Sunday of the Word of God: making
the Scriptures part of our everyday lives
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| Pope Francis elevates the Book of the Gospels during Mass (AFP) |
A press conference in the Vatican details the many aspects
of the newly established ‘Sunday of the Word of God’ to be marked on 26
January. Pope Francis will celebrated Holy Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica for the
occasion.
By Linda Bordoni
Pope Francis is inviting Catholics across the world to deepen
their appreciation, love and faithful witness to God and his Word.
That’s why, as established by a papal decree - the third
Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 26 this year, is to be observed as a special
day devoted to “the celebration, study and dissemination of the Word of God”.
As Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, President of the
Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization explained during a press
conference on Friday, it is an initiative that the Pope has entrusted to the
whole Church so that "the Christian community may concentrate on the great
value that the Word of God occupies in its daily existence" (Aperuit illis
2).
An opportunity to renew commitment and understanding
Fisichella said the occasion offers Christians an
opportunity to renew their commitment and understanding of “the
inexhaustible richness that comes from God's constant dialogue with his
people.”
He said it foresees a host of creative initiatives “that
will stimulate believers to be living instruments of transmission of the Word,”
and comes in the wake of the many different pastoral initiatives spurred by the
2008 Synod on the Word of God that aimed to increase and enhance the knowledge,
diffusion, reflection and study of Sacred Scripture.
The Archbishop mentioned a series of projects and programmes
that have been launched across the globe since that Synod, to learn to pray
with the Bible and to make the Word accessible in different languages and
formats.
He said that by establishing this Day, the Pope intended
"to respond to the many requests that have come from the people of
God, so that throughout the Church the Sunday of the Word of God may be
celebrated in unity of purpose”.
Ecumenical value
He underlined the great ecumenical value that this Sunday
possesses as it falls close to the Day of Dialogue between Jews and Catholics
and the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
As with other initiatives of the Pontifical Council for
Promoting New Evangelization, Fisichella said this too has a characteristic
logo that is immediately identifiable and may provide inspiration for a
catechesis that helps to understand the meaning of the celebration of this
Sunday.
Vatican II Lectionary to be enthroned
Noting that Pope Francis will celebrate Holy Mass on Sunday
of the Word of God, he revealed that at the beginning of the Liturgy “there
will be the solemn enthronement of the Lectionary that was used in all the
sessions of the Second Vatican Council.”
At the conclusion of the Eucharistic celebration, he said
that in a symbolic gesture the Pope will give a Bible to 40 people representing
“different expressions” of our daily life: “from the bishop to the foreigner,
from the priest to the catechist, from the consecrated person to the policeman,
from the Ambassadors of various continents to teachers of all grades, from the
poor to journalists, from the ‘Gendarme’ to the prisoner serving a life
sentence”.
A representative of the Orthodox Churches and of
Evangelical Communities will also receive a Bible from the Pope.
Pope Francis, Fisichella concluded, wants to make sure
everyone is entrusted with the Word of God:
“This Sunday, he wants to stimulate all Christians not just
to place the Bible on the shelf as one of many books, perhaps filled with dust,
but as an instrument that awakens our faith.”
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