Every Christmas, we return to a familiar story. A young couple. A long journey. Closed doors. A Child laid not in comfort, but in a manger—because there was no room .  In many cultures, this story is not merely read; it is reenacted . One such tradition is Las Posadas , a nine-night journey rooted in Mexican Catholic life, where communities walk from door to door singing the plea of Mary and Joseph:  “In the name of Heaven, I beg you for lodging,   for she cannot walk, my bel

Advent is never meant to be comfortable. It is a season that gently — and sometimes uncomfortably — invites us to look inward, to examine our hearts, and to ask difficult questions about how we live, what we value, and whom we love. In this sense, A Christmas Carol is far more than a festive tale. It is, as many have observed, a profoundly Catholic Advent story — one of conscience, conversion, and concrete acts of charity.  Ebenezer Scrooge’s journey mirrors what Advent asks

Whenever I bring a mission group to visit a charity like Thien Phuoc Home for the Disabled , I noticed something that never makes it into discussions. Behind every bathed resident, every fed child, every clean bed, there stood a caregiver quietly straining under the weight—literally—of love.   Some of the residents have grown into adults. Some weigh more than the caregivers attending to them. Some cannot hold up their heads or control their limbs.   And yet, every morning, th

Advent is often described as a time of waiting—a quiet, expectant season in the Church’s life. But the deeper truth is this: Advent is not passive.  It is an active preparation, a spiritual awakening, a call to make room for Christ by making room for those who need help. In the Gospels, the coming of Jesus always prompts movement: Mary sets out in haste to help Elizabeth, Joseph rises from sleep to protect his family, the shepherds leave their fields, the Magi journey across

After returning from a 3-week mission in Hong Kong working with refugees and the marginalised, I had a ton of emails to clear from my inbox. Scanning through the headers for urgent ones, something caught my eye. It was a notification that carried significance for a small Catholic humanitarian organisation like ours.  Gebirah had been invited from a global search to join the 2025 QBE AcceliCITY Humanitarian Challenge — and selected as a semi-finalist .  There was no sense of

I still remember the moment I first read about the tragedy — a small wooden boat, overloaded, drifting in dangerous waters between Thailand and Malaysia. Dozens of frightened families, carrying nothing but hope, had clung to one another as the waves rose. They had set out because staying behind meant persecution or death. But the sea, indifferent and merciless, claimed them. And for many, the world barely noticed.  A Tragedy Unnoticed  In early November 2025, a boat carrying