Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

On this last Sunday of Advent, the Church reminds us of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. It was her "yes" to God that brought Jesus into our world, into our history. As we enter the final week before Christmas, we remember that God is also waiting for the "yes" of each one of us, so that he can draw close not only to each of us, but also through us, to the world around us.

We might feel limited. We might be facing issues. We might be worried about problems going on in our family or indeed concerned about world peace and climate change. In this last week of Advent, the Church invites us to look to Our Lady who certainly didn't have it easy in life. She is our sister and our mother. We can entrust ourselves, our cares and our world to her. I liked the way Pope Francis put it two weeks ago:

By entrusting ourselves, consecrating ourselves to Mary, we say to her: "Take me by the hand, Mother, guide me: with you I will have more strength in the battle against evil; with you I will rediscover my original beauty". Let us entrust ourselves to Mary today, let us entrust ourselves to Mary every day, repeating to her: "Mary, I entrust my life to you, I entrust my family, my work, I entrust my heart and my struggles. l consecrate myself to you".

I have written an Advent-Christmas Pastoral Letter entitled, "Lift up Our Hearts". I invite you to read it. You'll find copies of it at the back of the church or on our Limerick Diocesan website. The focus of the Letter is hope. In offering some news regarding the Diocese in recent times, I refer also to the Synodal Pathway. In quoting Pope Francis, I propose that we can put hope into practice through small acts of our love paying attention to what the Pope calls the "Little Details" to which Jesus was attentive during his earthly life. With this Letter, I also invite all of us to nurture hope by dedicating time to Prayer. We can always improve in our Prayer and pray more.

May Christmas be a peaceful time for you and your family. Let's continue to pray for peace in our world. Let's make sure we spend a moment in Prayer at the crib and if possible make a good confession.

One final thought. Perhaps with Covid, people you know have lost regular contact with the Church. This Christmas might be an opportunity to invite them to re-connect.

With kind regards,

Brendan Leahy,

Bishop  of Limerick.