“the coming of the Word affirms that the deepest longings of our hearts for love, life, and peace”

“Shining light into dark places often only reveals a problem and not the way to solve it, but it is a first step. Nevertheless, progress can only be made if we take that first step no matter how hesitant we may be.”

“It’s Christmas Day. Jesus is here. Our Savior is born and a new light shines upon the earth. But the thing is, Jesus has always been here. True – He became flesh on this day, and He became one of us. But He was also there in the beginning with God the Father, and all things in this world were made though Him.”

“We don’t find the meaning only once and then we’re done. Every Christmas we must find its meaning anew, in the midst of new challenges or worries, discovering Hope and Joy in spite of this year’s troubles.”

“God placed in our hearts the desire to properly orientate ourselves towards him and to love one him, which in turn creates a desire to love our brothers”

“Does our frantic life style impede us from contemplating the mystery of God’s love for all of Creation, and taking action on behalf of our hurting world that would naturally flow from such recognition?”

“We cannot begin to appreciate the wonder of Christmas if we forget that the babe born at Bethlehem never ceased to be almighty God. That’s why we adore baby Jesus.”

“We cannot stop existing because our existence is caused by God’s love for us, and his love for us does not change”

“God alone can express himself in a single word. God alone does this through all eternity and this word is his Son, the speaking of his whole self in the breath of the Spirit. A perfect word, which is very much like silence.”

“Being a child of God means more than having God as one’s Father. It means sharing in the eternal youthfulness of the child whose birth we celebrate today.”

“strength became weak that weakness might become strong seeking peace in unfailing hope and truth-telling love”

“As First Peoples we honor the Creator and know the Creator was moving amongst us, with us, besides us, through us, well before the invasion of his land they now call Australia”

“It's when you show kindness to someone who gets on your last good nerve the Word becomes flesh. It's when you share your blessings that many of us have so much, it's when we share our blessings with somebody else the Word becomes flesh.”

“The Word becoming flesh, therefore, is God coming to dwell definitively in his world in such a way that the effects of sin are turned away”

“See friends, that's what it's about. It's the Word of God, with God from the beginning, the Word that is God does not remain in splendid isolation but now comes down, joins us and lifts us up.”

“We tend to say power means 'I'm independent, I'm in nobody's hands. I rely on nobody.' The true God, the power that sustains the whole universe is just the opposite. God lets go of himself in love and places his own life in our hands offering us his friendship.”

“As we grow in faith, we deepen the realization that every reception of this “Living Bread” in the Eucharist (Holy Communion) is a personal encounter with Christ, the Bread of Life, and further, that this graced encounter is never for ourselves alone.”

“So Merry Christmas. And know that today, yes “A Child is Born” but also know that “A Son is Given Us“. God’s Son. Given to us so that we might have life and have it to the full.”

“The message of self-sacrificial love, of the humility of the incarnation, of a God who becomes vulnerable to abuse in order to save human beings from their addiction to selfishness—all of this makes no sense to “the world.” In fact, it sounds evil to them”

“The birth of Jesus, the same as ours, connects us with all of humanity. Imagine how similar you are with a person born in Africa, Asia, Honduras, Syria and others from your own city or town...What can we learn from the cultural richness of these others? Alot.”

“We missioners, when we open our eyes and our hearts to the presence of God that surrounds us in the communities where we live, are called to be witnesses to the light that we find there”

“God prefers to give and to receive love through humanity. Every time that we love each other, however we may express it, we are glorifying God. We glorify God within us and we glorify God within the other.”

“This baby who is God has been placed in our laps this Christmas and as we look down into the face of that baby we are looking into the very face of God”