The work to get the church ready for Christmas goes on at pace. On Thursday I collected a number of our items that have been polished including a beautiful processional cross. The work on the newly plastered entrance area will be finished in time for Christmas and so we will be able to present a bright and cheerful welcome into the building.
The electricians are coming in today to install new lighting in the sanctuary area, so that will hopefully I will be able to actually read the altar missal clearly. They are then going to put fresh lighting into the car parking area so that people will feel safer on these dark nights and sometimes dark mornings. I’m told that the main car park light has not worked for over two years and like many things it seems to have been an ancillary victim of Covid.
I suspect that most of us did not think, when we are in a lockdown last year, that the situation for this Christmas would be as it now appears to be. However, Christmas is about the birth of our saviour and the start of a new world, and as we look to enter a post Covid age that also could be a new world.
Jesus comes to lead us in a new way of living and to remind us that the Father loves us and cares for us. As we come to this Christmas this message is one we should not lose sight of: “If I should walk in this year for you are there beside me with your rod and staff.”. Thus says the prophet Isaiah as he proclaims to the people that salvation is at hand.
Mgr Bernard
