It is a message of hope - Christian hope rooted in faith in God who becomes man – that the Rector Major, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, sends via a brief video to the whole Salesian Congregation and the Salesian Family as we approach Christmas and the new year.

After a difficult year full of trials for all humanity, the only way to look at Christmas and 2021 with "serene interiority" is to use a gaze or outlook of faith, a faith that becomes hope. “I like faith that becomes hope,” the Rector Major begins with a quote from the Vietnamese Cardinal Van Thuán - one who knew about faith and hope, having been jailed for many years for his faith.

"How can we talk about Christmas when we have experienced all this?" asks Fr Á.F. Artime. For Christians it is always possible, because Christmas "means that God comes to meet us, that God becomes man still today, close to man, in His Son Jesus," says the Rector Major.

The new year can thus be a good opportunity to start again in a different fashion and better than before: more attentive to the care of Creation, to the "cry of thousands of young people", to welcoming migrants "in a humane way", and to building a world "of compassion, of mercy of hand that comes close to those who need it."

This story orginally appeared in ANS