By Verghese V Joseph –
Rome: For over a year now, Catholic Church’s Sunday celebrations of the Eucharist across the world have been severely tested by the spread of Covid-19 and by the necessary limitations to contain it. Given the circumstances, Pope Francis said that this situation could also be an opportunity to rediscover the importance of the Sunday Eucharistic celebration.
On the occasion of 71st National Liturgical Week, which opened today in the Italian city of Cremona in Lombardy region, Pope Francis sent his greetings to the Chairman of the Liturgical Action Center, Bishop of Castellaneta, SE Mons. Claudio Maniago, through Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin.
The Holy Father hoped that the National Liturgical Week will be able to identify and suggest some lines of liturgical pastoral care to be offered to parishes, so that on Sundays, the Eucharistic assembly, the ministries, the rite emerge from that marginality towards recovering the centrality in the faith and spirituality of believers. The recent publication of the third edition of the Roman Missal and the will of the Italian Bishops to accompany it with a robust resumption of the liturgical formation of the holy people of God bodes well in this direction.
Pope Francis said, “The time of deprivation made it possible to perceive the importance of the divine liturgy for the life of Christians, who find in it that objective mediation required by the fact that Jesus Christ is not an idea or a feeling, but a living Person, and his Mystery a historical event. The prayer of Christians passes through concrete mediations: Sacred Scripture, the Sacraments, liturgical rites, the community. In the Christian life we do not ignore the corporeal and material sphere, because in Jesus Christ it has become the way of salvation. We could say that we must also pray with the body: the body enters into prayer.”
Elaborating on the theme of the conference – “Where are two or three united in my name …” (Mt 18:20) – the Holy Father stated that the creativity has prompted pastors and lay faithful to explore ways to nourish the communion of faith and love with the Lord and with the brothers in tranquility and security.
Commenting on communities, liturgies and territories, Pope Francis said it was a hard and painful wait, nevertheless illuminated by the mystery of the Lord’s Cross and fruitful of many works of care, fraternal love and service to the people who suffered most from the consequences of the health emergency.