Wishing you Christmas Peace and a Healthy, Holy New Year

Written on: December 22, 2020

Dear Friends,

As we approach Christmas this year, we are seeing images which are different from other years.  Only last year there were hustling crowds preparing for the anticipated events of the Christmas season.  Airplanes were full and were adding extra flights to accommodate all the travelers. Stores and restaurants were overcrowded with patrons, spending their time and money with generous spirits. As we passed others in the streets and shopping centers, we could see the smiles and exhaustion on people’s faces, because no one was wearing a mask!

This year the landscape is different. A somber quietness persists all around us. We are reminded daily of the increasing number of those who are sick and those who have died. We are filled with concern for those who are in fear of eviction, of the hungry, the suffering children, and those who are forced to close their businesses.

During the scarcity of our celebrations this Christmas, let us recall that it was into a world like this that Jesus was born. Into the midst of strife, oppression and poverty the Light of the World entered unobtrusively. Jesus promised that he would never leave us, that God always would be with us, not only around us in creation or in certain mysterious ways, but with us, in you and in me. The true and remarkable gift of Christmas is the incarnation of Jesus in our lives, the abiding presence that we cannot abandon and who will never abandon us. That gift transforms our life and empowers our spirit. This Christmas, let our hearts burst with joy and sing with new awareness, 

 “Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel.”

Enjoy a beautiful Christmas season!

Sister Denise Roche, GNSH
President, Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart

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