In the name of the pastors and faithful of the Roman Catholic Church in Bermuda, I am pleased and privileged to wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

I would like to take this opportunity to extend Christmas greetings to our new Governor, His Excellency Sir Richard Gozney and Lady Diana Gozney.

May your first Christmas in Bermuda be a joyful one for you. Special Christmas greetings as well, to all the newly elected Members of Parliament.

Christmas is a time of hope. Children live in the hope of receiving Christmas presents.

Young people and adults look forward with hope to spending time with friends, loved ones, and family members.

Some people will travel great distances to do so.

This Christmas, Bermuda lives in the hope that the newly elected Members of Parliament and the new Government will serve the country with honesty and integrity for the common good of all.

This leads us, quite naturally, to hope for peace and well-being in the troubled areas in our world: Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel/Palestine, Darfur, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and all the other areas of social and political conflict.

We hope that Christmas will bring peace to these areas.

However, viewed from a position of Christian Faith, all the hopes I mentioned could be considered "little hopes" in the face of the "big hope" that is, the radical hope revealed in the Christmas mystery.

The beautiful Christmas Carol, "Silent Night, Holy Night" repeats the message that "Christ, our Saviour is born".

Jesus, whose name means "Saviour", is born in Bethlehem. Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ, that is, the promised Saviour.

Faith teaches us that Jesus is the Son of God made Man.

He comes to save us from the power of evil, the power of sin and death, by His own death and resurrection.

The crib leads to the cross. Looking upon the Child Jesus with eyes of faith gives us hope, the hope of finding true meaning in life and the hope that all the desires of our human heart will be fulfilled in eternal life with God.

Pope Benedict XVI often speaks of the great hope that comes to us through faith in Jesus Christ.

On a recent trip to Rome, I came across a Holy Card which carried the following quotation from Pope Benedict's writings and I would like share it with you by way of conclusion:

"Only where God is seen, does life truly begin. Only when we meet the living God in Christ do we know what life is.

"We are not some casual and meaningless and product of evolution. Each of us is the product of a thought of God. Each of us is willed. Each of us is loved. Each of us is necessary.

There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ.

There is nothing more beautiful than to know Him and to speak to others of our friendship with Him."

My hope and prayer for you is that this Christmas will bring you something beautiful — that you might be surprised by Gospel, that you might encounter God in the Christ Child.

I pray that you would experience the beauty of knowing Jesus, the Lord whose birth we celebrate at Christmas and that you might share the joy of your friendship with Him with those you love.

A blessed Christmas to all.