My dear collaborators,
We begin from today the Holy Season of Advent, a New Liturgical Season, which will help us to prepare ourselves for the Second Coming of Jesus. May our prayer be: Come Lord Jesus, come without delay so that we can feel inspired and motivated to ensure that no one is in want in our parish communities, in our villages and in our society, at large. May the Season of Advent help us to experience the Birth of Jesus on Christmas Day so that as pilgrims we feel inspired to bring hope to the hopeless in our parishes, institutions and the people we interact with every day.
I deeply appreciate you for all that you are doing in your parishes: Last Sunday, you organized Adoration Services in your parishes and also had processions to celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King. I prayed that each one of us may strive to follow Christ the King “who came not to be served, but to serve and give HIS life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20: 28). May I earnestly request you to visit your parishioners regularly in a systematic manner so that they experience joy and happiness in their lives: particularly, the sick, bereaved and distressed families. I am confident you will do it for the love of Jesus who visited the homes of a number of people in HIS days when He lived and interacted with them.
The month of December brings several Solemnities and Feasts in the Catholic Church: St Francis Xavier (December 04), the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (December 09), Nativity of our Lord (December 25), St Stephen (December 26), St John (December 27), Holy Innocents (December 28) and the Holy Family (December 29). May I request you to announce to your parishioners, during the Season of Advent, the importance of the Sacrament of Reconciliation so that our people may experience the peace and friendship of Jesus and be inspired to celebrate Christmas joyfully. I am sure you will be available for Confessions to your parishioners, particularly in the last week of Advent.
A special feature of the month of December is the inauguration of the Ordinary Jubilee Year on Sunday, December 29 – the Feast of the Holy Family. As you are already aware, the purpose of the Jubilee Year is three-fold: to celebrate Jesus, to celebrate the Church and to celebrate our Faith. Fr Kishor Vidhate, Diocesan Coordinator, Ordinary Jubilee Committee and his Team have prepared a number of programmes at the parish, zonal and Diocesan levels. These will be communicated to you from time to time. The inaugural Mass will be held at the Cathedral of St Anne, Nashik on Sunday, December 29 at 4.30 p.m. As mentioned, each parish is requested to get 10 people (representing the PPC members, children and youth). All the priests of our Diocese are earnestly requested to participate in the inaugural Mass: this is a concrete sign of our expression of solidarity and unity with what is happening in the Universal Church. 3 Religious Women from each Community are invited to the Inaugural Mass.
May I request you to organize various programmes for the children, youth, adults, senior citizens, sick and homebound, bereaved families, etc. in your parishes. You may take the help of the PPC members and see how best you can make the celebration of the Ordinary Jubilee Year a memorable one. Short reports regarding the celebration of the Ordinary Jubilee Year in your parishes and separate photographs (high resolution) may be sent via email to: nashikdiocese@gmail.com. These reports will be uploaded on the Diocesan Website https://nashikcatholicdiocese.org from time to time.
The Pilgrim Cross which will be blessed on December 29 will be coming to all the parishes of our Diocese. You may organize Holy Hours for different groups of people and/or celebrate the Eucharist for the sick, homebound and bereaved families in your Church during the visitation of the Pilgrim Cross. Please be very particular to ensure that no garland should be put on the Cross as we intend to preserve the Pilgrim Cross for a good number of years to come. In case parishes want to keep the Pilgrim Cross for another week, please telephone Fr Kishor Vidhate (Mobile +919881747600) immediately so that he can accommodate your request.
Our beloved Holy Father, Pope Francis, on the Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (November 21, 2024) issued a Letter to the Church encouraging us to appreciate Church History (view letter here). In his own words, Pope Francis has stated, “the urgent need for a greater sense of history at a moment when we see a tendency to dismiss the memory of the past or to invent one suited to the requirements of dominant ideologies”. May we make it a point to revisit and appreciate Church History so that we communicate the same to our parishioners who may not have heard about what took place in the Early, Medieval and/or Dark Ages of the Church.
Looking forward to meeting you for our annual Christmas Get-together at the Cathedral of St Anne on Thursday, December 19 and with every good wish,
Yours in Christ,
+Barthol Barretto
Bishop, Diocese of Nashik
December 1, 2024