Are you hoping that they will come, or are you hoping that they will go or are you just waiting for the next lot to come around New Year? Have you had enough of your family yet, not enough or does it not matter very much but you could do with some help eating the ham? At this time of the year when some families move heaven and earth to be together for a few days and some do quite the opposite, it’s appropriate that the Church presents us with the image of the Holy Family. It

There are all kinds of dreams, are there not. Dreams which we forget the second we wake up, no matter how immersive and occasionally preferable to reality they may be. Dreams which turn into nightmares which we are happy to forget, personal dreams and dreams for others. What are your dreams? We are supposed to be able to achieve our dreams, be they of wealth, avarice, charity or for good or ill – we say ‘you can achieve anything’ to children, which always seems rather unlikel

Gaudete, Gaudete Christus est natus. Ex Maria Virgine, Gaudete. Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is born of the Virgin Mary. Rejoice. Gaudete. Rejoice. The Messiah, the Christ is coming. He will come to be the light to lighten the gentiles and to be the glory of His people Israel. And as the Gaudete carol continues: Deus homo factus est natura Murante, mundus renovates est a Christo regnante. God has become man, with nature marvelling. The world has become renewed by the reigning Chr

If we are to live fully as human beings, we have to acknowledge our mortality, our joys, our faults and our internal pain. All these things together make us who and what we are, and they combine into the song of never-ending love that we can sing with certainty and joy – when that song is sad and when it is full of life, it is still our song and speaks of who we are. So we need to sing, and to remember the songs of those who we come here to mourn today, because they also live