‘Wave of Hope’ offers 25 short multimedia reflections for the season of Advent – one a day – as our contributors share a moment in the year that has led them to a place of hope.
24th December 2025
Our final Wave of Hope reflection for Advent comes from the 11th Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols.
Cardinal Vincent, after an incredibly memorable year, found goodness and hope in the pupils he met on a visit to a secondary school just before Advent. This inspired him to the central message of his reflection:
“Reflect on the goodness in your life, the goodness you’ve received from all sorts of people – maybe even from people you don’t know. When you embrace the goodness, then you will find hope springing in your heart.”
Wave of Hope offers 25 short multimedia reflections for the season – one a day – as our contributors share a moment in 2025 that has led them to a place of hope.
You can subscribe to our Wave of Hope podcast reflections using your podcast platform of choice. Subscribe using Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon/Audible.
Feed: cbcew.org.uk/feed/podcast/wave-of-hope/
23rd December 2025
This Wave of Hope reflection for Advent comes from Archbishop John Wilson, Archbishop of Southwark.
Archbishop John was particularly inspired by a primary school Advent carol service in St George’s Cathedral, with over 1,000 pupils celebrating Christ’s story in song, word and drama.
“Let’s recapture this Christmas, the joy of what it is to come with wonder and awe before the Nativity scene of the Lord Jesus, and not just welcome him into that scene, but most importantly, with great hope, to welcome him into our hearts.”
Wave of Hope offers 25 short multimedia reflections for the season – one a day – as our contributors share a moment in 2025 that has led them to a place of hope.
You can subscribe to our Wave of Hope podcast reflections using your podcast platform of choice. Subscribe using Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon/Audible.
Feed: cbcew.org.uk/feed/podcast/wave-of-hope/
22nd December 2025
This Wave of Hope reflection for Advent comes from Professor Philip Booth, Director of Policy and Research for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
Professor Booth finds hope in the words of Pope Benedict XVI, and specifically in his first encyclical letter:
“On Christmas Day, 20 years ago, Pope Benedict XVI published an encyclical, Deus Caritas Est. In it, he gives us a message of true hope or trust that with the Lord’s help, we will have the strength to follow the path to which God has called us. And that is all He asks of us.”
Wave of Hope offers 25 short multimedia reflections for the season – one a day – as our contributors share a moment in 2025 that has led them to a place of hope.
You can subscribe to our Wave of Hope podcast reflections using your podcast platform of choice. Subscribe using Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon/Audible.
Feed: cbcew.org.uk/feed/podcast/wave-of-hope/
21st December 2025
This Wave of Hope short reflection for Advent comes from Father Stephen Wang, Rector of the Venerable English College in Rome, one of the five seminaries training priests for England and Wales.
Fr Stephen found signs of hope in three places this year. Firstly in witnessing the number of enthusiastic and faithful pilgrims that have visited Rome for the Jubilee Year. Secondly in the faith and example of the seminarians training for the priesthood, and thirdly in the increasing number of young people finding their way to the Catholic Church.
“Despite all the difficulties that people face, there is a hunger for truth, for meaning, for beauty, and it’s leading many of them to Jesus, to the Bible, to the Mass, and to the Church. The real question is this: are we ready to welcome them and to lead them deeper in their journey of faith?”
Wave of Hope offers 25 short multimedia reflections for the season – one a day – as our contributors share a moment in 2025 that has led them to a place of hope.
You can subscribe to our Wave of Hope podcast reflections using your podcast platform of choice. Subscribe using Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon/Audible.
Feed: cbcew.org.uk/feed/podcast/wave-of-hope/
20th December 2025
This Wave of Hope reflection for Advent comes from Fleur Dorrell, Biblical Apostolate Manager for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
Fleur found hope in the hidden but important details that make up every stage of our lives – in family and friendships, in hospitality and community outreach in the places where we live.
“Biblical hope reminds me that the present is provisional and death is not the end. No system, knowledge, or power on this Earth can define the fullness of truth found in Jesus Christ. This has been my anchor throughout this year.”
Wave of Hope offers 25 short multimedia reflections for the season – one a day – as our contributors share a moment in 2025 that has led them to a place of hope.
You can subscribe to our Wave of Hope podcast reflections using your podcast platform of choice. Subscribe using Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon/Audible.
Feed: cbcew.org.uk/feed/podcast/wave-of-hope/
19th December 2025
This Wave of Hope reflection for Advent comes from Father James Hanvey SJ, Secretary for the Service of Faith of the Society of Jesus.
Fr Hanvey found hope in how people gathered in St Peter’s Square to pray for Pope Francis as he was dying:
“It was a grace just to be one of the crowd. No, not an anonymous crowd, but the Holy People of God, a Church at prayer, simply and with faith and with hope. I knew that whatever the situation of the world – its wars, its sufferings, the rise and decline of all its powers – this was the Church here, now, and in this place, the church of ordinary people that would endure and carry its love and its prayer for the whole world.”
Wave of Hope offers 25 short multimedia reflections for the season – one a day – as our contributors share a moment in 2025 that has led them to a place of hope.
You can subscribe to our Wave of Hope podcast reflections using your podcast platform of choice. Subscribe using Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon/Audible.
Feed: cbcew.org.uk/feed/podcast/wave-of-hope/
18th December 2025
This Wave of Hope short Advent reflection comes from Dr Harry Hagopian, an international lawyer and a church consultant on the Middle East North Africa region and the Gulf States.
“Hope is merely staying alive for most Palestinians today,” reflects Dr Hagopian, who hails originally from Jordan. “Hope is being able to preserve the property that the farmers have in Palestine – to harvest the olive groves. Hope is being recognised by all as a child of God, no matter our background.”
Wave of Hope offers 25 short multimedia reflections for the season – one a day – as our contributors share a moment in 2025 that has led them to a place of hope.
You can subscribe to our Wave of Hope podcast reflections using your podcast platform of choice. Subscribe using Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon/Audible.
Feed: cbcew.org.uk/feed/podcast/wave-of-hope/
17th December 2025
This Wave of Hope reflection for Advent comes from Alistair Dutton, General Secretary of Caritas Internationalis.
There were two aspects of the Jubilee Year of Hope that gave Alistair reason to be hopeful – the increasing role that women and young people are playing in the leadership and life of the Caritas Confederation, and the ‘Declaration of Hope’ made by young people at the Caritas Internationalis youth forum:
“Something that particularly gave me hope was the youth forum that we had in the middle of the year and especially the energy, passion, and creativity that all our young people brought to that event.”
Wave of Hope offers 25 short multimedia reflections for the season – one a day – as our contributors share a moment in 2025 that has led them to a place of hope.
You can subscribe to our Wave of Hope podcast reflections using your podcast platform of choice. Subscribe using Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon/Audible.
Feed: cbcew.org.uk/feed/podcast/wave-of-hope/
16th December 2025
This Wave of Hope short reflection for Advent comes from Sr Gemma Simmonds CJ, a sister of the Congregation of Jesus and a theologian working at the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology in Cambridge.
Sr Gemma shares how this year she found hope in the long-awaited union of the two branches of her congregation, which was founded by Venerable Mary Ward in 1609. With this hope fulfilled, Sr Gemma shared how the sisters work to give hope to others:
“Our sisters have been working for centuries across the world to give women hope of a brighter future through education in its broadest sense. Everywhere, women and girls face the frustration of their potential through poverty, lack of opportunity and cultural restrictions but Jesus came to bring all of us life lived to the full.”
Wave of Hope offers 25 short multimedia reflections for the season – one a day – as our contributors share a moment in 2025 that has led them to a place of hope.
You can subscribe to our Wave of Hope podcast reflections using your podcast platform of choice. Subscribe using Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon/Audible.
Feed: cbcew.org.uk/feed/podcast/wave-of-hope/
15th December 2025
This Wave of Hope reflection for Advent comes from Bishop Jim Curry, Lead Bishop for the Holy Land for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
Jesus was born into a mess, says Bishop Jim, but we should never lose hope that, in Him, the world can be different.
“Jesus comes in order to unite heaven and earth. Not for us to wait for heaven on earth, but to unite heaven and earth. A new creation has already begun, and the possibility of that new creation can never be exhausted. That’s the hope that sustains us.”
Wave of Hope offers 25 short multimedia reflections for the season – one a day – as our contributors share a moment in 2025 that has led them to a place of hope.
You can subscribe to our Wave of Hope podcast reflections using your podcast platform of choice. Subscribe using Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon/Audible.
Feed: cbcew.org.uk/feed/podcast/wave-of-hope/
14th December 2025
On the third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, our Wave of Hope reflection comes from Sister Maria Cecialia Sierra, a Comboni Missionary Sister working among Bedouin communities in the West Bank.
Reflecting on the Threads of Peace project through which Bedouin women gather to learn and support each other and which was recently presented with a Weavers of Hope Award from Caritas Internationalis, Sr Maria Cecilia says:
“This year, the thing that gave me the most hope was witnessing how Bedouin women continue to weave dignity and resilience into their lives, even in the harshness of the Judean Desert. Despite displacement, demolitions, and uncertainty, they rise, every day, reminding us that hope is not an idea but a practice. A thread chosen, a stitch made, a story shared.”
Wave of Hope offers 25 short multimedia reflections for the season – one a day – as our contributors share a moment in 2025 that has led them to a place of hope.
You can subscribe to our Wave of Hope podcast reflections using your podcast platform of choice. Subscribe using Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon/Audible.
Feed: cbcew.org.uk/feed/podcast/wave-of-hope/
13th December 2025
This Wave of Hope reflection for Advent comes from Abbot Hugh Allan O.Praem, Director of Mission for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
Abbot Hugh reflects on Advent as a season of hope, and explains that though we may be tempted to despair during troubled times, it is our knowledge of – and deepening of – our lives with Jesus Christ that can make hope a reality in our lives.
“Without faith, hope is just another word for the cheap and cheesy optimism that the world uses to paper over the cracks. For us, the nature of hope is despair overcome. We can hope because we’re loved as sons and daughters by a loving God who’s truly present with us and engaged in our lives.”
Wave of Hope offers 25 short multimedia reflections for the season – one a day – as our contributors share a moment in 2025 that has led them to a place of hope.
You can subscribe to our Wave of Hope podcast reflections using your podcast platform of choice. Subscribe using Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon/Audible.
Feed: cbcew.org.uk/feed/podcast/wave-of-hope/
