Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB has issued a pastoral letter to Perth Catholics, emphasising the importance of the Eucharist and re-instituting the Sunday obligation to attend Mass from September 4. Source: The eRecord.
The letter focuses on what it means to be a Christ-centred Church that is prayerful and Eucharistic.
Archbishop Costelloe said with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, he temporarily suspended the obligation to attend Mass on Sundays in order to protect vulnerable people and to free them from any conscientious challenges they might have had.
“I believe that the time has come to remind us all again of the centrality of the Eucharist and of our need for the Eucharist. For that reason, I am reinstating the Sunday obligation, effective from the first Sunday in September.”
“If it is true that the celebration of the Eucharist is at the very heart of the life of the Church and is the most precious gift of God to the Church, then it is impossible to conceive of the Church without the Eucharist. Equally, it is impossible to conceive of a truly faithful, and faith-filled, living of the Christian life for a Catholic apart from regular participation in the Eucharist,” Archbishop Costelloe said.
The Pastoral Letter, Archbishop Costelloe’s second in as many months, also details the importance of the celebration of the Eucharist in the local Church.
“If there is an obligation born of love to gather each Saturday evening or Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist,” explains Archbishop Costelloe, “there is another obligation, also born of love, which falls primarily on the clergy and on those who cooperate with them to animate the liturgy in the local parish.”
FULL STORY
Sunday Obligation Returns: Archbishop Costelloe issues Pastoral Letter emphasising importance of the Eucharist (By Jamie O'Brien, The eRecord)
