Diocesan News
Christmas Message from the Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson
Time and again over the past weeks, we have been told that Christmas 2020 will be a Christmas like no other. People in Ireland and worldwide have lived through a long 2020. People of faith have prayed for everyone who, time after time, takes his and her place in the front line of protection and provision of good things in the time of the coronavirus.
Christmas is never like another or an earlier Christmas because at Christmas Jesus Christ comes to earth afresh. This is the wonder of the Christmas story. The earth has changed and is constantly changing. The earth is our duty and care too. In the Christmas story, Jesus comes down to earth from heaven to enter a world that is constantly changing. He does this Christmas after Christmas to give to humankind the godly gift of grace.
Grace takes many forms, grace inhabits many people, grace comes in many colours but grace looks us in the eye and asks us: Have you brought comfort to the poor, the needy, the sick, the dying? Grace is the basket of plenty from which flow those spiritual gifts of which St Paul speaks in Philippians 4.8: ‘And now my friends, all that is true, all that is noble, all that is just and pure, all that is lovable and attractive, whatever is excellent and admirable – fill your thoughts with these things.’
In 2020 the world is weary of its own sorrow. We commit ourselves afresh to the service of one another, neighbour to neighbour, at home and abroad, in the time of the coronavirus and in the joy and peace of the child of Bethlehem.
+Michael
Dublin & Glendalough
A video of the Archbishop of Dublin’s Christmas message is available below:
For further information please contact:
Diocesan Communications Officer, Dublin & Glendalough
087 235 6472
Mrs Lynn Glanville
[email protected]