Canberra, Australia, Dec 7, 2007 / 10:41 am
In this deeply restless culture, the Church needs not just to refresh the observance of Sunday but to shape a new spirituality of the Lord’s Day, Archbishop Mark Coleridge says in his pastoral letter to mark the beginning of Advent.
"A new spirituality of the Lord’s Day will have to be consciously counter-cultural," he says. "It will involve saying 'no' to some things in order to say 'yes' to something greater and deeper. It will require a certain discipline in order to find rest for our souls. It will also require a new kind of creativity and imagination."
A new way of living the Lord’s Day, based upon a new spirituality of Sunday, would mean saying "yes" to Sunday Mass, he said.
"Without the Eucharist, Sunday cannot be the Lord’s Day. It may also mean saying 'yes' to other forms of prayer – family prayer of some kind (perhaps associated with a meal), the Morning or Evening Prayer of the Church or even the Rosary prayed in an especially festive way.