Sacred Space

Christmas Greetings 2003 - Page 3

JOYFUL CHRISTMAS GREETINGS

May we all, like Mary, Joseph and the shepherds, go often to the Bethlehem of our hearts, and contemplate there the One who offers us peace.

From Sisters of Mercy Congregation Townsville Queensland Australia

May tender mother-love
touch you and your family
and all our suffering world
with gracious mercy
this Christmas-time

The prayer of all at the National Centre
Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of Australia

It is great to be in touch with my Mercy family round the world and I wish everyone a wonderful Crhistmas full of many blessings and much joy.

Here in Zimbabwe there is little or no sign of Christmas, where a year ago they might have celebrated with a loaf of bread, this year there will be nothing. But still the church in the township will be full and people will sing and dance and greet one another. With them I greet you and ask you to pray for them that some measure of joy and hope for the future may be theirs this Christmas.

Happy Christmas, Sheila xxx

I greet you from Mercy High School, Farmington Hills, Michigan, USA, on this snowy 17th day of December. Christmas peace, joy and blessings to all!

In Mercy, Nancy Thompson, RSM

"...The members of the Catholic Women's League Australia Inc would like to send the Sisters of Mercy our sincere best wishes for the Christmas season. The CWLA is an NGO who has been working to eliminate the industry of trafficking in women and children for sexual servitude in Australia. We pray that the new year will unite us together in bringing hope and comfort to all the victims of violence around the world...."

Catholic Women's League Australia Inc.

With Christ in our hearts we know love;
With love in our hearts we know peace;
With peace in our hearts we have found our Heaven on Earth.

Christmas Blessings from all of the Sisters of Mercy Wellington New Zealand

Best wishes to all for peace and joy this Christmas and throughout the New Year!
May Christ's message of hope be an inspiration to people everywhere in sharing reconciliation and good will.
May peoples' efforts to understand each other bring enrichment to everyone and joy in living!

Mary Stainsby, RSM
Melbourne Congregation, Australia

The Sisters of Otepoti - Dunedin wish you the blessings of this special season
as we reflect on God's greatest gift to our world.

Rangimarie - Peace

Christmas greetings from the Mercy Justice Office of the Northern Province located in Belfast, Ireland. May peace and stillness be with you and yours this Holy season.
Let us pray for all those without hope and vision. May 2004 be a year of renewed hope and commitment to realise the gift of Mercy to our suffering world.

Love to all,
Sincerely,
Mary De Largy

May the Heart of Mercy be our window on the world, to see God still taking flesh wherever justice and aroha abound.

From Katrina Fabish and Leadership Team, Nga Whaea Atawhai o Tamaki Makaurau, Sisters of Mercy Auckland, New Zealand

Life is a constant Advent season: we are continually waiting to become, to discover, to complete, to fulfill. Hope, struggle, fear, expectation and fulfillment are all part of our Advent experience.

The world is not as just, not as loving, not as whole as we know it can and should be. But the coming of Christ and his presence among us - as one of us - give us reason to live in hope: that light will shatter the darkness, that we can be liberated from our fears and prejudices, that we are never alone or abandoned.

May this Advent season be a time for bringing hope, transformation and fulfillment into the Advent of our lives.

Wishing you a holy Christmas and a joyous new year.

From all at Mercy Health and Aged Care, Victoria, Australia.