Page 3 - LOTN Autumn Issue 48 2021

DIOCESE

A Letter from

Bishop Hugh Gilbert O.S.B.

Dear Friends, Mass should not be seen as a burden. It is a summons
addressed to our human freedom and to the heart of every
Our lives are so complicated and the pressures on baptised member of the Church. “There is within me”, said
us all so many that there is almost any number of St Ignatius of Antioch, “a murmur of living water which says,
subjects a letter like this could address! First and most ‘Come to the Father’”. The obligation calls us to come to the
of all, though, I would like to wish you a happy and holy Father together with our fellow-believers, to “listen to the
Christmas, and hope that you will find in it the grace word of God and to take part in the Eucharist, calling to
and energy we need as we enter another year. mind the passion, resurrection and glory of the Lord Jesus,
Forgive me, then, if I quote some of a recent Pastoral and giving thanks to God who ‘has begotten [us] to a living
Letter of the Bishops of Scotland which turns on this theme: hope, through the resurrection of Christ from the dead’”
“We have all experienced the negative impact the (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 106; 1 Pt 1:3). Sunday Mass can
pandemic has had on our common liturgical celebrations reinvigorate and refresh our Christian faith, our sense of
and our access to the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist. community and our desire to live as missionary disciples
Now that more people are attending church, the Bishops in the world. This is why the Church takes this obligation
of Scotland want to encourage all the Catholic faithful to seriously.
renew their covenant with the Church and her worship. It has been good to have access to the Sacred Liturgy
Christmas seems the right time to do this. online, and we encourage those unable to attend Mass
Christmas Day this year falls on a Saturday. It will be on Sundays and Holydays to continue making use of
followed immediately by the feast of the Holy Family this. Of itself, though, online participation does not fulfil
on the Sunday. We therefore strongly encourage you to the obligation. Nothing can adequately replace actual
take advantage of the celebrations of that weekend by presence. It’s to experience this that we come to church.
attending Mass on both days, or at least once. Let us therefore use the coming Christian season to return,
We have often been asked about reinstating the obligation with purified hearts and fresh fervour, to our sacramental
to attend Mass on Sundays and Holydays of obligation. In and liturgical life. In the northern hemisphere, this season
our fluid situation, this is not an easy judgment to make, but falls at a dark and low time of the year. This is not by chance.
saving any serious worsening of the situation, the Bishops It’s precisely at this time, made darker still by so many
believe that Christmastide provides an opportune moment current uncertainties, that we are offered divine energy,
to restore the obligation. the joy of the human birth of a divine child and light and
The obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and Holydays strength to live a new year in the power of the Holy Spirit.”
of Obligation will therefore be reinstated from Sunday 2nd Currently – under the rubric of “synodality” - Pope Francis
January, the first of the new year. is encouraging us to explore the ways in which we, as the
In accordance with the common teaching of the Church pilgrim People of God heading for the heavenly Jerusalem,
this obligation does not bind those in ill health or those “journey together.” While each of us stands alone before
otherwise impeded from attending Mass. Nor, in the the Lord, we are also “members of one another”, as St Paul
context of Covid, does it bind those showing symptoms says. And, as we journey together, so we naturally “meet
of the virus or with underlying health conditions, or those together”. This journeying and meeting together along the
with responsibilities for people in need of special care. way of Christ is the word synodality suggests. In practical
The obligation to keep the Lord’s Day holy by attending terms, between now and August, we are asked to meet in
our parishes, and other communities, and to share with
each other as to the quality of our togetherness. After the
New Year material to facilitate this will be provided to the
parishes. We are being asked to listen to and learn from
each other and, with the Holy Spirit, find ways to live better
our corporate and missionary calling. May our growing
return to the Eucharist – the most “synodal” thing we do –
help us to find our way in all this.

With every blessing for Christmas and the coming year,

Bishop Hugh Gilbert OSB
"Journeying and meeting together along the way of Christ"
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