Dear Friends in Christ,
As we rapidly approach the Birth of the Christ-child once again, I would like to take this opportunity of sending you all my annual Christmas Greetings. As Jesus was born in obscurity in the town of Bethlehem over two thousand years ago, God had already planned His Saving action through His Son. That Holy Night brought forth the Saviour of the World in the innocence of a child. Every birth is a miracle of God, and Jesus would show us a way of life that would change everything. We are uniquely privileged to share in the life of Christ as Christians; God’s love knew no bounds and that Love took on our human nature in Jesus. Let us look forward with great Joy for that birth once again into our lives this Christmas!
During the past twelve months, as a parish, we have continued with our Diocesan process of restructuring with our Stewards of the Gospel Programme. Coupled with our parochial programme of Forming Intentional Disciples, the whole process of Evangelisation continues in earnest. To proclaim the Gospel message is fundamentally at the heart of Christianity. We have held several events both social and spiritual, encouraging the whole community to be involved in the life of the parish. The parish partnership of Loughton, Epping & Waltham Abbey organised two wonderful Youth masses where our young people and their families participated in beautiful liturgy and song. It is the Eucharist that unites us in all our faith endeavours. I encourage the whole parish community to continue to support us in the practice of our faith.
The ongoing Forming Intentional Disciples Programme meets on a monthly basis, praying together, reviewing past events and planning future events. We have a core team of regulars, but everyone is always welcome. We are constantly exploring new initiatives and events for our parish community. If you would like to join us, the next meeting takes place in the New Year on Monday 13th January 2020. All Welcome!
I would like to thank the whole parish community for everything you have done for our parish over the past twelve months! Your ongoing support and involvement mean so much. It is truly an honour and privilege to serve the whole community as your Parish Priest. If ever you need help or assistance in anyway, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
I would take this opportunity of wishing you and all your loved ones, both near and far, a Very Happy, Holy & Blessed Christmas; and a healthy & prosperous New Year of 2020.
During this holy season of Advent, we turn to the great witnesses of faith: to St. John the Baptist, to Abraham, our father in faith, who believed against hope, to Mary our Mother who often walked her pilgrimage in the night of faith, and many others. 
The season of Advent is a wonderful, God given opportunity to discover the gift of repentance and the grace of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. When was your last confession? Some people go more regularly than others. The Church invites us to make a sacramental confession at least once a year, but many have not known the grace of this sacrament for a considerable number of years. To anyone in this situation God’s hand of mercy and compassion is extended. Because our confession of sin is mediated through the priest in the confessional it does require special grace and some courage to open up our lives in this way. It is important to understand, however, that we are not confessing to the priest: we are laying down our burden before God. If a priest has received faculties to hear confessions (and this is not automatically granted by the bishop) we hope and pray that ne has the necessary pastoral wisdom and maturity to facilitate this sacrament so that the penitent comes to know in a deeply personal way the mercy, forgiveness and compassion of God. 
The Advent season has its roots in the pagan festival of the winter solstice. The word ‘solstice’ is derived from the Latin word 
people of a philosophical bent have questioned the value of prayer, and especially intercessory prayer. It is said, for example, that the German poet Goethe never prayed because he argued that the world was set on its course anyway. Of course, god knows what we are going to ask him in advance of our asking. But the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that God ‘is the Lord of the universe, whose order he established, and which remains wholly subject to him and at this disposal. He is mater of history, governing hearts and events in keeping with his will….’ (para 269). God did not create the world and then leave it to its own devices! He has assured us through the Scriptures that he will change events as a result of our prayers. The world is not just a machine ticking over like a watch. It is more a unity, directed by an infinite mind which we call God. So, we must keep praying, as Paul says, ‘at all times’, that is when things are good and when things are bad. 
Of course, prayer can be frustrating. Sometimes our prayers never seem to be answered. But God may be leading us to the virtue of perseverance, in Greek 
Our understanding of kingship or queenship is very much rooted in the idea of privilege and of ruling our subjects. Jesus, however, bore witness to an altogether different kind of kingship. He is the Servant King. He is the King of the kingdom of love, service and sacrifice. We are his subjects – we swear a loyalty to our King. What is wonderful about the kingdom is that rather than us just serving the King, the King also serves his people. Jesus turned upside down our understanding of what it means to be great, what it means to be regal. We are called to witness to the fruits, gifts and values not of the kingdom of this world but of the kingdom of Christ.
Today it is the Sadducees who confront the Lord. The Sadducees were an elite aristocratic group – a kind of club of socially aspirational and religiously conservative men. They rejected most of the Old Testament, accepting only the Pentateuch (the first five books) as divinely inspired. Unlike the Pharisees, they did not believe in the afterlife, the spirit world or the resurrection of the body.
Typically, the Lord refuses to answer the questions head on. He rather points to the fact that marriage is a human institution which comes to an end with death, ‘till death do us part’. That is not to say that those who are married are not reunited after death – surely they are – but they are united in a different way and in a different relationship before God. Beyond the confines of this world there is no need for marriage because both man and wife are joined together in their love and worship of God – in the same was as the angels are. 
As sinners go, Zacchaeus was a ‘big fish’ or perhaps it would be better to say a ‘big shark’. As a chief tax collector, he was responsible for other tax collectors and no doubt very experienced in the dark art of exploiting and cheating others. There was a real sense of venom and hatred for these traitors – they were seen as the scum of the earth, the lowest of the low. Ironically, the name Zacchaeus means ‘innocent’ or ‘pure’, but there was nothing pure and innocent about him. His wealth was the fruit of a corrupt tax system in which the Jewish tax collectors secured their own piece of the pie by charging a further levy and skimming off for themselves. They were literally getting wealthy on the back of others.