Christmas Season 2023: Our hope lies beyond this world
Sr Mary Barron's Message for Christmas 2023
“The Lord’s birth is the birth of peace”
This quotation which Pope Francis cited last year in his Christmas Urbi et Orbi message is a message we all long to hear. Our human hearts are always yearning for the deep interior peace that is only possible in God. So many of us take peace for granted in our daily lives. But this is not the reality for many.
This year as we turn our eyes to Bethlehem, remembering that first Christmas night when the Infant Jesus was born in the manger, our hearts are heavy with sadness at the reality of Bethlehem today, and the reality of so many parts of our world where the gift of peace seems a distant and even impossible reality.
“The Lord’s birth is the birth of peace”
We cannot separate the desire for peace from the virtue of Hope that we Christians must live in abundance. Our Hope is not of this world just as the peace offered by the Lord is not a peace of this world…. Our hope looks beyond the horizons of this world. Our experiences on our journey through life, teach us that no matter how dark our days seem, no matter how unbearable the weight of suffering, there is always a re-emerging from the darkness, there is always resurrection. This is often no consolation as we journey in the darkness, but somehow our faith keeps us on the journey, helps us persevere, helps us bear the trials without being completely broken.
“The Lord’s birth is the birth of peace”
If we Christians do not have faith in this message who will? Let us live this message again this year as we prepare to welcome anew this birth of peace in our lives. Let us be fervent in our prayer to be faithful witnesses to this birth of peace so that it may be an incarnated message to all those we meet.
To quote the Vietnamese Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hanh[1] (
Let us pray that we ourselves cease to be the cause of needless suffering.
Let us pray that we may live in a way which will not needlessly deprive other living beings of air, water, food, shelter, or the chance to live in health.
With reverence for Life and with awareness of the sufferings that are going on around us, let us pray for the establishment of peace in our hearts and on earth.
May the Lord’s birth truly be the birth of peace for our world.
[1] Extracts from A litany for peace found in A New Zealand Prayer Book He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa (page 163). The Oxford Book of Prayer (pages 306-7) dates this litany to 1976. Accessed online at Thích Nhất Hạnh - Liturgy on Dec 13th 2023.
Thank you for reading our article. You can keep up-to-date by subscribing to our daily newsletter. Just click here
