We are living through challenging times at the moment in the West. For many people things are looking bleak from a financial point of view. Seemingly solid banks and building societies have crashed or been taken over and the threat of recession and job losses looms ahead. As Christians, however, hopefully, our rock is Christ, not our money or our career, and it is at times like this that we have to remind ourselves that nothing can happen to us which is outside God’s permissible will and that all things work to good for those who believe. In this context, Cyril John, the chairman of the NSC for Catholic Charismatic Renewal in India, has written a particularly apt and challenging piece about the way sometimes God can allow good things to be taken away from us because of a greater work He is doing in our lives to help us grow in personal holiness. Fr Chris Thomas, meanwhile, in his regular column reminds us not to be afraid and use Advent as a time to focus on the mystery of God and his coming to us.

As the nights get colder it is a good time to think about the homeless, particularly when we remember that Jesus was born in a stable and in Matthew 25 He reminds us that whatever we do for the least of these, we do it for Him. In this issue we learn about the amazing work of Paul Callaghan and the Mother of Mercy society in Liverpool, who reach out in love to the homeless on the streets of Liverpool. Through their witness 36 homeless people have been baptised or come back to God over the last two years. Lots of people have been asking me about my sabbatical and included in this issue I have written about the 30 day silent Ignatian retreat I went on and share one of the key lessons that the Lord taught me on it.

One of the priorities that the Holy Spirit seems to be reminding us of, is the importance of intercession. Toni Pomfret, from Good News Books, explains its vital role in her life, and the benefit she and her husband Gerard, have derived from having a couple of friends pray for their work. Fiona Hendy from the House of the Open Door Community, who manages the intercessors network for the National Service Committees for CCR in the UK and Ireland, tells us what she feels the Lord is saying at the moment and the importance of “Rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem” (ie. the Church through intercession, personal transformation and evangelisation). This message is underlined by a similar one received by the group who went to Assisi, last year, in response to a prophetic word given at the Newman Consultation. Gerry Gallacher reports on a recent discernment meeting they had in Wales at St. Non’s. Many people believe that revival and a special outpouring of grace is in the air. Fr Pat Collins CM, back from his two year sabbatical in the US, reflects on what we can learn from the recent Lakeland revival in Florida in the light of the fall from grace of its chief evangelist Todd Bentley.

Reading the Scripture is always food for the soul and in the last of our series “Your Word is a lamp for my Feet” four readers share their reflections on passages of Scripture that have been especially meaningful for them. We also have a Lectio Divina passage from Mark’s Gospel with some tips to help people reflect and get the most from it. This is published by the Bible Society, who are co-operating with the Roman Catholic Church on a publication called Sunday Gospel Readings with Lectio Divina which is available for download through their website. Extra material has been supplied by the Sion Community.

Last month we alerted you to the new DVD that Catholic Evangelisation Services had produced for CASE (the Catholic Agency to Support Evangelisation) to encourage evangelisation and mission in parishes. This is a DVD that has been sent free to parish priests round the country and I can tell you it is excellent, particularly the section about Fr Richard McKay’s parish in Bristol, which is very inspiring. So do nudge your priest about it and get him to have a look, it could be very useful in stimulating the parish into action. If you would like a copy yourself please contact Liesel 0845 050 9428 or email resources@faithcafe.org. As CES are not producing any new videos this year, you may be able to get David Payne along to your parish for a one off CAFÉ mission to inspire your community to take up this challenge to evangelise(see page 23).

If you enjoy DVDs and films generally, you might be interested in a new website called www.soulfoodcinema.com which has recently been set up by a young Catholic film enthusiast Mark Banks to encourage people to think about the messages of the films they are watching. Mark tells us something of his own faith journey and why he thinks film is so important. We always take the opportunity at this time of the year to encourage our regular readers to take out a gift subscription for friends or family members as it is a wonderful way to spread the good news of what God is doing and a real antidote to the bad news that seems to dominate in the media. So why not think about it this Christmas we often find that people are so delighted with Goodnews that they will continue to renew it themselves the coming year. Fill in the enclosed gift subscription form or write to us at the Goodnews office.