I am the bread of life,
he who comes to me will never be hungry;
he who believes in me will never be thirsty. Jn 6:35
December 28, 2008Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Lord,
A BLESSED CHRISTMAS SEASON and A NEW YEAR FILLED WITH JOY AND PLEASANT SURPRISES TO EVERYONE! I sincerely hope that you have had wonderful liturgies in your own parishes / sub-parishes / communities. The Lord Jesus is here today / now and is amongst us. He is the WORD made Flesh... our daily Bread!
The new liturgical year of our Mongolian Catholic Church already started on the 1st Sunday of Advent (November 30, 2008) and I deem it necessary to follow up the implementation of the three-year Pastoral Plan promulgated last year. Our aim is to strengthen the life of our Christians communities and it goes without saying that we have to mobilize our ecclesial energies again to go onwards after satisfactorily concluded the year of the "Bread of the Word" in 2008.
Last year we have been reflecting and proposing different activities around the theme of the Bread of the Word. The focal point of that year was to help us and our believers to be close to the Bible and to increase our own intimacy with the Incarnate Word / JESUS. What we have been doing during that year is summarized below #1.
The new pastoral year 2009 is focused on the Eucharist as the general theme, the Bread of the Eucharist, in particular. This emphasizes two main points to be achieved all through the year by introducing different activities and proposals that can be done. The general guidelines on which we can pursue the year 2009 are on #2.
#1. The Bread of the Word
We have been implementing in the past year different activities such as:
Bible distribution
Calendar 2008
Bible quiz organized by the Youth commission
presentation of a leaflet about the Lectio Divina leading to its spread practice in the communities.
Organization of Bible-Gospel sharing groups at the level of the Parishes, sub-parishes and mission stations
Bukal Ng Tipan team’s seminar around the Basic Ecclesial Communities in Asia
Invitation to the religious communities to chose a topic in correlation with the Bread
of the Word and to develop it in a written form. As a result, preparation of a booklet
on Saint Paul’s life by the SPC sisters to be published in the coming months.
Seminar on the theme: “Liturgy and Word of God” (Fr. Keith Pecklers)
The making of the Mongolian breviary which will be completed in 2009
Music festival on Gospel themes
Daily reading of the gospel and sharing on the Gospel reading for the next Sunday
Highlighting the visibility of the Word of God in our churches and chapels
Bible sharings
Presentation of Gospel stories (e.g. Nativity story, Passion of Jesus.....)
*One religious community has saved some food money in order to be able to help the poor.
For sure there have been isolated and individual initiatives to make the Word of God meaningfully read and reflected upon. My congratulations to all who made efforts in making God's Word incarnated in one's life, in word and deed. Keep on with those practices that you have already been doing.
#2. The Bread of the Eucharist
This year offers us an opportunity to focus the life of our Christian communities on the Eucharist. We are convinced that the Eucharist is the most beautiful expression of God's Love for human beings as He desired to sacrifice Himself for us. It's true that the EUCHARIST is the source and summit of Christian life and mission. It’s a challenging endeavor because the strength, the vitality, and the specificity of our Catholic Church are directly associated with this sacrament. To achieve this, two main aims can be pursued:
a- to increase and deepen our devotion (fides) to the Eucharist at the level of all the implementors of the pastoral plan: religious congregations, parishes, mission stations, commissions, lay missionaries and foreign communities, and lay collaborators.
b- to help in having a right and respectful understanding (ratio) of the Eucharist at the level of our believers.
Starting from these two main directions, we offer you the attached Pastoral Theme 2009 prepared by the next team of implementors, Fr. Carlo Villegas & Fr. Stefano Kim.
Good Luck and all the best with God's blessings!
Cordially yours in the Lord,
+Msgr. Wens Padilla, CICM
Apostolic Prefect
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