Christmas is a festival of joy, hope and peace that we celebrate together. How are you this Christmas? Unfortunately, this year also like last year, most of us cannot hold celebrations together with our family, relatives, friends and communities because this pandemic continues to impact our lives even after two years. As a result we face Christmas with worry, stress and anxieties. Christmas is a celebration of God’s manifestation in this world of darkness, suffering and death to light, healing and life. Christmas reminds us that Christ came into the world not only to set us free from spiritual bondage but from material bondage as well. Jesus came into the world to live among us giving us assurance that God is with us even in the midst of all the chaos. May the eternal God be with you all this Christmas. I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone for their help and support since I came to Prosperous. Our church does not function because of me alone it takes a team who work behind the scenes so I would like to show my appreciation to all the volunteers and people who work tirelessly for the Church. To our sacristan Bill O’Reilly, our parish secretary Angela Delaney, to the altar society who provide us with beautiful flowers, to the cleaning group who scrub and polish the church on a regular basis, to our readers and Eucharistic ministers, to the members in our Pastoral Council and Finance Committee, to the money counters, to Anne Garry & Marie Gordon for their help as sacramental co-ordinators, to Betty O’Connor for all her help, to our stewards for helping to keep us safe during this pandemic, to the Folk Group and Senior choir, to Billy Carey, Mick Dunne & The Focolare Singers who provide us with music to enrich our Masses, to Seanie Ward for his help in the parish, to Fr. Ruairi and the parish team in Newbridge for all their help & support, to Geraldine Heatherton and all her staff in the primary school and in particular the teachers of Confirmation and First Holy Communion classes who prepared the children for the sacraments and finally to you my dear people of God – Our parish family. I thank you for your ongoing commitment and staying faithful to God. Fr. Bernard Reyhart