Happy New Year! And, with the New Year we are blessed with three occasions for this day. First, we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary as Mother of God. Second, we also celebrate the Octave of Christmas and lastly, we celebrate the beginning of the New Year.

It’s difficult to say something about Christmas that has never been said before! Maybe, though, that’s not an issue, as at this special time of year, traditions are important.

During the first three centuries of persecution, Christians didn’t celebrate the Christmas feast in the same way we celebrate it today, reflects Fr John Quang SVD.

They celebrated the feast of Emmanuel, God-is-with-us. That’s the essence, the crux of Christmas. It is not so much about a birthday, but rather about God the Creator becoming human like us in flesh and dwelling among us so that we may be saved. The word Jesus means ‘God saves’. As a result of God being among us and becoming one like us, we are saved.

The SVD Australia Province has three new Provincial Councillors to help provide collaborative leadership over the next three years.

The new Provincial Councillors were recently appointed by the SVD Superior-General, Fr Budi Kleden, following their nomination at the local level.

The Advent period has been a tuneful and generous one around the SVD Australia Province, with a number of SVD parishes holding Christmas Carol events for the first time since COVID, and others preparing food hampers for those in need this Christmas season.

In Santa Teresa, Central Australia, the community held their first ever Carols event and their famous Christmas lights display took place in the usual spectacular fashion, lighting up the desert sky. On top of that, the isolated Indigenous community was also blessed to receive a brand new giant nativity scene.

There was a story of a man who was deeply devoted to St Joseph and when he died he was at the gates of heaven and being interviewed by St Peter. St Peter, after assessing the record of this man declined him entry to heaven straightaway, but the man argued that he was a St Joseph devotee.

We are getting into the spirit and the joy of Christmas. In fact, the third Sunday of Advent is called “Gaudete Sunday.” Gaudete means ‘Rejoice.’  St. Paul reminds us “rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice!! Let’s rejoice for the coming of our Redeemer, and we are called to share this joy with others, giving comfort and spreading hope.

“Look, I am going to send my messenger before you; he will prepare your way.” This gospel passage reminds me of the road from Alice Springs to Santa Teresa, which is a remote Aboriginal community where I’m assigned at the moment.

Queen Salote Tupou III was outstanding in different ways. Over 2 metres tall, she was Queen of Tonga from 1918 until her death in 1965. Greatly loved and  honoured in Tonga, she was a world leader who gently commanded respect way beyond her island nation.

Imagine this scene in a movie we may have seen in the not so distant past. A condemned criminal sitting on an electric chair in the last minutes of his life, an executioner just waiting for the signal to pull the lever to activate the electric chair, a police officer looking at the clock waiting nervously until the clock strikes 3pm, the time of the execution, another police officer waiting for the phone to ring.