Christmas message from Robert J Kurtz, CR, –Bishop of the –Diocese of Hamilton in BermudaI am pleased and honoured once again to be able to extend to you best wishes and prayers for God’s blessings at Christmas in the name of the Pastors and Parishioners of the Roman Catholic Parishes in Bermuda.This is the time of year associated with gifts and giving, expressions of love and appreciation, friendship and family.I love Christmas because at the heart of the celebration is the reality of a love beyond all telling.I am grateful that in Bermuda we live in a society that respects freedom of conscience, freedom of speech and freedom of religion.As a Catholic Christian I am free to profess my faith during this Year of Faith inaugurated by Pope Benedict XVI and I can join all believers in expressing my faith that the “love beyond all telling” revealed at Christmas is the God of love who is incarnate in Jesus, the baby born in Bethlehem.The gifts of faith and freedom allow me and others to learn more about this child Jesus through the study of Bible and the teaching of the Church.With the presence of God’s Spirit, faith and learning lead to love and the desire to imitate the self-sacrificing love of Jesus for all humanity.The wood of the manger that holds the Christ child in Bethlehem is a reminder of the wood of the cross upon which Jesus died for us and for our salvation.Saint Augustine says in one of his writings that God became man so that man/humanity might become God.Through faith in Jesus we share in the mysterious gift of divine life here and now, even as we look forward in hope to the promise of eternal life.The love we share and express for each other at Christmas reflects the prior and primordial love that God has for each one of us, now revealed in Jesus the Saviour.A Merry Christmas to all! And may the blessings of the Lord be with us in the New Year.