Happy Christmas

The photo above shows Saggart Church as seen from near the carpark in Citywest hotel. In our churches we are about to celebrate the very joyous occasion that is Christmas every year.  But last year and this one, we in Saggart couldn't and cannot but think also of all the Ukrainian refugees spending Christmas in our local hotel. They have been torn from their families, wives from husbands, children from their fathers, far away from their homes and living togther as best they can in one room. Not so long ago, before Covid and the war, this hotel was for us all here in Saggart somewhere to relax, celebrate, have a good time. In February 2020 it was buzzing with excitement as an election count centre. The following month, Covid struck and the hotel soon became a vaccination centre. Then in February 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine and the wave of refugees that followed spread as far as Ireland, with the Citywest Hotel becoming a refugee-reception centre and, later, a 'transit hub'.  All had changed utterly, yes indeed, and an unspeakable terror had been born. Whenever I bump into the elderly man I first met at the St Patrick's Day parade last year accompanied by his ever-so-brave wife pushing his wheelchair, I find I am simply lost for words. All I can do is say 'Hello' in Ukrainian, one of the very few words I know, as cheerily as I can. Thoughts like these cannot but stay with us through this festive season as will also the horror taking place at the moment in the land of Jesus's birth, another sad event threatening to drown out the joyous singing of the angels.

We wish each other, then, a Christmas as happy as can be in these circumstances. And there is  definitely something happy-making in this piece of news: we can convey a Christmas greeting to our Ukrainian guests at the same time as we do to each other, since we both, Ukrainian Orthodox and Irish Catholics, now celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December.  And so:

Happy Christmas,   Nollaig Shona,
З Різдвом Христовим [z rizdvom khrystovym]