CHRISTMAS MESSAGE 2020 - Ana Maria ALCALDE, Superior General

Dear all,

We are preparing to welcome and celebrate the GOOD NEWS for this year and for all time:

In Jesus, God has revealed his intimate love for humanity and for all creation.

The prophet tells us: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness— on them light has shone” (Is 9:1)

This is the Good News that reaches us here and now in this difficult and uncertain time. It is an invitation to trust the God whose Promises exceed all our human hopes and possibilities.

To welcome Jesus with joy and hope, while at the same time experiencing insecurity, vulnerability, uncertainty, fear... does this not put us more in tune with what Joseph and Mary lived, during that first Christmas?

Everywhere we hear that this Christmas is going to be different. Pope Francis has said it will be "a more purified Christmas", free from the tyranny of consumerism and from so many superfluous things that make us forget, or leave in the background the Who and  the what we are celebrating. This will be a Christmas with even deeper reasons for the joy of believing, hoping and loving the life that is coming to birth.

The birth of Jesus is also a call to "rebirth" and this year in the Holy Family we have had and still have many opportunities for "rebirth": the Bicentenary celebrations, the preparation for the General Chapter, the experience of the pandemic that we are still living through, etc. All of this is moving us rapidly towards a transformation in the awareness of our true identity and purpose in the world of today.

Every "birth" is an invitation to embrace life, however fragile and vulnerable it may be. Every new life is born small and in need of care and respect.

To everyone,

A joyful, different Christmas!

A meaningful celebration of the Feast of the Holy Family in communion and solidarity with the human family and may the Year 2021 bring peace, justice and abundant life for all.

Ana Maria Alcalde

Superior General