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APPOINTED TO BE READ AT ALLPUBLIC MASSES IN ALL CHURCHES AND CHAPELS IN THE DIOCESE OF LANCASTER ON THE WEEKEND OF 27th/28th DECEMBER 2025

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My dear people,

we should be slow to ‘pack Christmas away’, and we should be slow to ‘pack the Holy Year away’.

The Feast of the Holy Family is given to us as a gift of encouragement and hope for the time we still have. Let us consider this gift, what is it that you and I have received? The Holy Year of Hope was a season of many blessings and Graces. Those blessings draw us more confidently into the life and love of the Holy Family. Through Baptism we become adopted children of God. Through imitating Christ in charity, He recognizes us as His brothers and sisters. Through our veneration of Mary as Mother of the Faithful, we live as her own children, given to her by Jesus as He was dying on the Cross.

We are marking the conclusion of the Holy Year of Hope. Each of us has been prayed for. Our prayers have been heard and answered by the Lord. We have received blessings and Graces because the Lord wants us to be grafted onto and into the Holy Family. He wants us to carry His light into the new year, to chase away the darkness of fear and failure not just in our own lives, but also in the lives of others.

In due time, the angels returned to heaven, the shepherds went back to their flocks, the Magi returned to their homes, and the little Holy Family left the little town of Bethlehem, making for Egypt. They have become exiles, refugees fleeing persecution. Fear is a constant feature in the Gospels. Mary and Joseph are told there are people who want to destroy this child. It sounds far-fetched, but remember, we live in a world where infanticide exists. We know that children can be targeted in war with the intention of destroying an adversary’s future. The Christmas story has a dark side. With the coming of Jesus into the world sin reacts with threats and violence. A sleeping dog has been woken.

It won’t be long before we begin to see all the lights disappearing from the streets and houses around us. They went on in a flurry of excitement for the coming festivities Soon we will see Christmas packed away, as life returns to normal. But our family is different. We live by different beliefs and rules that will often put us out of step with our neighbours.  That is not to say we are better than others – God alone will be our judge. If we are to serve His purpose we must accept living differently, and being known as families who do so.

May God continue to bless your homes and families as we carry His light into 2026.

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With my blessing,

Rt Rev Paul Swarbrick

Bishop of Lancaster

APPOINTED TO BE READ AT ALLPUBLIC MASSES IN ALL CHURCHES AND CHAPELS IN THE DIOCESE OF LANCASTER ON THEWEEKEND OF  29^th/30^thNovember 2025

My dear people,

as we begin the Holy Season of Advent my thoughts turn to Mary, our Blessed Lady, beginning the final month other pregnancy. She is carrying Life. For eight months she has sensed this child growing within her, this child given to her, and taking from her. As unborn children we feed on our mother’s blood, warmth, nourishment. It is as though the mother says to her child, ‘Take and eat, this is my body for you. Take and drink, this is my blood for you, that you may have life from me.’ In her case of course this nourishment is of a created type. Many years ahead, she would receive food given her by her Son, food of a different type, giving her eternal Life.

Let us reflect on this young pregnant woman as she offers us a way into this new Advent. She is expecting, preparing and waiting. She invites us to take on these same tasks in our own times by spending time meditating on her as she approaches the end of her pregnancy. We are so easily tempted to rush on to the events of the 25^th of December, counting down the days, but that is to miss so much, as if we are so taken by the gift that we completely overlook the care taken by the giver of the gift. The gift has been chosen for us, prepared for us, brought to us, shared with us. None of this should be taken for granted.

Before the shepherds are disturbed at night, before angel choirs fill the skies, before the Magi leave their homelands, and whilst Herod remains in the dark concerning world events, this young woman carries in her womb the Lord of Life, already started on His work of Salvation. Even before her delivery she has so much to share with us. For her the Word became flesh nine months before Christmas, on the Solemnity we barely notice these days, the Annunciation of the Lord. She knows Him best of all.

What a precarious approach the Giver of Life has taken. From her village life Mary would be well acquainted with the risks of pregnancy. She would know of women who died in childbirth, of babies lost. She would know of difficult deliveries and infection risks. Added to that she now has an unwelcome 80-mile journey to make from Nazareth to Bethlehem and it has come at exactly the wrong time. St Joseph may be a good carpenter, but he is no midwife. While in Nazareth she was amongst her own people and could count on the care and support of devoted family and neighbours experienced in these matters, and she had the comfort of familiar surroundings. Now however she is to be at the mercy of strangers, in a place unknown to her, full of uncertainties. It seems circumstances conspired against her and this little blessed life she carried within her. Thank God, with St Joseph by her side, she was able to trust in God’s protection for herself and for the child in spite of the odds.

We need to reflect on this because we live in a culture which is increasingly losing sight and understanding of the gift of life and losing sight of the Giver of Life. Sadly for all the advances in society, in healthcare and useful technology, there is much in our contemporary culture that works against life, particularly vulnerable life. Unborn children are severely and increasingly at risk. Each year hundreds of thousands are killed. The elderly are facing increasing pressure to effectively end their own lives. In  hospitals DNR (Do Not Resuscitate)is often put on the records of disabled and sick by medical professionals without any reference to family. It is becoming an ‘undisclosed policy’. Government chooses to cut Development-aid in favour of Defence budgets. The lives of millions of the poorest are adversely affected. From my years in Zambia and my visits to Ethiopia, South Sudan and Kenya I have seen what a difference it makes to the people whose living conditions are little different from those that the Mother of our Redeemer would have experienced. It seems that those who are born disadvantaged are subject to ever-increasing disadvantage. I strongly recommend to you Pope Leo’s recently published first Apostolic Exhortaion, Dilexite (On love for the poor).

There is another event and another date that remains hidden from us, brought to our minds every Advent; the Second Coming of Christ. He promised to come again, and He keeps His promises. It will happen at an hour we do not know, but we must expect and prepare and wait.

The Centenary year is over. The year of Jubilee will soon be completed. This has been a rich year of Grace and Blessings for us. Blessings are more than favours or tokens of approval from a kind Lord. They are given as ‘cage-rattlers’ to wake us from sleep and pull us back from our distractions. They are given as tonics to strengthen us for what still remains to be done if we are to complete our journey of faith. They are given to enable us to expect, prepare and wait. Like Mary, I am called to be a guardian of creation, a guardian of life by becoming a guardian of The Life. If I fail in this, whatever else I may achieve will count for nothing.

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With my blessing,

Rt Rev Paul Swarbrick

Bishop of Lancaster

A rather wet trip to Ladyewell in the Diocese of Lancaster today, in the shadow of the fells and Forests of Bowland to support the annual Diocesan and Server’s pilgrimage to the shrine to Our Lady. The heavens truly opened for us which put a stop to the usual procession through the countryside, but this did not dampen the occasion. Bishop Paul Swarbrick with several of the local clergy led the servers and other faithful in a Mass, Exposition and Benediction in honour of Our Lady of Fernyhalgh.

Bishop Swarbrick noted in his homily, the procession at the start of Mass, may have seemed long with all the servers and clergy, but we are all part of a procession which stretches back to Christ himself, and stretches forward, we are moving with Christ in the right direction, and we should be encouraged. We should, despite events in the world and other temptations, not give up, we must persevere, grow in fidelity, in our knowledge of the Mass, in our ability to serve well with confidence, and with reverence. We all have our plans, but God has a BETTER plan, it may seem sometimes like He is making a mistake, but with the help of Our Lady, we can listen, through her, who knew Jesus best, and understand what He is asking of us.

More photos on our Flickr page: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCuKkj ‍

If you wish to be removed from any photos published here contact Katie Woods, Bishop’s PA at bishop@lrcd.org.uk