Liverpool: Archbishop to launch Year of Consecrated Life
Archbishop Malcolm McMahon is to launch the Year of Consecrated Life with a special celebration of Evening Prayer at 3pm in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King in Liverpool this coming Sunday 23 November 2014.
The Feast of Christ the King is the titular Feast of the Cathedral and will herald the start of the year of celebration on Sunday 30 November, the First Sunday of Advent. The Year will conclude on 2 February 2016, the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life. During these fourteen months celebrations will take place highlighting the various dimensions of consecrated life.
Pope Francis announced that 2015 will be a year dedicated to the promotion of consecrated life, and is asking the church's religious sisters, brothers and priests to ‘wake up the world’ with their testimony of faith, holiness and hope.
The Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Cardinal João Braz De Aviz has said that the Year takes place in the context of the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council. ‘We believe that the Council has been a breath of the Spirit not only for the whole Church but, perhaps especially, for the consecrated life. We are also convinced that in these 50 years consecrated life has undertaken a fruitful journey of renewal, not free, certainly, of difficulties and hardships, in the commitment to follow what the Council asked of the consecrated: fidelity to the Lord, to the Church, to their own charism and to the people of today.’
The Church’s objectives for this year in celebration of Religious Life are: to make a grateful remembrance of the recent past; to embrace the future with hope; to recognise those Religious who live the present with passion. Events and celebrations will take place throughout the archdiocese during the year to highlight the contribution of consecrated life to the Church and, particularly, to Archdiocese of Liverpool.
Everyone is invited to join Archbishop Malcolm together with members of religious congregations serving in the Archdiocese of Liverpool in the Cathedral celebration at 3pm on Sunday 23 November 2014.