Notre Dame students, Charles Hurst, Jake Schloeffel and Jose Corpus, are the founding members of Australia’s first Junior Enterprise project. Junior Enterprises are student-led, non-profit organisations. There are almost 2000 Junior Enterprises in
54 countries around the world, and Notre Dame is about to launch the first Junior Enterprise in Australasia. Maria joined the Junior Enterprise project in March and was given the job of focusing on finance and the establishment of an access and inclusion framework for the project. She based the framework on Notre Dame’s learning access plan model, which provides students with a disability with individualised plans to help them achieve their goals and participate equitably at university.
The innovation of the Notre Dame students caught the eye of Junior Enterprise Global and earned them an invitation to the JEWC23 in Florence in September. Maria was invited as a guest speaker at the closing ceremony because of her access and inclusion framework, and her speech inspired Junior Enterprise Global to advertise for a diversity and inclusion manager for the first time.
She is now also in talks with a United Nations Young Leader for Sustainable Development Goals about organising a hybrid event on access and inclusion at Notre Dame in Sydney next year.
“When I came to Notre Dame I was introduced to the learning access plan which meant I didn’t have to worry about justifying why I needed certain provisions to comfortably and confidentially operate in a classroom,” Maria said.
“This gave me the ability to pursue any opportunity I wanted and any goal I set for my academic career.
“It enabled me to be a student without worrying about the extra things that come along with my disability, and that’s why I wanted to reflect the learning access plan model in the Junior Enterprise Project.
vMaria Vakafua, who is partially blind, started at Notre Dame’s Sydney campus in 2017, nervous about how her disability would impact on her goal of completing a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Commerce. PHOTO: SUPPLIED.
JAMIE
MICHELLE
BIBIANA KWARAMBA