This year, the celebration of Easter coincides in both the Gregorian and Julian calendars, a circumstance that proves providential as we commemorate the anniversary of the Ecumenical Council (the 1700th anniversary of the first great ecumenical council: the Council of Nicaea).
I renew my appeal that this coincidence may serve as an appeal to all Christians to take a decisive step forward towards unity around a common date for Easter (cf. Bull Spes Non Confundit, 17). The Catholic Church is open to accepting the date that everyone wants: a date of unity.
*****************************
On the threshold of the celebration of Holy Week, we would like to invite you to open your hearts to the merciful love of the Lord who gives himself and his life for every man and woman. ‘Let us even now be drawn to this hope! Through our witness, may hope spread to all those who anxiously seek it.’ (Spes non confundit n. 25). Today more than ever, the world needs us to proclaim the Resurrection of Christ, his love and his tenderness, in a world devastated by so much horror and suffering. Let us pass on to others all the good that the Lord has done for us. Let us be witnesses of hope and sowers of peace in our daily lives, close to the poorest and most vulnerable, and thus, step by step, let us make the Kingdom of God a reality on this earth.
Let us count on the words of the Lord who tells us: ‘See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?’. (Is 43,19)
Eva Fernández Mateo – Coordinator of the Secretariat
+ Eduardo García – Ecclesiastical Assistant
*****************************
18 APRIL – GOOD FIDAY COLLECTION FOR THE HOLY LAND
The IFCA secretariat has been promoting the Collection since 2014-15 in various countries, in collaboration with the Custody of the Holy Land Land and the Commissariats of the Holy Land present in Italy and on other continents.
21 APRIL – 8 JUNE: VIA LUCIS VIA PACIS
Eight steps to contemplate the mystery of the Resurrection by following in the footsteps of the women, the apostles with Mary, and the disciples of Jesus ‘from the eighth day on their way with the Risen Lord’.
Eight steps to take with so many peoples who live in conflict, emphasising these words of Pope Francis in this Jubilee Year in which we are pilgrims of hope: ‘starting from the words of the prophet Isaiah, some features of a diplomacy of hope, of which all of us are called to be heralds, so that the dense clouds of war may be swept away by renewed winds of peace.’
