Dear Friends,

As I write these words late on a Friday afternoon, sunlight is streaming through the windows of the office in the Parish House. And I am delighted. Clearly, there is more light than even a few weeks ago. The days once again are growing longer. I notice that reality, and yet I don’t. The change is gradual, I am unaware, and then suddenly there is a moment when the change is so apparent. It can happen sitting at the desk. It can happen walking across the locks. It can happen as a child steps off to school in the morning, suddenly surrounded by so much more of the daylight.

While the candles of Christmas have been put away, we often talk about how the light of Christ is made manifest to us in these weeks and months after the celebrations are over. Christ’s presence in our lives and in the life of our community is not unlike that sunlight. There is a persistent, growing presence, which at times is unnoticed, or unseen. And then comes a moment when we realize how much has changed,  how much we have been changed, how much we have been blessed. And we are delighted.

I hope that in these days of growing light, you and I take time to look and to see how it is that Christ is growing in us, for the fulfillment of all God intends in this place. May the light that is Christ surprise us, with its radiance and with its promise.

Faithfully,

Tom