VIEWS

On behalf of Bishop Nevares and all the clergy and religious of the Diocese of Phoenix, Bishop Olmsted is praying that you and your loved ones have a merry Christmas.

Christmas is a celebration of the infinite love of God, a love that is unbounded, a love that loosens limitations and dissolves boundaries. It is the feast of a God whose love obscures the separation between divinity and humanity, God and man.

The days leading up to Christmas are a great time to prepare ourselves mentally and spiritually to celebrate the coming of our Lord. However, for many of us this time can be difficult when our world seems almost unrecognizable from just a year ago. We may be anxious, lonely, distressed or discouraged. How do we deal with these feelings, during a time when the Lord is inviting us to joyous anticipation of Christmas?

Advent is a time of anticipation. We wait, marking the passage of time with our Advent candles, counting the days. Drawing closer to Bethlehem. This year has felt more Lent than Advent, but it has been a time of waiting, a year of mandated patience.

Bishop Olmsted urges us to keep our loved ones close to our heart this Thanksgiving, and offers up some practical tips to help prepare our hearts and minds to welcome the Lord as we enter into the Season of Advent.

The release of the McCarrick report is a significant undertaking and milestone for the church. We fervently pray that its release will begin the healing so desperately needed by the universal and American church and that it will help restore faith in members of the hierarchy and the greater institutional church.

Catholic schools are a great gift for our young people and their parents. Growing up, Bishop Olmsted went to a small country school with just a few students — and he and his family were the only Catholics! It was a good community and he has wonderful memories, but when he experienced Catholic education, upon entering the seminary, he was amazed at the richness of the Catholic intellectual heritage began to realize how much he had missed.

In this new message, Bishop Olmsted tells us that when we pray the Rosary and spend time in the presence of Jesus and Mary, we grow in freedom from selfishness and become freer for the worship of God and love of our neighbor. While struggling against constant attacks by the Evil One, we look with hope to the Redemptive suffering and death of Jesus, and find ready assistance in the intercession of His Beloved Mother.

Watch and Like this message from Bishop Olmsted as we prepare to resume in-classroom learning, and be sure to Share it with your family and friends!

Life is never easy in Lebanon. In addition to COVID-19, the city of Beirut has suffered an explosion that has changed the lives of thousands.