Christmas 2008
http://www.rcdai.org.uk/articles/138/1/Christmas-2008/Page1.html
By Website Editor
Published on 20/12/2008
A pastoral letter to be read or distributed on the Sundays before or after Christmas.
My dear brothers and sisters,
It is with joy and heartfelt thanks that I address you as your new bishop - with joy because I am happy to serve you in this ministry and because the spirit of Advent encourages us all “to be joyful in the Lord”; and with heartfelt thanks because of the great outpouring of prayer, affection and kindness which have been showered upon me in recent weeks.
Thanks to everyone who attended the ordination in Oban, and especially to those who prepared the cathedral and the liturgy and so helped make it such an uplifting and moving celebration of our faith in God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Thanks to all who have prayed for me and our diocese in all our parishes and in many homes, across Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Ecuador, Zambia, Australia and the Philippines, to name but some of the places I have received messages from. I humbly ask that you continue to seek the Lord’s blessing for me in my ministry so that I may be a wise and faithful servant of Christ the Good Shepherd.
We come again this week to celebrate the Lord’s birth at Bethlehem, and our hearts and minds are drawn to contemplate with Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and kings, the child in the manger.
In admiring and praising our Saviour, born in such humble circumstances, we pray that the light of his love, God’s love for us all, may enter anew our hearts and minds, so that our faith may be enriched, our hope enlivened and our love strengthened.
We ask the Lord also to look upon our needs and those of our world, that peace may reign, justice be upheld, the hungry fed, the sick cared for, and that human life may everywhere be respected and cherished.
Conscious of the economic and other difficulties we face at present we ask for the grace to adapt when life becomes harder and our earthly securities are diminished, and to know that our Saviour was born as one of us to give us the assurance of God’s loving presence most of all when we are weak and frightened.
I commend to your prayers those in grief, in a particular way the families of our soldiers who have lost their lives in recent days in Afghanistan, and for all others who suffer the consequences of war and terror – may Christ, the Prince of Peace, comfort and console them.
One consequence of becoming a bishop is that I should pay attention to what the Pope and other bishops are saying, thus witnessing to our communion together in the Catholic Church throughout the world.
In October this year the Synod of Bishops meeting in Rome discussed in depth the place of The Word of God in the Life of the Church, and some of their wishes and conclusions deserve to be passed on and acted upon by all the faithful in the year ahead. Here is something of what was said:
“The synod firmly invites, once again, all the faithful to an encounter with Jesus, Word of God made flesh, as an event of grace which runs through the reading and hearing of the Sacred Scriptures……..
Therefore, we vividly hope that a new time of great love for the Sacred Scriptures on the part of the People of God will flow from this assembly, so that a relationship with the person of Jesus will grow from their prayerful and fruitful reading over time.”
To enhance this love for the Sacred Scriptures the bishops recommended that every member of the faithful should have a personal copy of the Bible, to be read from prayerfully each day so that listening to and speaking with God becomes a conscious and deeper part of daily living, leading always to a stronger commitment to charity.
Our daily and Sunday missals offer us the texts used at Mass, and many other publications offer selected texts for each day of the year, often with uplifting commentaries and suggestions for prayer – whatever texts or books we may use, in our reflecting on God’s Word we should be deeply bound by the example of Mary and the saints, who lived their lives attentive in prayer and faithful to the will of God.
I would pray that in the year ahead, and always, we may ponder upon the beauty and power of the Word of God when read to us in public prayer, especially in the Eucharist, or quietly pondered over in prayer gatherings, devotions, private and family prayer, and thus nourished on his word we may bring Christ to our waiting world. Jesus says to us in St John’s Gospel:
“If anyone loves me he will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we shall come to him
and make our home with him.” (Jn. 14; 23)
and St Paul in the Letter to the Colossians adds:
“Let the message of Christ, in all its richness, find a home with you.” (Col.3;16)
By opening our lives to the presence of Christ in his Word we allow him to make a home in our hearts, and are thus enriched by the love and grace of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
May the peace of Christ be with you this Christmas, and bless and enrich you and yours through the coming year.
+ Joseph
Rt. Rev Joseph Toal
Bishop of Argyll & The Isles.
A pastoral letter from Bishop Joseph Toal to be read or distributed on the Sundays before or after Christmas 2008.
17th December 2008
A pastoral letter to be read or distributed on the Sundays before or after Christmas.
My dear brothers and sisters,
It is with joy and heartfelt thanks that I address you as your new bishop - with joy because I am happy to serve you in this ministry and because the spirit of Advent encourages us all “to be joyful in the Lord”; and with heartfelt thanks because of the great outpouring of prayer, affection and kindness which have been showered upon me in recent weeks.
Thanks to everyone who attended the ordination in Oban, and especially to those who prepared the cathedral and the liturgy and so helped make it such an uplifting and moving celebration of our faith in God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Thanks to all who have prayed for me and our diocese in all our parishes and in many homes, across Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Ecuador, Zambia, Australia and the Philippines, to name but some of the places I have received messages from. I humbly ask that you continue to seek the Lord’s blessing for me in my ministry so that I may be a wise and faithful servant of Christ the Good Shepherd.
We come again this week to celebrate the Lord’s birth at Bethlehem, and our hearts and minds are drawn to contemplate with Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and kings, the child in the manger.
In admiring and praising our Saviour, born in such humble circumstances, we pray that the light of his love, God’s love for us all, may enter anew our hearts and minds, so that our faith may be enriched, our hope enlivened and our love strengthened.
We ask the Lord also to look upon our needs and those of our world, that peace may reign, justice be upheld, the hungry fed, the sick cared for, and that human life may everywhere be respected and cherished.
Conscious of the economic and other difficulties we face at present we ask for the grace to adapt when life becomes harder and our earthly securities are diminished, and to know that our Saviour was born as one of us to give us the assurance of God’s loving presence most of all when we are weak and frightened.
I commend to your prayers those in grief, in a particular way the families of our soldiers who have lost their lives in recent days in Afghanistan, and for all others who suffer the consequences of war and terror – may Christ, the Prince of Peace, comfort and console them.
One consequence of becoming a bishop is that I should pay attention to what the Pope and other bishops are saying, thus witnessing to our communion together in the Catholic Church throughout the world.
In October this year the Synod of Bishops meeting in Rome discussed in depth the place of The Word of God in the Life of the Church, and some of their wishes and conclusions deserve to be passed on and acted upon by all the faithful in the year ahead. Here is something of what was said:
“The synod firmly invites, once again, all the faithful to an encounter with Jesus, Word of God made flesh, as an event of grace which runs through the reading and hearing of the Sacred Scriptures……..
Therefore, we vividly hope that a new time of great love for the Sacred Scriptures on the part of the People of God will flow from this assembly, so that a relationship with the person of Jesus will grow from their prayerful and fruitful reading over time.”
To enhance this love for the Sacred Scriptures the bishops recommended that every member of the faithful should have a personal copy of the Bible, to be read from prayerfully each day so that listening to and speaking with God becomes a conscious and deeper part of daily living, leading always to a stronger commitment to charity.
Our daily and Sunday missals offer us the texts used at Mass, and many other publications offer selected texts for each day of the year, often with uplifting commentaries and suggestions for prayer – whatever texts or books we may use, in our reflecting on God’s Word we should be deeply bound by the example of Mary and the saints, who lived their lives attentive in prayer and faithful to the will of God.
I would pray that in the year ahead, and always, we may ponder upon the beauty and power of the Word of God when read to us in public prayer, especially in the Eucharist, or quietly pondered over in prayer gatherings, devotions, private and family prayer, and thus nourished on his word we may bring Christ to our waiting world. Jesus says to us in St John’s Gospel:
“If anyone loves me he will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we shall come to him
and make our home with him.” (Jn. 14; 23)
and St Paul in the Letter to the Colossians adds:
“Let the message of Christ, in all its richness, find a home with you.” (Col.3;16)
By opening our lives to the presence of Christ in his Word we allow him to make a home in our hearts, and are thus enriched by the love and grace of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
May the peace of Christ be with you this Christmas, and bless and enrich you and yours through the coming year.
+ Joseph
Rt. Rev Joseph Toal
Bishop of Argyll & The Isles.