Fr Aminiasi Ravuwai and some of his siblings.
Dear members of the Columban Family, Friends and Benefactors,
Its Christmas time again, Christian world will celebrate the birth of Christ. We certainly need him to be born again into our hearts, families and communities this year above all years.
It has been the strangest of years – A disturbed year dominated by Covid 19. And even last week Tropical Cyclone Yasa further disturbed Fiji as we approached the Christmas season. It has distributed, the livelihoods of thousands of people living in Vanua Levu. It disturbed the date fixed for Deacon Amini’s Ordination. It wasn’t easy to switch from a weekend celebration to one in the middle of the week – but we all adapted and accepted the inconvenience. Thank God Fr Aminiasi Ravuwai was ordained to the Missionary Priesthood on the morning of 22nd Dec. and offered his 1st Holy Mass in his native parish St Don Bosco’s Narere. What a Christmas gift for him and his family.
During 2020, none of us escaped hearing about deaths, suffering, loss of employment, restriction of movement and lockdowns throughout the year. So in a lot of ways – the celebration of Christmas with its messages of hope, joy and peace should be of more significant for us this year. Pope Francis said that “No Pandemic can stop the light and peace of Christmas’” – that is the light and peace of Christ.
May this kind of hope and promise be rebirthed in many suffering hearts this Christmas.
We welcome Christ into this world of suffering and fear. Our broken world needs healing by him who says “Come to me, all who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest.”
Of course, it is important for us to reflect on the many people who have lost their jobs and are affected by the pandemic. I am sure we will find opportunities to reach out to some of them this Christmas. - through Charitable organisations like the St Vincent de Paul and Caritas.
If you are going through hard times, brokenness, loneliness and sadness, invite Christ into your life and your present situation, stay with Him in silence, listen to him and trust in his promises. “Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest”.
After all he is Emanuel: God with us.
I wish all members of the Columban Family, Friends and Benefactors a blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year.
John McEvoy,
Columban Leader, Fiji.
