We all know that is has been a challenging year for so many people.
The COVID pandemic has had a profound effect on the way we live our lives. And it will clearly alter the way Christmas is normally celebrated.
However, for Christians, this global health crisis should not take away the joy and hope that come from the real meaning of Christmas – the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Our God gave us what was most important to him, his Son. The Father’s love came to us on that first Christmas morning in a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes. In the birth of Jesus, this little child assumed our frailty, our suffering, our anxieties, our desires and our limitations.
But we know that with Jesus, the everyday circumstances of the human condition become occasions of divine revelation and grace-filled salvation. He came to bring peace to our hearts and our lives. This season of Christmas invites us to enter deeply into this mystery of love.
May Jesus always be your joy, your hope, your greatest desire.
And may this Christmas and each day of the new year be directed by His guiding hand of love!
Merry Christmas!
Bishop Robert Gruss