For many of us Christmas is a time for traditions. For some of us it is even difficult to imagine that it will be Christmas if everything is not as it always has been.
These Christmas traditions are important and they are good. But not everyone in our parish can celebrate Christmas as they were used to as children. Many have had to leave behind family and traditions for different reasons. Others have experienced that their family has
fallen apart. Can Christmas still be a season of joy?
In a recent interview pope Francis says that Christmas teaches us two things: The first is that there is always hope. God always opens doors - he never closes them. The second is: don’t be afraid of tenderness. Then he writes: “God wanted to share our human condition to the point of becoming one with us in the person of Jesus. (...)
Jesus is God-with-us, always and forever with us in the sufferings and sorrows of history. Christ's birth is the manifestation that God is once and for all, on mankind's side, to save, to raise us up again from the dust of our miseries, our difficulties, our sins.”
Let this be a source of joy regardless of how you celebrate Christmas this year.
I wish you all a blessed Christmas season, and a happy new year!
Pater Pål
