CHRISTMAS LETTER - 2007

A CHRISTMAS BLESSING

FROM

BISHOP PAUL S. COAKLEY 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As we draw closer to the feast of Christ’s birth I want to take this opportunity to wish each of you a very blessed Christmas season. 

The beautiful liturgical celebrations of the Christmas season help us gaze more deeply into the wonder and mystery of the Incarnation. The Nativity of the Lord (December 25), The Feast of the Holy Family (December 30), the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God (January 1), The Epiphany (January 6) and The Baptism of the Lord (January 13) unfold the mystery so that we might savor more deeply its meaning for our lives and our world.

The saints whose memorials and feasts we observe give us a vision of the holiness that is offered to all: St. Stephen (December 26), St. John the Evangelist (December 27) and The Holy Innocents (December 28) are just a few of the wonderful saints whose feasts form a beautiful constellation surrounding the radiant Star of Bethlehem!

Our secular culture will have already grown weary of its version of Christmas by the time the presents are unwrapped and the after Christmas sales have run their course.  For those who seek the true meaning of Christmas, the Christmas season is just beginning!  It is unfolding and revealing its gifts throughout the sequence of beautiful feasts still to come!

 I hope you have had a blessed Advent.  As on every Sunday I will offer Mass for your intentions on Christmas Day.  Let us pray that our Christmas celebration will renew in each of us a profound sense of hope and a deep desire to know Jesus more intimately, so that we might love him more intensely and follow him more faithfully.  God is with us! 

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Most Reverend Paul S. Coakley

Bishop of Salina

Published 12-27-2007

The Register