Make your faith more visible, Archbishop of Westminster urges Catholics

Make your faith more visible, Archbishop of Westminster urges Catholics.

This is an excerpt from the website of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster. To read the full article, go to:
http://www.rcdow.org.uk/archbishop/default.asp?library_ref=35&content_ref=3031

Archbishop Vincent Nichols urged Catholics to make their faith more visible by regularly saying ‘God bless you’ and making the Sign of the Cross in their daily lives in a Pastoral Letter read on the weekend of 25 / 26 September 2010.

In the Pastoral Letter the Archbishop of Westminster refered to the words of Pope Benedict XVI who, during his visit to the UK, expressed his hope “…that the Catholics of this land will become ever more conscious of their dignity as a priestly people, called to consecrate the world to God through lives of faith and holiness.”

Archbishop Nichols said that the visit of Pope Benedict has brought “…joy and given a great boost to so many’” and spoke of the beauty of holiness experienced in the moments of prayer during the visit:

“The Holy Father has given us new heart for our mission. In our Cathedral he spelt out that task. He said we are to be witnesses to the beauty of holiness, to the splendour of the truth and to the joy and freedom born of a living relationship with Christ.”

“We have glimpsed the beauty of holiness especially in the moments of prayer during this visit. The holiness of God is reflected in the reverence shown in the liturgies, in the actions of the Mass, in the music and song we have offered and most vividly in the silence of prayer. The beauty of this holiness permeates us from within as ‘heart speaks unto heart’. I will never forget the richness of the silence of 80,000 people at prayer before the Blessed Sacrament in Hyde Park. I hope every celebration of Mass contains times of shared silence in which we can draw close to the Lord.”

... We witness best to the splendour of the truth of our faith when we follow the example given by Pope Benedict. In speaking of our faith he was always so gentle and courteous, so sensitive to the achievements and anxieties of his listeners, so clear and reasoned in presenting difficult points, so humble and open-hearted. We must strive for these same qualities when speaking about our faith, in witnessing to its truth.

...With the blessings of the visit (of Pope Benedict to Britain), we can be more confident in our faith and more ready to speak about it and let it be seen each day. A small step we can all take is to be quicker to say to others that we will pray for them, especially to those in distress. Prayer is the first fruit of faith in the Lord and we grow so much by giving prayer its place in our homes and in our hearts. Even the simple step of more regularly using the greeting ‘God bless you’, gently and naturally, would make a difference to the tone we set in our daily lives as would the more frequent use of the Sign of the Cross. Making faith visible is so much a part of the invitation the Holy Father has extended to us all.

In these ways we can begin to respond to the urging of the Holy Father ‘that the Catholics of this land will become ever more conscious of their dignity as a priestly people, called to consecrate the world to God through lives of faith and holiness.’