Today is the winter solstice. It is the shortest day of the year. I took this photo yesterday morning at Rylane, Co.Cork. The sun was hidden behind the clouds and yet there were beautiful rays of light under the dark cloud. Your beautiful ray of light that is you, always shines even when the clouds are present.
It is just 4 days to go before Christmas Day. The week is busy for everyone. There is a good busy and an exhausting busy. I hope your busy these few days is good. I hope the coming days are of blessings for you. I hope you can enjoy beautiful connections with your family and friends. Whatever your plans are remember the beautiful message of Christmas, that God is with you, that God loves you and that you are precious and special.
I have just shared my short Christmas Message with a new video below
On This Day
On December 21st 1937 the classic Walt Disney film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” made its debut
On December 21st 1988 the Lockerbie disaster happened: A Pan Am Flight 103 was destroyed mid air by a terrorist bomb killing all 258 on board over Scotland
On December 21st 2020 US President Joe Biden received the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine live on TV to encourage others to do the same.
Birthdays Today
Emmanuel Macron (French President) is 46
Jane Fonda (Actress) is 86
Chris Evert (Three times Wimbledon tennis champion) is 69
Tony Connelly (RTE European Reporter) is 59
Saint For Today
Today December 20th is Saint Peter Canisius
Significance Of Today
December 21st is the Winter Solstice. It is when our planet earth reaches its maximum tilt away from the sun. On December 21st it is always in the northern hemisphere. It will be the shortest day of the year and the longest night of the year. Interesting Quote For Today
Quote for Today
“The story of Christmas is the story of God’s relentless love for us.” ~Max Lucado
Did You Know
Did you know ‘Jingle Bells’ was the first song played in space. It happened on Dec 16th 1965
Video for the Week🎥
The video for this coming week is called ‘Celebrating Light and Good News this Christmas’ The video is updated each Wednesday
Here is my Thought for the Week:
“Everyone has inside of them a piece of good news.” ~Anne Frank
I have great respect for Fr. Tom Clancy who is now a retired priest living in Dennehy’s Cross. He was a dean of formation in Maynooth when I was training for the priesthood many years ago. His beautiful Cork accent always made up for any homesickness I may have felt. Tom always translated scripture into beautiful and simple language. I have always tried to follow his example and translate the message of scripture into simpler language, that people can relate to and connect with.
Fr.Tom always told us that when you are preparing your Sunday homily, have the scriptures in one hand and the newspaper in the other hand. Again his advice was so important for me, to make it relevant and connect it to people’s lives. I always try to follow Tom’s advice every Sunday. Thankfully this newspaper The Echo, always connects us to local stories and local news. Yes some of these stories can be sad sometimes but there is also a lovely balance with good news stories too from all our communities.
On Sunday we celebrated the third Sunday of Advent which is called ‘Joyful Sunday’. We celebrate good news and good news only. But as we know so well it’s bad news that always makes the headlines. It simply has quicker and faster legs than those of good news. We need to bring the balance back in. That is why ‘Joyful Sunday’ is one of those days that is so important. There are good news stories all around us but they often get squashed and pushed to one side. These good news stories do not have to make the headlines. It is often the small and insignificant good news stories that really are the best of all.
Christmas can rightly be called a ‘Celebration of Good News’ but especially a celebration of your good news. The message of ‘Joyful Sunday’ is that you are special and always worth celebrating. If we cannot do that, then there is no point having Christmas. Christmas celebrates you and celebrates the something special you bring to each day.
(Thought For The Week is updated each Monday)
