As we move closer to Christmas, we are invited to reflect on today’s gospel invitation to each of us to embrace the role of Joseph by welcoming Jesus into our lives in order to bring him to everyone we encounter. Without our “yes”, God’s hands are tied, writes Christian Brother Julian McDonald.

Both Mary and Joseph set aside fear, self-interest and reputation to claim a child whom their world would have regarded as unwanted, in order to usher into the world ‘God-with-us’. And isn’t that our role as Christians - to bring Jesus to birth in our small part of the world by reaching out in the midst of criticism and insult to those who are forgotten, deliberately overlooked and discarded for no other reason than our belief is that God is with us and in them, too, writes Christian Brother Julian McDonald.

To be a prophet is to witness with courage and credibility that God is very much alive and active in our lives and in our world, that God is present in our places of work, in our homes, in our parish communities, in our neighbourhoods and in our places of rest, relaxation and entertainment. A prophet’s success is not measured by the numbers who come as disciples or by the applause of the audience, but in our fidelity to doing what we know is right, by the passion we have for justice, and by our readiness to speak the truth, irrespective of who our audience happens to be, writes Christian Brother Julian McDonald.

Advent is a season in the Christian calendar when we are invited to pray and reflect on the true meaning of God’s incarnation in our flesh and blood in the person of Jesus. To do that requires time and patience  -  two things that we have become expert at ensuring are in short supply. We choose to live our lives at such a frenetic pace that we rarely take time out for prayer and reflection, and reduce patience to an unfamiliar virtue, writes Christian Brother Julian McDonald.

oday, as a community of people who claim to give our allegiance to Jesus Christ, we celebrate the reign of Christ in our lives. Our life experience tells us that we were born to love and be loved. As followers of Jesus, we do our best to love in imitation of him whom we acknowledge as the ultimate revelation of God, writes Christian Brother Julian McDonald.