Waiting is a winter experience.

We wait anxiously for the coming of the cold and the snow. We wait expectantly for the coming of the thaw and the first signs of longer periods of daylight and mid-way through this season of winter we wait spiritually for the celebration of the coming of Jesus on Christmas Day.

In Matthew’s Gospel, we learn that the birth of Jesus occurred in Bethlehem and in Luke’s Gospel we learn that when the time came for the infant Jesus to be born he was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger because there was no room at the inn. From these two sources of information about the birth of Jesus, artists, musical composers, poets and story tellers have presented images, in the two thousand years since the first Christmas, which have created the picture which we have in our mind of the birth of Christ – described beautifully in the words of the  Christmas Carol, “Away in a Manger”.

Jesus, the Son, has the same nature as the Father and is therefore divine.

By the power of God’s Holy Spirit through his birth of the Virgin Mary, Jesus is one in nature with his mother and is therefore like us in our human nature – except he is without sin. He understands us fully and therefore can be our friend and companion through all the events of our lives. Jesus revealed God to us perfectly and through his life, death and resurrection know God to be loving, gracious and forgiving.

Knowing that Jesus accompanies us through our lives is a wonderful thought to take into 2012.

Father Owen Ness

Rev Owen James Ness, LLB BD, was born in Wishaw and had his secondary education at St Francis Xavier Junior Seminary, Coatbridge, transferring to St Francis Xavier Senior Seminary, Cardross, until 1968, when he entered the University of Glasgow, where he took the degree of LLB. After graduation, he practised law until 2000 when, following his wife’s death and his children now being grown up, he offered himself for the priesthood, for which he prepared at the National Seminary of Scotus College, Bearsden, taking the degree of BD from the Pontifical University of Maynooth.

He was ordained priest by the Right Reverend Joseph Devine, Bishop of Motherwell, in St Ignatius’ Church, Wishaw on 22 June, 2005. Father Ness was appointed to St Margaret’s, Airdrie and chaplain at Monklands Hospital. On 27 November 2010, Father Ness was appointed to St Bride’s, East Kilbride.