Christmas is always a feast of Light, emphasising Christ is the Light born into the world and shining in the darkness. We see lot of lights in Christmas decorations as a symbol for that meaning.

Most of us would want to have an eventful day so that we may feel that our day has been productive for us. In the gospel for today, it is an eventful day for Mary and Joseph as they presented the infant Jesus at the temple.

Advent is drawing to a close and as you receive this edition of In the Word in your inbox, the joy of Christmas is just days away.

This Christmas, as we struggle with the reality of significant conflict in our world, the impact of the loss of the Voice Referendum for our indigenous brothers and sisters, the cost-of-living crisis which affects us all, and general exhaustion after a long year, we look more than ever to the coming of the Prince of Peace at Christmas.

“You can’t spell adventure, unless you begin with Advent.” Here we go, it is the second Sunday of our Advent journey/advent-ure. Hopefully, it is not just another Advent, in fact, it is a grace-filled season of preparation.

We are about to begin the season of Advent, a time of waiting and preparing for the coming of Jesus Christ, both in the manger at Bethlehem and his second coming at the end of time.

As we look around our world at the serious situations of conflict in the Middle East and Ukraine and various other places, we know that we are more in need than ever of the coming of the Prince of Peace at Christmas.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Today we celebrate the Feast of our Lord Jesus Christ the King of the Universe. In my opinion, there are two dimensions to today's celebration: the cosmic dimension and the eschatological dimension.

Imagine you got the windfall of a lifetime. You’ve just won the top prize in lotto, which was worth millions of dollars. What would you do with this windfall?

Our Gospel reading for this 32^nd Sunday of ordinary time challenges us to be vigilant and wise. We often hear people say that “she has lots of wisdom or he has lots of knowledge”. 

In this Sunday’s second reading, Paul starts with a beautiful image of his loving tenderness to the people placed under his pastoral care: “We were gentle among you, as a nursing mother cares for her children.”