These two words, which begin one of the recent documents of the Holy Father, mean ‘the joy of the Gospel.’ I’m a little late with this post, but I did promise to have something on the parish website. To begin with, the Holy Father has hoped that we would be preparing wow the jubilee year celebrations in 2025, in two ways:
- in 2023, reflecting on the larger documents of the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s, called constitutions; and
- in 2024, deepening our lives of prayer with a particular focus on the Lord’s Prayer, in 2024.
We are called to be joyous in proclaiming our faith. This weekend, we heard something about the ‘Mission Directorate’ of the Bishops’ Conference. According to the website of the bishops, this promotes ‘the work of encounter and evangelisation,’ and through which, ‘the vision of the Holy Father is embraced in a fuller way,’ promoting ‘the whole ideal of of proclamation, evangelisation, dialogue and catechesis.’ It would do us well to support them and pray for real benefits from all these efforts. The Mission Directorate has produced a series of videos on the four Constitutions which reflect on the Liturgy, the Word of God, the Church and on its role in the modern world. Find out more here: https://www.cbcew.org.uk/evangelii-gaudium-sunday.
A range of resources is being prepared for the Year of Prayer in 2024 which include a course on the Lord’s Prayer from small groups for Lent, encouragement to try different ways of praying from the tradition of the Church. The Mission Directorate will be supporting the Jubilee co-ordinator appointed by each diocese. The second collection for Evangelii Gaudium Sunday will support the work carried out by the Mission Directorate on behalf of the Bishops’ Conference. Some of these are visible at the above-linked webpage.
I shall conclude this short post with links to the original constitutional documents of the Second Vatican Council:
Catholic Louth and Mablethorpe 