Dear Brothers and sisters!
It is the end of the year, it is Advent time and soon it is Christmas!
If I was to play a “word association” game with each of you and asked you to choose just one word for this season, my guess is that “gratitude” would be the word that many would select.
The word gratitude may seem meaningless to those struggling for life… And the COVID19 pandemic has worsened the situation… For what and to whom to pay gratitude then!
At the OCD Missionary Cooperation Office as well as at the Centre of the Discalced Carmelite Order, the strength of our interventions to support social and pastoral actions of our missions in various parts of the world is precisely because of the goodness and the backing from many of you. How lucky and thankful are many of our missionaries because God has put you on our way to support them! Thanks a million and may the Good Lord continue to grant all your hearts’ desires.
2021 was “one year-long Advent” for the whole world in General, and for the OCD Missionary Cooperation Office in particular, as everyone awaits to see when the COVID19 pandemic will end. If not all of us, many of us have been nervous, frustrated, impatient and worried … This end of the year, this Advent season and the forth coming Christmastide invite us all to look ahead with hope and thanks, and above all else with a deep sense of commitment to support each other in our efforts to cross over this dramatic time.
The generosity of each one of us is the concrete way in which the Emmanuel, the Greatest Gift of God to humanity, is born and reaches out to those who, during this time, cannot celebrate Christmas!
To all of you who carry our missionaries and their daily sorrows in your prayers; to all of you who promote missionary needs in your families, to your friends and acquaintances; and to all of you who financially contribute to support our mission projects: we are very grateful . Without you we can do nothing but with you we can do everything. May the Lord bless you!
The OCD Missionary Cooperation Office
