Leigh Pastoral Area

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

What is Advent?

Advent marks the beginning of the liturgical year. While it expresses the deep longing of all humanity for God, it celebrates the three-fold coming of the Lord:
remembering the events that surrounded the Lord’s coming long ago,
celebrating his coming among us today,
and looking forward to his final coming in glory.

The first part of Advent looks forward to the Lord’s glorious return at the end of time and reflects on his presence among us today.
The second part - from December 17th to 24th - prepares us for the yearly commemoration of Jesus’ coming among us in human flesh.

Each Advent Sunday takes on a particular character as suggested by the Gospel reading.

I             The Lord’s coming in glory at the end of time
II and III     John the Baptist and his message of repentance
IV           Events that immediately preceeded the Lord’s birth

Come, Lord Jesus!

Liverpool Music

News from the Music Department of the Archdiocesan Liturgy Commission

Website:  http://livmus.blogspot.com

Here you’ll find news and information about forthcoming events organised by the music department. If you have any queries or comments, click on the “Comment” button at the end of any post. We’ll do our best to help.

Praying Advent

We often miss Advent’s power because these weeks are full of parties, panic and other preparations for Christmas.  The busyness at this time of year can distract us from having an Advent season that truly prepares us for the celebration of Christmas, with all its meaning. This site, ‘Praying Advent’ offers simple ways to enter into the Advent season, week by week, in the midst of our everyday lives.

Website:  http://www.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/Advent

HOMELESS THIS CHRISTMAS

Two charities in Manchester, who undertake a wonderful and holy ministry to the homeless, are deserving of our support this Christmas:

The Windsor Drop-In Centre
Website:  http://www.manchestercitymission.com  (click on ‘Projects’ on the left-hand menu)

The Barnabas Project
Website:  http://www.barnabus-manchester.org.uk

Resource Pack for Homes, Schools & Parishes

HOME IS A HOLY PLACE

A brand new resource for raising awareness of the holiness of our homes is now available. 
Website:  http://www.homeisaholyplace.org.uk

A reflection by the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster

Our common bond:  a fragile global financial system -  Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor

Within a few weeks what began as a “credit crunch” turned into a financial crisis and has now become a global recession. Religious leaders are not normally economists.  However, they cannot ignore the damaging human consequences of the rise and fall of economic indicators. Behind the gloomy headlines are cities, neighbourhoods, families, individuals deeply affected by the economic breakdown; and the hardest hit will be the poor:  those already struggling to survive.

Christians have a paramount concern for the poor. This “preferential option for the poor” is a constant theme in Catholic social teaching. The biblical concept of justice implies that the justice of a community is measured by how it treats the powerless. And a “globalised” world, must consider not only the poor and marginalised in the West, but also the eight hundred million people outside it who are living in absolute poverty, together with the half a billion who are chronically hungry. It is right for religious leaders to insist that in formulating our economic and commercial policies we must take full account of their implications for the poor, both at home and in the rest of the world. Any new dispensation of world economy which does not address the extreme marginalisation of rich and poor does not merit consideration.

The Church neither condemns the market economy nor canonises it. Christians recognise that the market, like money itself, is an essential element in the conduct of human affairs. But the laws by which it operates are not blind. They follow from and can be moderated by human actions and decisions. So those who operate the market have an obligation to promote the common good and to safeguard against those most adept at exploiting it. Governments and regulators have a part in this, but all of us not only bankers, business leaders and financiers must consider the moral implications of what we are doing and whether we are contributing, in however small a way, to promoting the common good and not to the perpetration of injustice. There is nothing immoral in wanting to be prosperous. But are economic growth and ever-increasing material prosperity the sole criteria of a healthy or successful society? Although the majority of people in the developed world are better off financially than they were 40 years ago, has this brought social, emotional and spiritual well-being?

Today’s common bond appears to be a shared uneasiness with the present state of society, which clearly is a society not at ease with itself since no-one can escape the consequences of a fragile global financial system that binds us all together.
It seems that the present crisis may be a kairos:  an opportunity for stocktaking about what we understand by the common good; about what national or social success means; about what it means to be human. It is an opportunity to recognise that ensuring social justice cannot be left to governments, politicians and the market, but depends on our day to day decisions and on the goals we set.