A Christmas Message From Bishop Anthony

Almighty God and Father of Light, a child is born for us and a son is given to us.

Your eternal Word leaped down from heaven in the silent watches of the night and now your Church is filled with wonder at the nearness of her God. Open our hearts to receive His life and increase our vision with the rising of dawn, that our lives may be filled with His glory and peace, who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

— Dawn Mass of Christmas

It is the season for exchanging gifts. Last year the youth of the world gathered in Cologne -- the city of the Three Kings -- to bring to Christ not just gold, frankincense and myrrh but something even more precious: their faith, hope and love. They joined with Pope Benedict, the whole Church and all their generation in focussing on the very beginning of Christ's time among us when, as the Christmas babe, he received our homage and offered us salvation.

That was the beginning of Jesus' journey and at Christmas time we especially focus on this. But there was more for him to do. He had a life yet to live and it was the life of a young person. For almost all of the years that the Son of God was among us, he was not a baby or a full-grown adult, but a young person. God was for most of his human life on earth in the age group of World Youth Day pilgrims! And like them he was a pilgrim, making his way through the world and through life, seeking the will of the Father and sharing his faith, his power, his very substance with the rest of humanity along the way.

At the end, after completing his mission as a young pilgrim saviour, he promised us one last gift and asked one from us. He promised us the power of the Holy Spirit. He asked in return that we be his witnesses to all the world. Th is is the theme chosen for World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008: the fulfilment of Christ's last words in the lives of the young people of the world.

World Youth Day is only a year and a half away. So let's make this Christmas season a time of preparation for the great pilgrimage to Sydney. We are working hard here in Sydney to receive you as a pilgrim in 2008. Get yourself ready now for that journey. Sweep out the stable of your heart; receive the Christ Child and kneel in worship before his crib. Open your mind and heart to receive God's Holy Spirit when you come to Sydney!

God bless you and all those you love in this holy season and in the year ahead.

Bishop Anthony,

Coordinator,

World Youth Day 2008