Christmas Message from Bishop Rozanski
Merry Christmas!
As your bishop, my heart is filled with joy and gratitude as I think of each of you gathered in parishes throughout the diocese in celebration of an ancient promise fulfilled through the birth of Jesus. As foretold, our God is with us. We are not alone. His becoming one with us, in our humanness, tells us how much we are loved.
Regardless of one’s age, Christmas is a time of wonder and mystery. It is our annual opportunity for rebirth, deepening in faith and rediscovering our spiritual roots. I hope your pastor/priest is smiling as he looks out at the goodness and beauty of the people sitting there before him. I’m sure he is!
My Christmas prayer for each of you is for the gift of peace, within yourselves, within your families and within our Church. For those of you who have not been there for a while, I wish I were there to greet you personally. I would love to invite you to be with us more frequently and ask you why you stay away.
If Pope Francis were there to greet you, I’m sure it would be with a hug and then he would ask you to open the doors of your hearts to the poor and the lonely. And in this Year of Mercy, he would ask you to offer forgiveness to those who have hurt you, including ministers of the Church and your fellow sisters and brothers in Christ.
As your Christmas liturgy continues, I ask you to remember me and all in our diocesan community in prayer. May we all be filled with a deep sense of joy. May our hearts manifest our gratitude to God for the Christ-Child, for Mary his mother, and for all the people we love.
I wish you all a Blessed Christmas and Happy New Year. Rejoice!
Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski, Bishop of Springfield