Along with the best wishes of all of our Pastoral Team, I would like to leave you with a reflection by our (still new) Pontiff, Francis, (TIME magazine’s Man of the Year) and rightly so. Christmas is an Encounter with God
The drama of the world today is the result not only of the absence of God but also and above all of the absence of humankind, of the loss of …. human destiny and identity, and of a certain capacity to explain the fundamental needs that dwell in the human heart ….
It is not possible to raise the question of God calmly, with a tranquil heart, because this would be to give an answer without a question … We need a total response that comprehends and saves the entire horizon of the self and our existence. We possess within us a yearning for the infinite, an infinite sadness, a nostalgia – which is satisfied only by an equally infinite response. The human heart proves to be the sign of a Mystery, that is, of something or someone who is and infinite response. Outside the Mystery, the needs for happiness, love and justice never meet a response that fully satisfies the human heart. Life would be an absurd desire if this response did not exist ….
Only wonder leads to knowledge … Wonder comes before all categories; it is what leads me to seek, to open myself up; it is what makes the answer- not a verbal or conceptual answer – possible for me. If wonder opens me up as a question, the only response is the encounter, and only with the encounter is my thirst quenched. And with nothing else is it quenched more.