‘Let’s Pray’: Archbishop Mark Coleridge’s Christmas Invitation 

In annual Christmas messages this year, Australia’s bishops have reminded the faithful that the peace, hope and joy of the Nativity can be an antidote to a ‘one-dimensional and unenchanted’ world that is marked by war, poverty and despair.

Archbishop Mark Coleridge writes in his message that “The challenge is not to flee to some fake-enchanted world that turns to dust but to discover the extraordinary, the truly enchanted, at the heart of the ordinary.”

Join Archbishop Mark in a new weekly series called, Let’s Pray, to learn how to listen in the depths of our hearts, to see and encounter Our Saviour in this Christmas moment. Christian prayer begins in silence because it begins by listening to God, Archbishop Mark says.

“I start by reading from the Christmas Gospel followed by a silence. The listening presumes silence, and silence is as much part of Christmas as the carols we sing. The songs come out of the silence and return to it. If all we do in prayer is speak, then as Jesus says we “babble like the pagans” who don’t know how to listen. But if we can listen, then we hear the voice of God and can sing the songs of joy. Merry Christmas!”

Archbishop Mark Coleridge’s 2023 Christmas message (written)
Archbishop Mark Coleridge’s 2023 Christmas Prayer invitation (video)