Newsletter - 26th December 2021
Wishing You a Blessed Christmas and Happy New Year
Dear Parishioners
The meaning of Christmas everywhere in the world is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ our King and master. This is a family time (and a Church family time), a time to offer and to receive, this is also a time to be joyful and to rejoice together.
Sometimes however it is not so easy to rejoice, for different reasons (illness, family issues, loneliness, personal matters…) So I would like to give us a tip to help us to rejoice whatever your situation. I already wrote about it a few years ago, but I still think it’s relevant. Let’s start to smile at one another :“A smile costs nothing, but creates much.
It enriches those who receive, without impoverishing those who give. It happens in a flash and the memory of it sometimes lasts for ever.
None are so rich they can get along without it, and none so poor but are richer for its benefits. It creates happiness in the home, fosters good will in a business, and the countersign of friends. It is rest to the weary, daylight to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and nature’s best antidote for trouble. Yes it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is no earthly good to anybody till it is given away. And if in the last-minute rush of Christmas buying, some of our salespeople should be too tired to give you a smile, may we ask you to leave one of yours? For nobody needs a smile so much as those who have none left to give!”
Happy Christmas, and may the Lord Jesus Christ bless each one of you and your families. Know in advance what he is going to say well before he speaks. Bernard Shaw said with his own humour: “the smartest man I know is my tailor. Every time he meets me, he takes my measurements again, while the others have measured me once and for all. Listening to someone is accepting to rediscover them anew every time.
Fr. Christophe Brunet, ccn
(Inspired from Dale Carnegie)
Focus of the week
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
The annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity will be held 18-25 January, 2022. This annual event is organised by the World Council of Churches and supported by our local Churches Together. This year’s theme is the visit of the Magi: “We saw his star in the East and have come to worship him. . .” (Mt. 2:2) and has been planned by the Christian churches of the Middle East.