Dear Friends in Christ,

As we gather with family and friends to celebrate Christmas, the end of the calendar year, and the beginning of the New Year, let us remember the reason for the season, give thanks to God for the blessings of 2022, and entrust the New Year, 2023, to his hands.

In a culture that seeks to make Christmas solely about gifts, food, drinks, Santa Claus, and self-indulgence, let us invite the Infant Jesus into our hearts, homes, and celebrations. Let us not observe Christmas as a nonreligious holiday. Let us instead use it to demonstrate that we are Christians and Catholics and to pass on our spiritual heritage.

Christmas is about the love of God, the Incarnation of the Only Begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, our redemption and salvation, and our adoption as the children of God. "But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship," Saint Paul writes to the Galatians (4:4-5).

On behalf of our parish family and myself, I thank you all for all your contributions, both material and spiritual, towards building up our parish in 2022. I deeply appreciate them. Let's do it again in the coming year.

Be assured that each of you is in my prayers and thoughts during this holy season. May the Virgin Mary and her Infant Son, Jesus, the King of Peace, fill your hearts, lives, and homes with the choicest of blessings at Christmas and throughout the New Year!

Best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!

Father Anthony O. Ezeaputa, Pastor