Maastricht, December 2020

Dear Fellow Brothers and Associated Members,

“The People that sat in darkness have seen a great light.” (Mt 4:16)

Through the loving mercy of our God, we are, once again, coming to the close of another year. We are in another Christmas season and the end of another year. And what a year it has been! It has been undoubtedly an extraordinary year. To the majority of people, it has been and will probably go down as the most trying moment of their lives. At the beginning of the year when we first got wind of covid-19, it sounded only like a bad rumor, then it became a reality from which nearly no one went unscathed. We went from disbelief to fear and questioning, doubting, praying, trusting and hop- ing and then back to the beginning of the cycle. Yet there does not appear an end to the seemingly vicious cycle. This is not the first time people are dying in the thousands but probably it is the first time to notice it. Most of us have never felt this confused and helpless before. If there ever was a time that humanity as a whole questioned the presence or even the existence of their God, it is this year in my view. Yet, no one knows exactly what is going to happen in the coming days. These are days of uncertainties indeed.