Sunday of the Word of God
January 7, 2025
Dear Fathers, Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ!
In our Church, which draws its nourishing strength from the Holy Scriptures, we are called to reflect again and again on the importance of the Word of God in our lives. The Sunday of the Word of God is a special opportunity for all of us - clergy, catechists, and faithful - to discover for ourselves the richness and wisdom, and holiness contained in God's Revelation.
Our Ukrainian Catholic Synod of Bishops encourages all the faithful to experience the Sunday of the Word of God in a special way. This is celebrated in our Church on the Sunday after Theophany, which this year falls on 12 January 2025. This day is a unique opportunity to remember that the Holy Scriptures are not just found in a great book that we read. They are the living and active Word through which the Lord speaks to each of us, guides us and reinforces us in the faith. "Reading the Word of God, meditating on it and praying with it, we encounter Christ, come to know and accept Him" (Message of the UGCC Synod of Bishops in 2018 "The Word of God and Catechesis"). His Beatitude Sviatoslav, the Father and Head of Our Church, notes the importance of the Word of God: "The Lord God speaks to us through His Church, through life circumstances. However, a privileged moment of God's communication with man is when we read the Holy Scriptures. This Sunday after Theophany and Sunday of the Word of God, let us respond to this invitation, let us open up the Holy Scriptures and enter into the breath of the Kingdom of Heaven, into the light that wants to shine upon each of us today" (Homily of His Beatitude Sviatoslav on the Sunday after the Epiphany, the Sunday of the Word of God, 08.01.2024).
In addition, this year, this Sunday is also an opportunity to worthily enter more deeply into the Jubilee Year of Hope by listening to the Word of God, its foundation and nourishment. In order to properly honour the Word of God on this day in our parishes, we offer 10 specific initiatives that will help revive a true love for the Holy Scriptures among the faithful. These proposals include common reading of the Bible, organizing thematic catechesis, involving children and youth through creative tasks and interactive activities.
Dear Fathers, I invite you to muster the zeal and faith to organize this celebration among your people. Dear faithful, I invite you to discover for yourselves the beauty of the Holy Scriptures, to allow the Lord to speak to you through His Word, and to share this message in your families and in your surroundings.
Our catechetical commission has provided some wonderful ideas and resources. Let us not panic, trying to implement everything on the Day of the Word of God, but let this be a starting point for making the Word of God a central part of our daily lives - personally, in our families, and in our parishes! But, may the Sunday of the Word of God become a time of renewal of our faith and a testimony of God's love for the world.
With my earnest prayer and blessing,
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