Dear Friends,
Our parish churches and schools have been busy organising and presenting Carol Services, Nativity Plays and concerts this week. For the first time I attended Bishop Sutton Primary School’s Nativity on Wednesday, having welcomed the Key Stage One children to church for a Christingle Service the previous day. The premise of the production was simple but effective: we can become so obsessed with creating a perfect Christmas that we forget to add the most important ingredients.
In the end, after adding snowflakes, robins and Father Christmas, the children remembered the most important elements and the recipe was saved. But it’s a simple and important lesson to each of us amid all the activity of these final days of Advent: let’s not forget what and who we are preparing for.
Our focus for this final Sunday of Advent is The Virgin Mary, the mother of Our Lord whose ‘yes’ was an essential ingredient in our Christmas Gospel. This week, Matthew tells the story of the virgin birth of the Messiah, focusing on Mary’s miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit. Though Mary was a virgin, she conceived and bore a son in fulfilment of the ancient prophesy. Joseph, guided by an angel, accepted this divine mystery and named the child Jesus.
Through Mary, Jesus enters human history as a descendant of David, yet his conception by the Holy Spirit shows that his origin is divine. Mary’s virginity symbolizes the purity and miraculous nature of God’s intervention, demonstrating that Jesus’ coming was entirely an act of divine grace rather than human will. In this way, Mary stands as the great bridge between God’s eternal promise and its fulfilment in the birth of Christ.
Yours in Christ,
Ian
