Please note that the MSC Missions Office will be closed over the Christmas period, from 2.00pm on Tuesday, December 23rd. We will re-open at 9.00am on Friday, January 2nd.
With warmest wishes to our mission friends everywhere for a happy, healthy, and safe Christmas season.
Dear Friends,
Christmas blessings to you and yours! In this season of Advent, where we are encouraged to stop in prayerful pause for reflection and thanksgiving, I am always reminded of what a blessing it is to be here to see another Christmas, surrounded by friends, family, and loved ones, in the knowledge that our extended Sacred Heart community has touched hundreds and thousands of lives since we last came together in Christmas prayer.
We all know that the greatest gift of all is time – time spent with others, or time dedicated to a certain purpose, that one particular thing that we can give wholeheartedly and with our full presence. One of the greatest gifts that you, our mission friends, give us year after year, is your time. You take the time to read and listen to our stories, you take the time to learn about our projects, you take the time to pray with us. What a great, great gift and blessing that is, and we are sincerely grateful for it.
In 2026, we will be celebrating 60 years of service at the MSC Missions Office on the Western Road in Cork City – a landmark anniversary, and yet another reminder of the value of time. I write to you today, as my predecessors might have written to your parents or grandparents, your friends or your neighbours, in years gone by. We have seen six decades of mission friends pass the torch of friendship and support down through the generations, and what a tremendously powerful and touching legacy that is.
This year, our MSCs have continued to shine the light of God’s love in some of the world’s darkest places – and as always, our work is only possible with your support. Your light shines brightly all over the world, and your compassion is touching the hearts of people you might never meet, in places you might never see, but whose lives have been changed for the better because of you.
Christmas can of course be a difficult time in many ways; to all who find themselves struggling this Christmas, for any reason, please know that you are in my prayers, and in the prayers of our MSC priests around the world.
For now, I wish you a peaceful, joyful Advent, and a heart full of quiet gratitude and light as we celebrate this beautiful season and look ahead with hopeful hearts to a new year ahead. May the spirit of love and goodwill fill the Christmas season, and may God grant you an abundance of blessings throughout the coming year.
Wishing you a happy, holy, and peaceful Christmas,
Fr John Fitzgerald MSC
Director of the MSC Missions Office
