Boxing Day Mass

This year the first Sunday of Christmas falls on Boxing Day.  We will not be holding our usual Sunday services but we shall celebrate a short said mass in church at 10.30am.

We only celebrated Christmas yesterday but in today’s reading Jesus is 12 already!  The story of Jesus at the temple in Luke 2:41-52, is paired with the story of Samuel being left to serve God at the temple by his mother Hannah, 1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26.  Unlike Hannah, Mary seems unwilling to lend her son to the Lord yet and asks him: “Why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety”.  Jesus replies that she should have known that he would be in his Father’s house.  Here he is not referring to an actual place, the temple, but to the household, the community, the people of God. The place where we truly belong, the place where God is trying to lead us.  But we, like Mary, often ask God “Why have you treated us like this?”.  As Mary discovered, in leading us to God,  Christ often shatters our expectations and messes up our carefully laid plans.  May we, like Hannah, be willing to lend our hopes and expectations to God.

Join us in church at 10.30am on Boxing Day.

Face coverings should be worn in church in accordance with the law. The current rules permit face coverings to be removed while singing.