Vicariate Apostolic of Ingwavuma

(click HERE to read this letter in Zulu)

"IZwi laba yinyama,
lahlala phakathi kwethu"

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

this year, like every year, we will be gathering together at Ingwavuma for the annual pilgrimage of our Vicariate. We will be meeting on Sunday 18th September. I have invited Bishop Taddeus Xolelo Khumalo (Bishop of Eshowe) to preside our gathering.

From this year 2011, I'd like the theme of our yearly pilgrimage to lead us for the whole year and not for just a day.

My idea is to announce the theme on the 1st of July of every year so that it helps us prepare ourselves to our annual pilgrimage but the theme should go beyond the day of the pilgrimage.

I'd like it to be the spirit that leads us in our daily journey as Christians during the year. These should be words that help us grow as Christians, disciples and apostles of Jesus.

The theme should be part of our personal prayer, our homilies, it should be deepened in our catechism classes, in the meetings of each of our groups (Small Christian Communities, Sacred Heart, St Anne, St John, justice and peace, youth and others)...

A poster will be prepared. Make sure it takes a special place in our Churches so that we keep on remembering this yearly theme.

We are also planning how to share the theme through our Facebook space (called Ingwavuma) and by sending free sms to those who'd like to receive them.

Could we also think of new hymns or choruses created by any of us and drawings from our children to put in our churches?

In short, let's try to use every possible mean in order to help each one of us deepen on it.

* * *

The theme of this year's pilgrimage is taken from St Paul to the Colossians (3,16):

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly"

These words are a clear invitation of Paul to make space to God's Word in our personal lives, in the life of our families, groups and community.

We want to make sure that we feel our hearts burning when He talks to us in his Word as it happened to the two people going to Emmaus (Lk 24, 32). We want to meet Jesus when we read, listen and follow His Word.

In order to know his Word better and become more and more familiar with it, the Catholic Bible Foundation from Durban will be leading two weekend workshops in the Vicariate during the month of October and will also be available to attend meetings in our communities during the week.

I believe that Paul did not want us just to know it but to live according to it, remembering what Jesus told his disciples: "Whoever loves me will keep my word" (John 14, 23).

Also James says this in his letter: "Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his own face in a mirror. He sees himself, then goes off and promptly forgets what he looked like. (James 1, 22-24)

We want to know God's Word more, remember it and allow it to guide us and build us. Yes! As Christians we build our lives on Jesus' words: "Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock" (Mt 7,24-25). Even if we go through difficult times, our lives, our homes, our families, will be solidly built on the rock of His Word. We want to make sure that also our youth build their lives on God's Word and our children grew up loving it.

In Paul's farewell to the elders of Ephesu he says: "And now I commend you to God and to that gracious word of his that can build you up and give you the inheritance among all who are consecrated" (Acts 20, 32). These were his final words, he farewell gift to them.

May it be a special year when we choose to:

• read it personally and with our families,

• pray with it (pray the psalms and so many other hymns we find in the new testament like the Magnificat, Mary's hymn!)

• read it and reflect on it at our meetings (youth, SCCs, sodalities...) following the Seven Step method in a special way,

• read it before going to Church on Sundays so that we are prepared to listen with an open heart,

• give the Bible a special place in our homes, a place of respect

• ... (this space is yours! What else do you think we could do this year?)

Before finishing this letter, let me share with you this prayer I found which reminds us of the disciples going to Emmaus. May it be your prayer, our prayer this year:

May it be a year in which we find ourselves at home with the Word and a year when Jesus' Word is also at home in our lives. May it become flesh in us as it was with Mary. Yes, may the Word become flesh and dwell among us today and always!

Yours in Christ and Mary,

+ José Luis IMC