At 11:30am this morning, at the Holy See Press Centre, there was a Press Conference held to present the details for the first Word of God Sunday which will be celebrated next week, on Sunday 26 January 2020.
His Excellency, Rino Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization was present for this Press Conference.
The Sunday of the Word of God will be celebrated for the first time on January 26th. This is an initiative that Pope Francis entrusts to the whole Church so that "the Christian community will focus on the great value that the Word of God has in its day-to-day existence (Aperuit illis, 2). On 30 September, on the 1600th anniversary of the death of Saint Jerome, a great scholar of Sacred Scripture and translator of the original texts into Latin, the Pope published his Apostolic Letter Aperuit illis with which he instituted this Sunday. The coincidence with that date was a gesture of great attention to the vast world gathered around biblical studies and biblical exegesis, which this year will give rise to a diverse series of events with which to celebrate the figure and the work of Saint Jerome.
At the conclusion of the Jubilee of Mercy, in the Apostolic Letter Misericordia et misera, Pope Francis had already made an allusion to this perspective when he wrote: "It would be appropriate that every community, on a Sunday of the liturgical year, could renew its commitment to diffusion, knowledge and deepening of Sacred Scripture: a Sunday entirely dedicated to the Word of God, to understand the inexhaustible wealth that comes from that constant dialogue of God with his people. There will be creativity to enrich this moment with initiatives that stimulate believers to be living instruments of transmission of the Word (MM, 7). Indeed, following the Second Vatican Council with Dei Verbum, and the Synod on the Word of God (2008) with the Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini, many different pastoral initiatives aimed at focusing our attention on the diffusion of, reflection on, and study of Sacred Scripture.
Just to make a quick reference, the Week to learn how to pray with the Bible, promoted by the Canção Nova Community in Brazil, deserves to be known. Also in Brazil, 150,000 biblical subsidies will be distributed free of charge. In Argentina, the month of the Bible will be organized in September. In Colombia, the Word of God is proposed to children through the use of puppets, making them smile and reflect. In Venezuela, despite the crisis, a diplomado was created to take care of the biblical animation of all pastoral care. International Bible Day is celebrated in the United States in November; the American Bible Society, for its part, proposes the spread of the Bible, with particular attention to areas of poverty, making it accessible in different languages and in different formats. In the field of youth, the initiative announced, which is known as the Year of the Bible celebration and involving young people is interesting: Together Generation, in Washington in June, will be a mix of music, testimonies and readings. In the Philippines, the Interior Minister announced the week of January 20-26 as the national week of the Bible, urging those who are able to do so to extend the week to the entire month. Also in the Philippines for ten years the National Bible Quiz initiative has been able to involve the whole nation, under the sign of a biblical competition that involves all the Catholic schools in the country. The World Evangelical Alliance has proclaimed AD 2020 the World Year of the Bible, inviting Christians and Evangelical churches around the world to promote reading of the Bible throughout 2020. In Spain, a magazine was born, Biblia viva, for the biblical animation of pastoral care. In Italy the Italian Biblical Festival is organized, now in its sixteenth edition, which involves seven dioceses and seeks to bring the Word into the world of culture.
It is for this reason that the Pope with his Letter Aperuit illis intended "to respond to many requests that ... have come from the people of God, so that the Sunday of the Word of God can be celebrated in unity of purpose throughout the Church (AI, 2). This Sunday of the Word of God is therefore placed as a pastoral initiative of New Evangelization, with the aim of reviving the responsibility that believers have to be knowledgeable of Sacred Scripture and to keep it alive through a work of permanent transmission and understanding, capable of giving meaning to the life of the Church in the different conditions in which she finds herself.
Even the great ecumenical value that this Sunday has cannot go unnoticed. Pope Francis has established that it should always be celebrated on the third Sunday of Ordinary Time which, as can be seen, falls in the vicinity of the day of dialogue between Jews and Catholics and the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Obviously, it is not a mere temporal coincidence, but a choice that intends to mark a further step in ecumenical dialogue, placing the Word of God in the very heart of the commitment that Christians are called to make every day.
As for the other initiatives of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, this too uses a distinctive logo, so that it is taken as a space for a catechesis that helps to understand the meaning of the celebration of this Sunday. As can be seen, a well-known biblical scene is represented: the journey of the disciples to the village of Emmaus (cf Lk 24: 13-35), and at a certain moment of the journey, the Risen Jesus approaches. The icon was created by Sister Marie-Paul Farran, an Egyptian religious who spent her entire life in the Benedictine monastery of Notre-Dame du Calvaire in Jerusalem. She died last May. This icon, created graphically by Giordano Redaelli for the Edizioni San Paolo, highlights many aspects which converge on the Sunday of the Word of God. One can note, first of all, the characters. Together with the Christ who holds in his hands the scroll of the Book, which is the Sacred Scripture that finds fulfillment in his person, there are the two disciples: Cleopas, as Luke explicitly wrote, and, according to some exegetes, his wife. Cleopas holds the stick in his hand, a sign of pilgrimage; while his wife seems to touch Christ. Both of the disciples' faces are turned to the Lord; their hands indicate, respectively, the woman's left hand points to Christ himself, to affirm that he is the fulfillment of the ancient promises and the living Word which must be proclaimed to the world; in the meanwhile, Cleopas' left hand indicates the path that the disciples are required to take in order to bring the good news of the Gospel to everyone. Next to the disciple we notice the star, a sign of evangelization that guides their steps and directs them towards the future as a permanent light. The dynamic of movement must also be observed: the feet are an expression of their being on the move and sent to the places where they must bring the proclamation of the Risen Christ. In short, the whole scene of the Logos does nothing but recall the very heart of the Sunday of the Word of God: the proclamation of the Risen Christ cannot find tired or idle followers but dynamic disciples who are capable of always finding new languages to share Sacred Scripture: this is a living rule for the life of the Church.
Now, it is good for us to focus our attention on Sunday 26 January. Essentially, these very simple initiatives do nothing more than inaugurate a path that in the coming years will be enriched by other experiences aimed at preparing lay men and women to take on the ministry of Readers in order to recall the importance of the proclamation of the Word of God in the Liturgy, but at the same time entrusting them, for example, with the preparation of lectio divina or other forms of animation, diffusion and study of Sacred Scripture.
On the morning of Sunday, January 26, at 10 am, Pope Francis will preside over the Holy Eucharist in Saint Peter's Basilica. Free tickets for participation can be obtained at the headquarters of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization in Via della Conciliazione 5 on Friday 24 and Saturday 25 January from 8:30am to 1:30pm and from 3:00pm to 5:30pm; as well as on Sunday 26 January from 7:00am to 9:00am. On the papal altar the statue of Our Lady of Knock, Patroness of Ireland, will be placed for the occasion. The statue will come specifically from the Shrine accompanied by a large representation of the faithful, led by the Archbishop of Tuam, His Excellency, Michael Neary and the Rector of the Shrine, Brother Richard Gibbons. The choir from the Shrine will share in the animation of the Holy Eucharist along with the Sistine Chapel Choir.
The choice of this presence is almost mandatory for this Sunday. As we know, the apparition of the Virgin of Knock in 1879 is particularly suggestive: the Virgin was accompanied by Saint Joseph and the evangelist John who indicated the altar on which the victorious Lamb reigns, as in the vision of the Apocalypse. In this apparition, the Virgin Mary did not speak; she remained silent, as if to indicate the fundamental attitude we should all have before the mystery; however, the whole apparition speaks, because in John it indicates the Gospel that we are bound to make ours and the path that awaits us in view of the end times. Once again, the mystery lies at the centre of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus, the beating heart of evangelization. At the beginning of the Mass, moreover, the solemn enthronement of the Lectionary which was used in all sessions of the Second Vatican Council will take place.
At the end of the Eucharistic celebration, Pope Francis will make a symbolic gesture: he will present Bibles to 40 people representing many expressions of our daily life: including bishops and foreigners; priests and catechists; consecrated persons and policemen, including and the Swiss guard; Ambassadors from the various continents and university professors as well as teachers of primary and secondary school; the poor and journalists; the Gendarme and a prisoner who is serving a life sentence in a state of semi-freedom; from some families to Nicolò Zaniolo representing all sportsmen; a representative of the Orthodox Churches and the Evangelical Communities will also receive it. In short, Sacred Scripture is entrusted to all to indicate the attention we are called to pay to the Word of God, so that it does not remain merely a book in our hands, but rather that it becomes a continuous provocation so that it may be a source of prayer, reading, meditation and study. This Sunday, the Pope wants to encourage all Christians not to place the Bible as one of the many books on the shelves of the house, perhaps filled with dust, but to use it as an instrument that awakens our faith.
Upon leaving the Basilica, all those who have participated will receive the special edition of Sacred Scripture, published for the occasion and offered through the generosity of Saint Paul to whom deep gratitude is extended. To prepare to celebrate this Sunday of the Word of God, a pastoral aid has also been prepared in Italian, already translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese and Polish and in English, available only online, in which parish priests and pastoral workers will be able to use to find suitable ideas and tools for the animation of this day.
In the afternoon, in Piazza Navona, in the beautiful Church of Sant'Agnese, from 4 to 7 pm many personalities representing various categories will take turns in a continuous reading of the Gospel of Matthew. The choice of this Gospel depends on the fact that it is the Gospel that will be read on Sundays this year and, therefore, lends itself to be an introduction to the prayer and meditation that the faithful will have during 2020. This moment will be animated by the Choir of the Diocese of Rome. For the occasion, a special edition of the Gospel of Matthew was published, which will be distributed to those who are present.
As Pope Francis wrote: The Sunday dedicated to the Word may make religious and assiduous familiarity with the Holy Scriptures grow in the people of God, just as the sacred author taught already in ancient times: 'This word is very close to you, it is in your mouth and in your heart, for you to put it into practice' (Dt 30,14; Aperuit illis, 15). This is therefore a Sunday through which we can rediscover who we are and what responsibility we have in the Church and in today's world.
His Excellency, Rino Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization was present for this Press Conference.
Intervention prepared by His Excellency, Rino Fisichella
President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization
The Sunday of the Word of God will be celebrated for the first time on January 26th. This is an initiative that Pope Francis entrusts to the whole Church so that "the Christian community will focus on the great value that the Word of God has in its day-to-day existence (Aperuit illis, 2). On 30 September, on the 1600th anniversary of the death of Saint Jerome, a great scholar of Sacred Scripture and translator of the original texts into Latin, the Pope published his Apostolic Letter Aperuit illis with which he instituted this Sunday. The coincidence with that date was a gesture of great attention to the vast world gathered around biblical studies and biblical exegesis, which this year will give rise to a diverse series of events with which to celebrate the figure and the work of Saint Jerome.
At the conclusion of the Jubilee of Mercy, in the Apostolic Letter Misericordia et misera, Pope Francis had already made an allusion to this perspective when he wrote: "It would be appropriate that every community, on a Sunday of the liturgical year, could renew its commitment to diffusion, knowledge and deepening of Sacred Scripture: a Sunday entirely dedicated to the Word of God, to understand the inexhaustible wealth that comes from that constant dialogue of God with his people. There will be creativity to enrich this moment with initiatives that stimulate believers to be living instruments of transmission of the Word (MM, 7). Indeed, following the Second Vatican Council with Dei Verbum, and the Synod on the Word of God (2008) with the Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini, many different pastoral initiatives aimed at focusing our attention on the diffusion of, reflection on, and study of Sacred Scripture.
Just to make a quick reference, the Week to learn how to pray with the Bible, promoted by the Canção Nova Community in Brazil, deserves to be known. Also in Brazil, 150,000 biblical subsidies will be distributed free of charge. In Argentina, the month of the Bible will be organized in September. In Colombia, the Word of God is proposed to children through the use of puppets, making them smile and reflect. In Venezuela, despite the crisis, a diplomado was created to take care of the biblical animation of all pastoral care. International Bible Day is celebrated in the United States in November; the American Bible Society, for its part, proposes the spread of the Bible, with particular attention to areas of poverty, making it accessible in different languages and in different formats. In the field of youth, the initiative announced, which is known as the Year of the Bible celebration and involving young people is interesting: Together Generation, in Washington in June, will be a mix of music, testimonies and readings. In the Philippines, the Interior Minister announced the week of January 20-26 as the national week of the Bible, urging those who are able to do so to extend the week to the entire month. Also in the Philippines for ten years the National Bible Quiz initiative has been able to involve the whole nation, under the sign of a biblical competition that involves all the Catholic schools in the country. The World Evangelical Alliance has proclaimed AD 2020 the World Year of the Bible, inviting Christians and Evangelical churches around the world to promote reading of the Bible throughout 2020. In Spain, a magazine was born, Biblia viva, for the biblical animation of pastoral care. In Italy the Italian Biblical Festival is organized, now in its sixteenth edition, which involves seven dioceses and seeks to bring the Word into the world of culture.
It is for this reason that the Pope with his Letter Aperuit illis intended "to respond to many requests that ... have come from the people of God, so that the Sunday of the Word of God can be celebrated in unity of purpose throughout the Church (AI, 2). This Sunday of the Word of God is therefore placed as a pastoral initiative of New Evangelization, with the aim of reviving the responsibility that believers have to be knowledgeable of Sacred Scripture and to keep it alive through a work of permanent transmission and understanding, capable of giving meaning to the life of the Church in the different conditions in which she finds herself.
Even the great ecumenical value that this Sunday has cannot go unnoticed. Pope Francis has established that it should always be celebrated on the third Sunday of Ordinary Time which, as can be seen, falls in the vicinity of the day of dialogue between Jews and Catholics and the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Obviously, it is not a mere temporal coincidence, but a choice that intends to mark a further step in ecumenical dialogue, placing the Word of God in the very heart of the commitment that Christians are called to make every day.
As for the other initiatives of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, this too uses a distinctive logo, so that it is taken as a space for a catechesis that helps to understand the meaning of the celebration of this Sunday. As can be seen, a well-known biblical scene is represented: the journey of the disciples to the village of Emmaus (cf Lk 24: 13-35), and at a certain moment of the journey, the Risen Jesus approaches. The icon was created by Sister Marie-Paul Farran, an Egyptian religious who spent her entire life in the Benedictine monastery of Notre-Dame du Calvaire in Jerusalem. She died last May. This icon, created graphically by Giordano Redaelli for the Edizioni San Paolo, highlights many aspects which converge on the Sunday of the Word of God. One can note, first of all, the characters. Together with the Christ who holds in his hands the scroll of the Book, which is the Sacred Scripture that finds fulfillment in his person, there are the two disciples: Cleopas, as Luke explicitly wrote, and, according to some exegetes, his wife. Cleopas holds the stick in his hand, a sign of pilgrimage; while his wife seems to touch Christ. Both of the disciples' faces are turned to the Lord; their hands indicate, respectively, the woman's left hand points to Christ himself, to affirm that he is the fulfillment of the ancient promises and the living Word which must be proclaimed to the world; in the meanwhile, Cleopas' left hand indicates the path that the disciples are required to take in order to bring the good news of the Gospel to everyone. Next to the disciple we notice the star, a sign of evangelization that guides their steps and directs them towards the future as a permanent light. The dynamic of movement must also be observed: the feet are an expression of their being on the move and sent to the places where they must bring the proclamation of the Risen Christ. In short, the whole scene of the Logos does nothing but recall the very heart of the Sunday of the Word of God: the proclamation of the Risen Christ cannot find tired or idle followers but dynamic disciples who are capable of always finding new languages to share Sacred Scripture: this is a living rule for the life of the Church.
Now, it is good for us to focus our attention on Sunday 26 January. Essentially, these very simple initiatives do nothing more than inaugurate a path that in the coming years will be enriched by other experiences aimed at preparing lay men and women to take on the ministry of Readers in order to recall the importance of the proclamation of the Word of God in the Liturgy, but at the same time entrusting them, for example, with the preparation of lectio divina or other forms of animation, diffusion and study of Sacred Scripture.
On the morning of Sunday, January 26, at 10 am, Pope Francis will preside over the Holy Eucharist in Saint Peter's Basilica. Free tickets for participation can be obtained at the headquarters of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization in Via della Conciliazione 5 on Friday 24 and Saturday 25 January from 8:30am to 1:30pm and from 3:00pm to 5:30pm; as well as on Sunday 26 January from 7:00am to 9:00am. On the papal altar the statue of Our Lady of Knock, Patroness of Ireland, will be placed for the occasion. The statue will come specifically from the Shrine accompanied by a large representation of the faithful, led by the Archbishop of Tuam, His Excellency, Michael Neary and the Rector of the Shrine, Brother Richard Gibbons. The choir from the Shrine will share in the animation of the Holy Eucharist along with the Sistine Chapel Choir.
The choice of this presence is almost mandatory for this Sunday. As we know, the apparition of the Virgin of Knock in 1879 is particularly suggestive: the Virgin was accompanied by Saint Joseph and the evangelist John who indicated the altar on which the victorious Lamb reigns, as in the vision of the Apocalypse. In this apparition, the Virgin Mary did not speak; she remained silent, as if to indicate the fundamental attitude we should all have before the mystery; however, the whole apparition speaks, because in John it indicates the Gospel that we are bound to make ours and the path that awaits us in view of the end times. Once again, the mystery lies at the centre of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus, the beating heart of evangelization. At the beginning of the Mass, moreover, the solemn enthronement of the Lectionary which was used in all sessions of the Second Vatican Council will take place.
At the end of the Eucharistic celebration, Pope Francis will make a symbolic gesture: he will present Bibles to 40 people representing many expressions of our daily life: including bishops and foreigners; priests and catechists; consecrated persons and policemen, including and the Swiss guard; Ambassadors from the various continents and university professors as well as teachers of primary and secondary school; the poor and journalists; the Gendarme and a prisoner who is serving a life sentence in a state of semi-freedom; from some families to Nicolò Zaniolo representing all sportsmen; a representative of the Orthodox Churches and the Evangelical Communities will also receive it. In short, Sacred Scripture is entrusted to all to indicate the attention we are called to pay to the Word of God, so that it does not remain merely a book in our hands, but rather that it becomes a continuous provocation so that it may be a source of prayer, reading, meditation and study. This Sunday, the Pope wants to encourage all Christians not to place the Bible as one of the many books on the shelves of the house, perhaps filled with dust, but to use it as an instrument that awakens our faith.
Upon leaving the Basilica, all those who have participated will receive the special edition of Sacred Scripture, published for the occasion and offered through the generosity of Saint Paul to whom deep gratitude is extended. To prepare to celebrate this Sunday of the Word of God, a pastoral aid has also been prepared in Italian, already translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese and Polish and in English, available only online, in which parish priests and pastoral workers will be able to use to find suitable ideas and tools for the animation of this day.
In the afternoon, in Piazza Navona, in the beautiful Church of Sant'Agnese, from 4 to 7 pm many personalities representing various categories will take turns in a continuous reading of the Gospel of Matthew. The choice of this Gospel depends on the fact that it is the Gospel that will be read on Sundays this year and, therefore, lends itself to be an introduction to the prayer and meditation that the faithful will have during 2020. This moment will be animated by the Choir of the Diocese of Rome. For the occasion, a special edition of the Gospel of Matthew was published, which will be distributed to those who are present.
As Pope Francis wrote: The Sunday dedicated to the Word may make religious and assiduous familiarity with the Holy Scriptures grow in the people of God, just as the sacred author taught already in ancient times: 'This word is very close to you, it is in your mouth and in your heart, for you to put it into practice' (Dt 30,14; Aperuit illis, 15). This is therefore a Sunday through which we can rediscover who we are and what responsibility we have in the Church and in today's world.
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Wonderful read
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