NDNC 2025 Magazine - READ HERE!
Friends,
There is joy in the air as the Church celebrates Advent and we cycle into another Church year. Our calendar here at the Notre Dame – Newman Centre has been full and we give thanks for the many blessings we have received in 2025. As we enter into this season of watchful waiting, we call to mind the many babies and adults who have been baptised, the girls from Loreto Junior School on the Green who received first Holy Communion and Confirmation, and the dozens of couples who exchanged marriage vows at our altar through which we find signs of hope for the future of the faith in Ireland.
The Newman Centre at University Church strives to be a beacon of joy and hope in our world, and a place where thoughtful discussion about important spiritual and social matters occurs. This happens through the various services, prayers, lectures and concerts you will read about in this yearbook. It also happens through the countless small discussions, acts of support and kindnesses offered and received in this holy place. These are the acts of a people immersed in the reality of Christ; an Advent people who
live in joyful anticipation of Christ’s triumphal return in glory.
In his sermon “Watching”, first published in Parochial and Plain Sermons in 1838, St. John Henry Newman addresses the watchful waiting of a Christian.
Do you know what it is to have a friend in a distant country, to expect news of him, and to wonder from day to day what he is now doing, and whether he is well? Do you
know what it is so to live upon a person who is present with you, that your eyes follow his, that you read his soul, that you see all its changes in his countenance, that you anticipate his wishes, that you smile in his smile, and are sad in his sadness, and are downcast when he is vexed, and rejoice in his successes? To watch for Christ is a feeling such as all these; as far as feelings of this world are fit to shadow out those of another.
He watches for Christ who has a sensitive, eager, apprehensive mind; who is awake,
alive, quick-sighted, zealous in seeking and honoring him; who looks out for him in all
that happens, and who would not be surprised, who would not be over-agitated or
overwhelmed, if he found that he was coming at once.
In a year where we celebrate Newman’s declaration as a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIV, let us continue to look for Christ in every world event great and small, in every encounter with a friend or colleague, in every prayer and meal shared. May we see the world suffused with the grace of God and know our lives to be supported by his loving hand.
Enjoy this brief review of our year here on St. Stephen’s Green and know that we are thankful for your encouragement and support. May the year ahead continue to be filled with his blessings. May we have the eyes to always see the Lord’s kindnesses to us and the attentiveness to ceaselessly voice our thanks.
Happy Christmas,
Fr. Gary Chamberland, CSC
CLICK HERE TO READ THE 2025 MAGAZINE
