For the forthcoming Year of Faith England’s newest bishop has called
for “systematic” study of the Catechism, more Eucharistic Adoration in
parishes and schools to pray the Angelus at midday.
In a pastoral
letter Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth said: “It would be good for all
of us, priests and people, to attempt this year a systematic study of
the Creed and Catechism, receiving and learning the doctrines expressed
therein, and then explore their meaning and value for our lives.”
The
bishop said that parishes could “help everyone deepen their faith by
arranging periods of Eucharistic Adoration, and advertising times when
the church is open for visits to the Blessed Sacrament”.
He added:
“It would be good, too, for our schools to pray the Angelus at midday,
recalling Mary’s response of faith and to encourage staff and students
to say the ‘Apostles Creed’, as on the Year of Faith bookmarks.”
Bishop
Egan proposed wearing a crucifix, saying grace before a meal, inviting a
non-practising friend to Mass, or installing a rosary or devotional
item in a car.
But he reminded Catholics that no one is “saved by a
programme or a structure, but only by a Person, Jesus Christ, and, as
his disciple, by a personal-passionate friendship with him”.
Bishop
Mark Davies of Shrewsbury, meanwhile, also stressed the importance of
educating ourselves about the faith in his pastoral letter, saying: “We
must know our Catholic faith if we are able to enter into dialogue with
our contemporaries on an increasing range of questions.”
The same
message was given by Pope Benedict who said that the forthcoming year
will give “renewed energy to the mission of the whole Church to lead men
and women out of the desert they often are in and toward the place of
life friendship with Christ who gives us fullness of life”.
“Faith
grows when it is lives as an experience of love received and when it is
communicated as an experience of grace and joy,” the Holy Father wrote.
The
Year of Faith opens next Thursday, October 11, a date chosen by the
Pope to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council
and the 20th anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Besides greater study and prayer, the Year is to be accompanied by more
acts of charity.