I encourage all parishioners to go into their Sunday Missals and read all of the readings for Christmas. These readings are for the vigil, the night Mass, Mass at dawn and Mass during the day. What a wonderful treasure trove of Scripture to helps us delve into the mystery of the Incarnation! The prophecies of the Old Testament are gloriously fulfilled in the birth of a son to a lowly, artisan Jewish couple who are unable to find suitable accommodation. The only fitting response to such news was then and is still today joy. Joy is the fulfilment of hope. Whatever our life circumstances we can all find joy at Christmas because we know that in Jesus there is the "yes" to all of God's promises and that he is indeed faithful. St Paul wrote to the Romans: "Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to the grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that , but we boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us." (Rm 5: 1-5)
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