Dear friends,
As our annual celebration of the Lord’s Birth draws near, we would like to extend to you our greetings and prayers that this holy season will allow you the special opportunity to be with your families and loved ones.
The mystery of the Incarnation is the mystery of family and of relationships. In Jesus, God became one like us; in Jesus, God embraced humanity wholly and completely; in the love of Mary and Joseph, Jesus experienced the tenderness that is the mark of our families.
Our faith also binds us together, offering encouragement and hope, support and belonging. As we celebrate God’s choice of us as Jesus’ brothers and sisters, so his Birth – so long ago – has the power even now to renew us. God’s love, poured out in Jesus, is for now and forever.
May these final days of Advent, the Christmas season and the coming of the New Year be for you and your loved ones a time of grace and peace, rejoicing that “unto us a Child is born ... Who is Christ and Lord.”
Sincerely,
Patrick J. McGrath, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of San Jose
Thomas A. Daly, auxiliary bishop of the Catholic Diocese of San Jose
