(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 15.01.2024).- The fifth Sunday of the Word of God will be observed on January 21, 2024, a Day instituted by Pope Francis on September 30, 2019. The theme for this edition is taken from Saint John’s Gospel: “Remain in my Word” (John 8:31). At 9:30 am on Sunday, January 21, the Holy Father will preside over the celebration of Holy Eucharist in Saint Peter’s Basilica and then, with the objective of reviving the responsibility that believers have to know Sacred Scripture, he will hand Mark’s Gospel to those present.
Conferred during the celebration will be the ministries of Lectorate and of Catechist to lay women and men. In particular, two persons will receive the ministry of Lectorate and nine the ministry of Catechist. They are lay faithful that intend to represent the People of God and they come from Brazil, Bolivia, Korea, Chad, Germany and the Antilles.
The Section for essential questions of Evangelization in the world, of the Dicastery for Evangelization, charged by the Holy Father to promote the event, has made available on line a free liturgical-pastoral aid to live the Word of God and prayer in community, in the family, and personally.
The text, available this year only in digital version, can be downloaded in Italian, English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Polish at www.evangelizatiio.va. It is a tool offering proposals to foster a profound encounter with the Word of God in the community, in the family, in daily life, and includes as well articles, meditations, texts for Adoration and pastoral suggestions.
On the occasion of the Sunday of the Word, it’s expected that the Holy Father will initiate officially the Year of Prayer, in preparation for the 2025 Jubilee. After promoting reflection on the documents and the study of the fruits of Vatican Council II in 2023, by the will of Pope Francis, 2024 will be dedicated in dioceses worldwide to the rediscovery of the centrality of prayer.
