The Year of Faith

The Year of Faith kicked off this past Thursday, Oct 11.  It is the 50th anniversary of the beginning of Vatican II and the 20th anniversary of the most recently published Catechsim.   So...just what is a Year of Faith?  The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops explains:

The upcoming Year of Faith declared by Pope Benedict XVI is a “summons to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the One Savior of the world” (Porta fidei 6). In other words, the Year of Faith is an opportunity for Catholics to experience a conversion – to turn back to Jesus and enter into a deeper relationship with him. The pope has described this conversion as opening the “door of faith” (see Acts 14:27). The “door of faith” is opened at one’s baptism, but during this year Catholics are called to open it again, walk through it and rediscover and renew their relationship with Christ and his Church.

Every baptized Catholic is called through baptism to be a disciple of Christ and proclaim the Gospel. The Year of Faith is an opportunity for each and every Catholic to renew their baptismal call by living out the everyday moments of their lives with faith, hope and love. This everyday witness is necessary for proclaiming the Gospel to family, friends, neighbors and society.

or if you want to know everything there is to possibly know, and I am SURE you do, you can go to the official home page for the Year of faith http://www.annusfidei.va/content/novaevangelizatio/en.html

One of the things we Catholics are encouraged to do during this year is read the Catechism.  As I was nosing around on Fr. Robert Barron’s website http://www.wordonfire.org, I found a great link to help study the Catechism this year http://www.flocknote.com/catechism.  When you subscribe, you get an e-mail each day with a portion of the Catechism and so in 365 days, you will have read the entire book.  Now that doesn’t sound too difficult so I signed up.  I have read portions of the Catechism but not the whole thing straight through.

As an interesting historical note, our sister archivist shared with us what our community did back on October 11, 1962.  

We rose at 2:30am this morning in order to have the community Mass at 3 am - in Rome this was 11am and the opening Mass of the Ecumenical Council was being celebrated...we had the votive Mass of the Maternity of Mary.  May she who is the Mother of the mystical Body help us her children to achieve that unity so desired by her Divine Son.  At 9 o’clock this morning all our tower bells rang for 10 minutes to signal the beginning of the Council.  We could hear the echo from the Conception Abbey bells and though our hands were busy with the 65 bushels of pears needing attention at the canning, our thoughts were in Rome, praying the Holy Spirit to hover above all the proceedings.

Our community has talked about some things we might want to do for the Year of Faith and I’m so glad one of them was NOT that we get up at 3am like we did 50 years ago!  :)  One of the first things we are going to do is watching some footage from the opening and have our elder sisters share what it was like for them to live through that time.  In various discussions before the Council actually convened, Pope John XXIII often said that it was time to open the windows of the Church to let in some fresh air.  Those of us who are post Vatican II will never be able to quite comprehend the impact it had on our church and the excitement it generated at that time.  

It has also been a walk in faith as I recover from my back injury 3 weeks ago.  I have faith that it WILL get better but it just isn't happening as quickly as I want it to!   My physical problem is peanuts compared to what a lot of people go through.  It is surely an act of God's grace when people can retain their faith in the midst of incredible suffering and tragedy.   As we begin this Year of Faith I'm going to strive to be thankful for the gift of faith I do have and ask for perseverance in the midst of this sometimes crazy world.