Christmas is traditionally a time of festivity, gift-giving and family get-togethers. In the southern hemisphere it is a time for holidaying, taking a break from work and getting refreshed at the beach. It is a time when businesses close, and very few remain open on Christmas Day.

In New Zealand there are many that make Christmas day one of their few pilgrimages to Church, to remember the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. But for many more, it is the "high day" of their regular attendance, rated along with the Holy Days of Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

Today we find ourselves living in a fast-paced technical and scientific world. It is a world in which knowledge is becoming an essential part of living. Knowledge, accompanied by skill, is becoming part of even having a job. They say that employment prospects for a person without any skills are becoming remote.

And yet, for all the emphasis placed on learning, little emphasis is being placed on the need for any religious knowledge-such is labelled as 'superstition', and is to be scorned.

Have you ever been tempted to do something that you know you shouldn't do? Have you ever experienced an inner desire — a silent voice within you — suggesting that you do something, and that no one will ever know? What prompts us to have these feelings, or to do things that we somehow know that we shouldn't do?