Diocesan Holy Land Pilgrimage
Friar Alessandro CD competition
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December 2013/January 2014
Great Change through Small Acts T
he Feast of Christ the Universal King, celebrated last month, marked the end of the Year of Faith. Now we are at the beginning of the Church’s New Year, which we enter with the Advent spirit of joyful expectation. Central to the Year of Faith, inaugurated by Pope Benedict, was the call to grow in the knowledge of our faith. We were invited to undertake a New Evangelisation, a proclamation of the Word of God, of Jesus Christ, not only within our Catholic communities, but also in wider society through how we speak of our faith and manifest it in our lives. Catholics throughout our diocese have shown an
eagerness to be such witnesses of their faith. Many have taken advantage of talks, catechesis and formation in their parishes. By doing so, they sought a greater understanding of their faith, leading to a fuller love of the Lord. They are now in a good position to respond to Pope Francis’ call to assist the most vulnerable people in our society. In this regard, I wish to highlight two particular projects which I have been privileged to visit recently. The first was a complex of five flats within the Cardinal Hume Centre, called Basil Hume House. These flats offer young homeless Londoners who have successfully turned their lives around the opportunity to prove they can get a job and
keep it; or to attend college and increase their chances of sustaining a private tenancy in the future. The second was one of the Contact the Elderly groups set up by parish communities with the assistance of Caritas Diocese of Westminster. Contact the Elderly groups provide a wonderful lifeline to those who would otherwise be left all alone. By giving young people the opportunity to demonstrate their talents and by making time to welcome older people into our homes, God touches and transforms, through us, the lives of others. But of course, people are living out their faith day-by-day in many other meaningful ways besides. It may through involvement in all kinds of
parish groups, or perhaps by supporting CAFOD. CAFOD’s response to Typhoon Haiyan was thanks in no small part to the hard work of volunteers working quietly and without seeking praise. Such people bring so much goodness into the Church’s life. They give expression to Pope Francis’s teaching that we can bring great change through apparently small acts. I thank them all most sincerely. As we enter into Advent, we all have the opportunity to reflect on how each one of us can continue to deepen our faith and so to share it with greater enthusiasm in word and deed. This reflection needs to take place within a daily pattern of prayer. Prayer opens our hearts to the coming of the Lord. We
long for him to find a home in us so that we can carry him to others. In prayer we hear the Lord calling us into a renewed relationship with him. We hear him giving us the mission to proclaim that no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord. Strengthened by the Year of Faith, and with the season of Advent upon us, now is time to respond to the Lord’s call with ever greater generosity. Do this and you will enjoy the merry Christmas and every blessing in the New Year that I pray will indeed be yours.
Archbishop Vincent Nichols