From: [D]@gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, January 21, 2012
12:49 PM
To: Eric
Subject: Article of interest...
Vatican approves celebrations of Neo-Catechumenal Way
Posted: Friday, January 20, 2012 5:23 pm
The Pontifical Council for the Laity today published a decree
approving the celebrations contained in the Catechetical Directory of the
Neo-Catechumenal Way. More than 7,000 members of the Neo-Catechumenal Way
attended an audience with the Holy Father to hear the news.
During the ceremony, Pope Benedict sent out 17 new 'ad gentes' missions of the Way: 12 to Europe, four to America
and one to Africa. Each mission is made up of three or four large families,
members of the Neo-Catechumenal Way who, accompanied by a priest, go to live in
an area where Christian practise has lapsed or where
the Gospel has never been announced.
Pope Benedict said: "Over these decades of life of the Way,
your firm commitment has been to proclaim the Gospel of the risen Christ, ...
often abandoning personal and material security. ... Bringing Christ to mankind
and mankind to Christ is what animates all evangelising
work. You achieve this on a path which helps those who have already been baptised to rediscover the beauty of the life of faith, the
joy of being Christian. ... We know that this is not always easy.
"Sometimes you find yourselves in places in which a first
announcement of the Gospel is needed: the 'missio ad gentes'. At other times you are present in areas which,
though they have known Christ, have become indifferent to the faith, areas in
which laicism has eclipsed the sense of God and obscured Christian values. May
your commitment and witness be as a leaven which - patiently, respecting times
and with 'sensus Ecclesia' - causes the dough to
rise.
"The Church has recognised in the
Way a special gift which the Holy Spirit has given to our times. The approval
of the Statutes and of the 'Catechetical Directory' are a sign of this. I
encourage you to make your original contribution to the cause of the Gospel. In
your vital work, always seek profound communion with the Apostolic See and with
the pastors of the particular Churches of which you are a part. For the world
in which we live, the unity and harmony of the ecclesial body are an important
testimony to Christ and His Gospel".
"You have just listened to the reading of a decree granting
approval to the celebrations contained in the 'Catechetical Directory of the
Neo-Catechumenal Way' which are not strictly liturgical but are part of the
itinerary of growth in the faith. This is a further element showing you that
the Church accompanies you attentively and with patient discernment, that she
understands your richness but also looks to the communion and harmony of the
entire 'Corpus Ecclesiae'. .... The risen Christ is actively present in the
Church's liturgical activity, making the paschal Mystery real and effective for
our salvation today. ... This work of the Lord Jesus, this entering into the
paschal Mystery, which is the true content of the liturgy, is also the work of
the Church which, being His body, is a single entity with Christ".
"This holds true particularly for the
celebration of the Eucharist which, being the pinnacle of Christian life, is
also the key to its rediscovery, which is also the aim of the neo-catechumenate. As your Statutes say: 'The Eucharist is
essential to the neo-catechumenate which is a
post-baptismal catechumenate, lived in small
communities'.
"Precisely in order to foment a renewal of
the richness of sacramental life among people who have distanced themselves
from the Church, or who have not received adequate formation, the members of
the Neo-Catechumenal Way can celebrate the Sunday Eucharist in small
communities".
"Celebration in small communities, regulated by the books of
the liturgy which must be accurately followed, and with the particular features
approved in the Statutes of the Way, helps the followers of the
Neo-Catechumenal Way to perceive the grace of being part of Christ's salvific mystery. ... At the same time the progressive
maturity in faith of individuals and small communities must favour their
insertion into the life of the ecclesial community as a whole, which has its
ordinary form in the liturgical celebrations in parishes, in which and for
which the neo-catechumenate is implemented.
"Yet even during the journey it is important
not to separate oneself from the parish community, and particularly in the
celebration of the Eucharist which is the true place of universal unity, where
the Lord embraces us in our various states of spiritual maturity and unites us
in the one bread that makes us one body".
In conclusion the Holy Father thanked the neo-catechumens for their
expressions of affection and asked them to remember him in their prayers.
Pasted from <http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=19685>