24 December

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.

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Feed: cbcew.org.uk/feed/podcast/wave-of-hope/

Transcript

A wave of hope always goes with an appreciation of goodness. Where there’s goodness, there is hope. And one of our characteristics is that we tend not to look at goodness because we’re so preoccupied with our problems and the problems of the world and the bad news that we hear.

I went recently to one of our secondary schools. I went into the chapel and it was full of 25 youngsters who were the prayer leaders in the college, and they were just full of goodness. Then I met some of the six formers who volunteered to work in the gardens of the school – keeping it smart and attractive to all its visitors.

Now, in that goodness are the springs of our hope. And so during this advent, 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. That will make for a good Advent, and it will certainly make for a wonderful Christmas.

May God bless you all.

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