Welcome to my series called Year of Grace.
The Year commenced on Pentecost Sunday 2012 and finishes on Pentecost Sunday 2013.
Although it is an Australian initiative from the Bishops, there is no reason why you could not join your Australian brothers and sisters in Christ through prayer for us, and by joining us on this spiritual journey. For example, you could bring the global world to your parish by including this intention of the Year of Grace in the Prayers of the Faithful at Mass, or perhaps use one of the decades of the rosary recited either personally or in your parish. You could even commit to saying the The Year of Grace prayer which I will include in the series, each day/each week.
Although it is an Australian initiative from the Bishops, there is no reason why you could not join your Australian brothers and sisters in Christ through prayer for us, and by joining us on this spiritual journey. For example, you could bring the global world to your parish by including this intention of the Year of Grace in the Prayers of the Faithful at Mass, or perhaps use one of the decades of the rosary recited either personally or in your parish. You could even commit to saying the The Year of Grace prayer which I will include in the series, each day/each week.
At the information evening I attended recently, we were told that the Year of Grace is not a programme.
It is considered :
- a spiritual journey to stop, renew and refocus.
- a journey of listening to the Spirit.
- recognising God's grace in our lives.
- encountering Jesus afresh
We might consider it a time to consider how Jesus is present to us/in the situation since Jesus has promised to be with us until the end of time. God gives moments of grace to us. Sometimes, we are so busy that we do not stop to think or show our gratitude to God. In otherwords, we miss recognising moments of grace in our lives.
We may encounter Christ through
- prayer,
- reflecting on the Scriptures,
- celebrating liturgies,
- repenting of our failures
- listening to the voice of the Spirit.
Grace is God's work- freely given to us by the Spirit. We are called through our Baptism and our faith to begin to live a new life which is the life of the Spirit.
All this may sound wonderful and is wonderful. However, I am a practical person and I know left to my own devices without some planning or reflection, the year will pass me by and it will be a lost opportunity.
So I see the year of Grace as all the aspects stated above, but also as a three pronged approach- personal, parish and diocese. With each of these elements and some careful preparation and reviewing, I look forward to my Year of Grace.
You do not have to be in Australia to join me. I invite you to join me in this spiritual journey.
Next Week: Planning my personal programme.
In our parish, just like on your blog, we are running a discussion group for the Year of Grace, contemplating the face of Christ in St Mark's Gospel, and also reflecting upon where God's Grace has been active in our lives. How amazing to be on the same spiritual wavelength !! Summaries of the weekly discussions as well as a weekly series on Sources of Grace are being posted at www.ofgraceandfaith.blogspot.com
ReplyDeletethanks Catherine for sharing your parish's activity for the Year of Grace. Scripture is such an important aspect to encounter Christ anew.
ReplyDeleteI will be checking in your blog about grace and faith since the Year of Faith will start in October 2012-2013 and you have already it seems combined the both aspects.
I hope your discussions will be fruitful to all that attend and that those who do not attend realize that they are misssing out on something wonderful.
Our parish has not got started yet as such... but I have composed some words for the Year of Grace to Here I am Lord since my 6pm Sunday night congregation know this hymn well- even when they dont sing everything else, I can get them to sing that.. grant you to be fair, it is a congregation that has not had music for 3 years- so I am easing them back into it.
May God send your parish and discussion group abundant grace.
Hi Catherine,
ReplyDeleteYou will pleased to know that our parish has at last created a bible study group for the Year of Grace- studying the Gospel of Mark for the next 16 weeks. We had our first study group last Monday conducted by 2 of our lovely Dominican students. They had prepared a booklet and plan to study a chapter each week.