Bishop Philip Egan has asked every member of the Diocese to adopt six holy habits.
1 To keep Sunday special, as a family day, by attending Mass, the ‘source and summit’ of the Christian life, supporting your parish community.
2 To resolve to spend at least five minutes a day in prayer, at whatever time you find best, using the Scriptures, maybe the Gospel of the day.
3 To keep Friday as a day of penance in honour of the Lord’s Passion, intentionally serving the poor and needy.
4 At least once a fortnight, to pay a private visit to church for a short period of prayer before the Tabernacle.
5 To go to Confession once a month or so, like a spiritual check-up when you can personally experience God’s love and mercy and
6 To join a small group for formation, prayer and fellowship, where you can share with others your own faith-experience and in turn hear what God is doing in the lives of others.
The need here is not structural change but personal change, the hardest change of all. It’s about an encounter with the Person of Jesus Himself. So let’s become people with hearts on fire for the Lord, by adopting these six holy habits.
How can we enhance the variety, beauty and solemnity of our parish Liturgy? Could I prepare better for Mass, arriving in good time, reading the Gospel and the prayers?
What helps do I need to pray and to know the Bible better? I enjoy myself following the daily calendar and getting to know the saints.
What does poverty mean in my area and how can I help?
How can I hear more clearly the voice of Jesus calling me?
How can I best to prepare?
Many groups would welcome new members – or why not start a new one?
To help with this, Bishop Philip gives you a gift, a Prayer Book called Lord I am not Worthy. It is meant to help you prepare for Mass. It contains many well-known Catholic prayers and others too.
It is also important to remember that there is only ever one prayer: the prayer of Jesus offered to the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is why it is always good to begin a time of prayer by asking the Holy Spirit to tune us in, to align us with Christ and to unite us with the Father.
This Year, Bishop Philip would like everyone in the Diocese, clergy, religious and laity, to undertake a Year of Prayer to the Holy Spirit. This Year of the Holy Spirit is meant to help our conversion, to deepen our faith, to support our spiritual renewal and to guide our Diocese through this time of transition.
It will be up to each of us, and our parish and school communities, to work out how best to keep this Year of the Holy Spirit. But let us pray every day that the Holy Spirit will renew us. Let’s ask Him to change and send us out.
Let us ask Him to make us grow in love for Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and to serve Him in the poor.
The Holy Spirit is exactly Who we need in a Diocese in which doing nothing or ‘business as usual’ is no longer an option.
Let’s use the prayer book. Let’s open ourselves to the Holy Spirit. Indeed, may the Holy Spirit guide our Diocese; may He help us to change, and through the prayers of Mary Immaculate and St. Edmund, may He bring us all closer to Jesus Christ through His Church.
Our diocesan Year of the Holy Spirit will also support the important Synodal process that is taking place in the universal Church at this time. The topic of the Synod is “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission” and the process will culminate in a Synod of Bishops scheduled for October 2024.
© Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth 2024 | Registration number: England Registered Charity No. 1199568 Jersey Registered Charity No. 457 and Guernsey Registered Charity No.CH263 | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy
