|
|
||||||
|
The Feast of Epiphany this year marks the end of the Jubilee Year. The Year 2000 was both the close of the second millennium and the entry into the third millennium. It was a year long vigil, as it were - a vigil of prayerful joy marking both an end and a beginning. The Feast of the Epiphany celebrates what St Paul calls "the mystery": God's saving love in Christ is offered to all humanity, both Jews and Gentiles. It is fitting, then, that this feast should close the Jubilee Year and open a new stage in the history of our civilization. This climax of joy fosters our aspirations towards the new civilization of love. For we believe that it is only in our union in Christ that we can create a new humanity, a humanity where the Kingdom of God is already breaking in and transforming us in faith and truth, hope and justice, love and union, joy and peace. Jubilees and feast days speak of great joy and celebration. Our great joy is still tinged with a certain sorrow: so many of our brothers and sisters have still not seen Jesus' star in the East. May our joy be a light for their life. Let Your guiding star, O Lord, shine once more in our world. |
|
- END -
P R A Y I N G W I T H T H E C H U R C H
| INTENTION : |
That Christians may favour the evangelisation of the new generations through the constant search for the unity wanted by Christ.
|
|
The question of full Christian unity and evangelisation led to the beginnings of the ecumenical movement. The Holy Father decries the negative consequences of division among Christians and calls them to search for full Christian Unity as inspired by the Lord's Prayer. As evangelisers we must offer Christ's faithful an image of people who are mature in faith and capable of finding a meeting point beyond all tensions. The destiny of evangelisation is bound up with the witness of unity given to the Church. The urgency of preaching and displaying unity to the world arises from the fact that Christians can impair the vitality of proclaiming the Gospel and even become a scandal to the world, particularly when the churches appear to proclaim "a kingdom against itself". It is clear that the proclamation of the Gospel by divided Christians becomes counter- itness. As Christians we ought to give collaborative common witness which is founded in the common baptism in Christ and faith in the Triune God. Pray for the courage to work positively with other Christians for the purpose of promoting evangelisation. | |
|
- END - | |