Seoul (AsiaNews) - While celebrating the first week of Advent, Seoul Archbishop Andrew Yeom Soo-jung released his new Pastoral Letter for the year 2014. Since the Word of God is a strong driving force of new evangelization, the Archdiocese of Seoul has been working through every pastoral field to feature the importance of the Bible. There are guidelines of various programs proposed by the Archdiocese including daily reading and meditation, Bible transcription, Bible read-through, and Bible studies.
In order to strengthen the feeble faith of the Korean Church, the archbishop wrote, "I have presented you all with a measure of five slogans: a faith that is started by the Word of God, a faith that sprouts from prayers, a faith that is strengthen by the teachings of the Church, a faith that is united through the Holy Mass, and a faith that bears fruits through the actions of love".
We - underlines - "have to continue to work hard so that the basis of faith that we have learned during the 'Year of Faith' stays in us. To be more concrete, our Archdiocese has planned to put the five slogans in action, and we will focus on one slogan a year. In the year 2014, we will put emphasis on the Word of God."
As Paul the Apostle said, "faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. Read the Holy Bible daily in your life. Before going to Mass, give yourself some time to go through the Readings and the Gospel. Let the words sink down into your heart".
Priests, goes on archbishop Yeom, "have the duty to deliver the message of God to the faithfuls. It is important for priests to put Jesus Christ in the center of every homily, and to avoid any abstract or irrelevant speech that draws the faithfuls' attention to the priest himself instead of the message of the Gospel".
"The Word of God is the bread of life. But the interpretation of the Bible outside the Church may easily lead to misunderstandings. One should join in Bible programs that are officially approved by the Church. The new evangelization of the Church and the world, is that we live with hope and joy in Christ and in the Word of God".
(Stephany Sun, from the archdiocese's' social secretariat, contributed to the article)