A look forward to the World Meeting of Families next August and news this weekend of a Hindu Festival that celebrates the Sun God with foods that give energy and keep people warm in this nippy weather.

This week, we take a look back of some of the highlights of the programme over the last year and revisit the topics and guests that engaged the audience in 2017.

On the Christmas Leap of Faith, our panel comes together to capture the Spirit of Christmas 2017 with music and conversation. Joining us are Bibi Baskin, Fr.Bryan Shortall, Alice Leahy of the Alice Leahy Trust, Prof Roja Fazaeli Islamic Scholar from Trinity College Dublin and leading expert on the life of Jesus Prof Helen Bond from the University of Edinburgh. We also hear from the Golan Heights from Army Chaplain Fr Dan McCarthy and we've poetry in studio from John F.Deane.

On the programme this morning, as U2 go straight to number one with their latest album Songs of Experience, is there a Christian influence on their music?

this week the unique style of artist Harry Clarke and in particular two windows constructed by him in St Joseph's Church, Terenure, The Annunciation and  The Coronation of the Virgin in Glory.  We talk with husband and wife team Ken and Murial Ryan from Abbey Stained Glass Studios, about their work restoring these and other windows and science, meets faith when we talk with Irishman Brendan Owens, Astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich in London about the Star of Bethlehem.

All Things Bright and Beautiful and Once in Royal David's City - both well-known hymns but what about their author? We hear about the life of Dublin born, Cecil Frances Alexander and Midlands Priest, Fr.Paddy Byrne talks about his hopes for renewal within the Catholic Church.

Christians need to see the New Testament through the lens of the Jews who wrote it - Professor Amy Jill Levine takes on the parables of the Bible, and should Christians claim back the word Christmas - Fr Desmond O'Donnell says they should.

On the programme today, the Jonathan Swift Festival and celebrations for members of the Bahai Faith.

On the programme tonight a contrast between brightness and darkness - money and evil.

On the programme tonight the impact of the Balfour Declaration, one hundred years after it declared British support for the establishment of a home for the Jewish people in Palestine.