NOVEMBER 2025

Dear Rev. Fathers, Religious, and People of God,

I take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry and Joyous Christmas and a Grace-filled New Year. May the Baby Jesus bless you all throughout the year 2026. Christmas is the birth day of Lord Jesus, the greatest of all birthdays. It is the birth day of Son of God who has come to be with us. His birthday is also our birthday because we become the children of God in the Son of God. To all those who receive him and believe in his name, he gives power to become children of God. This is the news of great joy. Let us give a joyful and hearty welcome to the Lord who comes to us, in to our hearts and minds. He is living with us because he is Immanuel, God with us. In him God's love and grace has been revealed. His coming has made salvation possible. He being Immanuel, let us see the face of Christ in all our fellowmen, particularly in the poor, the abandoned, the down trodden, the marginalized, the waifs and strays etc., 

The new year has dawned and the old year has already passed into the past. As the new year has just stepped in, let us welcome this year with joy, hope and expectations, above all, with total trust in God. It is a precious gift from loving Father in heaven. We learn lessons from our past experiences. We grasp the present and step into the future with trust in God and selfconfidence. With blessings of God, the new year be one of joy and peace.

On the 1st of January, we honor Our Blessed Mary as the Mother of God. Mary gave birth to Jesus and so undoubtedly is the mother of Jesus who is God. As Elizabeth proclaimed, Mary is “the mother of my Lord (Luke 1/43)”. Jesus clearly says from the cross, “She is your mother (John 19/27)”. God wants his mother and our mother to be honored. So today, 1st of January, we are celebrating the Mother of God, Mother of the Church and Mother of the universe. As we are her children, we should learn from Our Blessed Mother the lessons of authentic Christian living. Mary teaches us both by example and word. Our love and admiration for Mary should lead us to imitate her to be genuine disciples of her Son. Her unwavering faith, total surrender to God's word, obedience etc., are all shining examples for us to emulate. Through her powerful intercessions, let the new year be filled with God's manifold and untold blessings.

Our former Pope Francis inaugurated the jubilee year of the birth of Jesus in the year 2024. In our diocese we inaugurated the same jubilee year on 29th December 2024 in our cathedral on a grand way. Our Holy Father Leo XIV will conclude the jubilee year at St. Peter's Basilica on 25th 2025 at Christmas Eve. The Pope wanted the universal church to close the jubilee year at the end of December. We shall conclude the jubilee year on 28th December at our cathedral in a solemn way. May the new-born Christ bless you all abundantly in the year 2026.

Yours devotedly in Risen Lord

+L. Thomas Aquinas

Bishop of Coimbatore