What is Sunday of the Word of God? 5 Things to KNOW and SHARE - Sunday of the Word of God Explained

 

The Sunday of the Word of God of the Catholic Church takes place on the third Sunday in Ordinary Time, in January. Pope Francis’ Apostolic Letter, issued as a motu proprio, Aperuit illis, was published on the 30th September 2019. It established, "the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time is to be devoted to the celebration, study and dissemination of the Word of God". It occurs on January 21st in 2024 and Jan. 19th in 2025.
1.  The 1st Sunday of the Word of God took place on January 26th in 2020.
Pope Francis invites Catholics across the world to deepen their appreciation, love and faithful witness to God and his Word.

That’s why, as established by a papal decree - the third Sunday in Ordinary Time, is to be observed as a special day devoted to “the celebration, study and dissemination of the Word of God”. 
2. A note released by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, and signed by the prefect, Cardinal Robert Sarah, explains that The Sunday of the Word of God is a means to help people “reawaken an awareness of the importance of Sacred Scripture for our lives as believers, beginning with its resonance in the liturgy which places us in living and permanent dialogue with God.” 
 3. As Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization explained during a press conference, that it is an initiative that the Pope has entrusted to the whole Church so that "the Christian community may concentrate on the great value that the Word of God occupies in its daily existence" (Aperuit illis 2).“This Sunday, he wants to stimulate all Christians not just to place the Bible on the shelf as one of many books, perhaps filled with dust, but as an instrument that awakens our faith.”
4. The Sunday of the Word of God, instituted by Pope Francis and to be held every year on the third Sunday of Ordinary Time,[1] reminds us, pastors and faithful alike, of the importance and value of Sacred Scripture for the Christian life, as well as the relationship between the word of God and the liturgy: “As Christians, we are one people, making our pilgrim way through history, sustained by the Lord, present in our midst, who speaks to us and nourishes us. A day devoted to the Bible should not be seen as a yearly event but rather a year-long event, for we urgently need to grow in our knowledge and love of the Scriptures and of the Risen Lord, who continues to speak his word and to break bread in the community of believers. For this reason, we need to develop a closer relationship with Sacred Scripture; otherwise, our hearts will remain cold and our eyes shut, inflicted as we are by so many forms of blindness”.[2]

5. This Sunday, therefore, presents an ideal opportunity to reread some of the Church’s documents[3] and especially the Praenotanda of the Ordo Lectionum Missae, which present a synthesis of the theological, ritual and pastoral principles surrounding the word of God proclaimed at Mass, but which is also valid in every other liturgical celebration (Sacraments, Sacramentals, Liturgy of the Hours).

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