Christmas Message 2023 from Parish of Kanturk & Lismire

By FR. TOBY BLUITT

Christmas is almost upon us again. You might say that it has slipped up us, caught us unaware, almost. It seems to come around faster every year. Yet it is true to say that it is the most welcome and the most lovely time of the year.

Nothing fills us with more excitement than the anticipation we feel when we see the Christmas lights being put up on the streets, all the shop windows filling up the toys and presents, all of the Christmas decorations starting to appear in our local stores.

There is a great sense of anticipation about Christmas. It becomes a special day when we are surrounded by family and friends with lots of goodwill and cheer and the opening of Christmas presents. Add to that the turkey, the ham, the Christmas pudding, and that bit of overindulgence that we all allow ourselves. Diets never start until the new year!

All of this is wonderful of course: the tinsel, the glamour, the sparkling of lights, and the decorated Christmas trees. With colourful bubbles and twinkling

lights, our homes take on a new character and oftentimes it is the youngest who gets to put the Angel up there on top of the tree.

And it might be easy to forget in all of the ordinary excitements of the day that that same angel with his angelic choir sings first and foremost a wish for peace:

Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to people of goodwill.

God gets his glory, of course, in all the positive excitements and in the joy and the happiness that comes with the season; all the goodness that is shared around. God, who is love, is at the heart of all joy and gets glory from having the expression of his love so widely shared among us.

Now as for the peace on earth to people of goodwill, that’s the place where we falter. It is a sad fact of this Christmas that we do not have peace in many parts of the world. We are only too well aware that the land of Jesus’s own birth is torn by war and conflict, by displacement and suffering.

We know only too well that peace is lacking in Ukraine.

Yet, it is good to know that, remembering Joseph and Mary who found no room at the inn on that first Christmas night, it is good to know that we here in our own country have opened our doors and welcomed people from that particular conflict.

There are many other conflicts throughout the world which are never the focus of our own news

headlines: parts of Africa, Asia, South America all have conflicts that we don’t readily hear about but are a reality all the same. People are people, all created in the image of God, whatever their race or their nationality or their colour.

In our own joy and in our own prayers this Christmas and, especially when we gather together for our Christmas Mass, let our fervent prayer be that the wishes of the angels on that first Christmas night be fulfilled that there be peace on earth among all people of goodwill.

As always I want to share with you the blessings of the season. With Fr. John and Deacon James, we together, hope that you will have a lovely Christmas and a happy one and, especially, a peaceful one.

Christmas Schedule 202

Confessions

Immaculate Conception Church

Kanturk

Friday 22nd 10.30am. to 11.30am

Saturday 23rd 12 noon to 1.00pm

Sunday 24th Christmas Eve

Immaculate Conception Church

Kanturk

Children and Family Mass at 4.00pm. Night Mass at 8.00pm.

St. Joseph’s Church Lismire 5.00pm.

St. Mary’s Castlemagner 7.00pm.

Monday 25th Christmas Day

St. Mary’s Castlemagner 9.00am

Immaculate Conception Church

St. Joseph Church Lismire 11.00am.