From the Director

Fr Trevor Trotter

Some of you may have heard by now that I have been appointed as the Regional Director for St Columbans Mission Society, Australia and New Zealand with Fr Patrick McInerney as the Vice-Director. I am looking forward to the role and hope that I can lead with the same effectiveness as previous Directors. 

As we begin the new liturgical year with Advent, we can look at both Advent and Christmas through a lens of desire. Our Christian tradition teaches us that God desires to be with us. St John said it well in his Gospel, “God loved the world so much that he sent his only Son” (3:16).

St Augustine also said it well in the often quoted saying, “Our hearts will not rest until they rest in You”. We seem to have the perfect marriage here.  God desires to be with us and we desire to be with Him. What could go wrong?

Well we know that we do go wrong.  Our own house is not in order. Our desires are disordered. We have to spend a lot of our lives trying to sort out our desires. We go looking for God in many different places and it usually takes us a while to be successful in our searching.

That is why during Advent the Church urges us to do an audit of our desires. We have other names for it such as “doing penance.” Jesus talked about pruning the vine so that there would be more growth. As we do the pruning of our disordered desires we will feel the pain. It is penitential.

Then on the third Sunday of Advent we have a happy day!  The opening line for the Entrance Antiphon is “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say rejoice.” We are happy when our desires are satisfied; when we get what we long for. We can rejoice because the Lord is always with us. On this Sunday we celebrate the joy that we have come to know when our deepest desire for God meets the desire of God for us.

It is no wonder that the angels are full of joy on the night of Christmas. The God of love has come into the world and will always be with us. This is the story we Columbans have been telling for 100 years.

I thank you for your support of Columban Mission and pray that we will be able to continue to spread this Good News for the next 100 years.   

May your Christmas be full of joy. 

Fr Trevor Trotter signature

Fr Trevor Trotter

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