Come and stay with us, Lord Message from Bishop Murphy

      This year, as we approach our annual re-living of the birth of Jesus in time, we are invited to make of that feast a reverent and loving pilgrimage of the heart to Bethlehem. As we open our hearts during Advent to his coming once again into our lives as the new born babe, we let the prayers and hymns of Advent and Christmas lift our spirits and heal the wounds and scars that all too often mark our pilgrimage of faith. We turn day by day to the Word of God, especially the first three chapters of the Gospel of Saint Luke, to let the wonder of God-s love who sent His Son sink into our hearts and shape our vision of life.
      He who comes from the Father is the eternal Son of God. By becoming one with us, he casts himself forever with our human lot, making us his brothers and sisters. Pope St. Leo the Great exhorts us, Let us be glad in the Lord and rejoice with spiritual joy . . . For there recurs the commemoration of our salvation which promised from the beginning, accomplished in the fullness of time, will endure forever; on which we are bound with hearts up-lifted to adore the divine mystery; so that what is the effect of God-s great gift may be celebrated by the Church-s great rejoicings.
      There is so much for which we must be thankful this year. Our beautiful diocese is alive and well! Our parishes are oases of God-s life and love! Our people find Christ in one another! Our lives are daily being transformed so long as we put aside the darkness of suspicion and self interest, of rejection and hatred, and embrace one another as true brothers and sisters in Christ. This Christmas all of us must embrace one another in the light of the new born Christ child. And that embrace must include especially the poor and the marginalized, the lonely and the forgotten, young and old, of every race and nation.
      It is not always easy to open our hearts in this way. But how can we do less when we see the heart of Mary loving so deeply and totally her new born Son? How can we do less when we gaze at the child in the crib and know that he has come to save everyone without exception in a love that is beyond telling because it is total and all encompassing?
      Join me in the Holy Father-s prayer to the new born Son of God: You who know the hopes and fears of our hearts, come and stay with us Lord! May the joy of your nativity reach to the farthest ends of the universe.Bishop William Murphy is the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre.