St. Patrick’s Catholic Parish-Thika Launches Yearlong Celebration of “the Word of God”.
Drawing inspiration from the celebration of the Sunday of the Word of God, established by Pope Francis on September 30, 2019 through his Apostolic Letter “Aperuit illis”, St. Patrick Catholic Parish-Thika launched a yearlong celebration of the same event during Family Day Celebrations held on 15th March 2020.
The launch was done in a unique style with a Bible procession where members of Catholic Men Associations, Bible Study group among representatives of other Ecclesiastical groups led the procession, where a small girl; hosted up a dummy boat while holding up her bible surrounded by four men with lamps, spears and shield signifying the exalting of the Word of God, while 200 copies of bibles were placed on a stand; where the Cardinal prayed and blessed them.
His Eminence John Cardinal Njue urging the Christians to think about the Word, by generally reading the Bible, he reminded them to concentrate on the great value that the Word of God occupies in its daily existence.
“I urge all of you to deepen the love we have for the Word of God and realize the benefits that accrue from reading, thinking and living God’s Word in our lives,” he said.
On his part, the Father In-Charge and the Dean; Thika Deanery Fr. Anselm Kamuyu, told the congregation that by celebrating the Year of the Word of God, the Parish intends to “create a culture of reading and sharing the word of God right from the family unit; make the Word of God better known, loved and lived; empower the faithful to proclaim the Word of God; proclaim the Good News to the ignorant; and promote authentic interpretation of the Word of God.”
Some of the activities planned for the year include Biblical seminars scheduled every month within all Small Christian Communities in the Parish.
The year 2020 is significant for the Word of God as it marks 1600th anniversary of the death of St. Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church credited with translating much of the Bible into Latin and famous for the words, “Ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ.”
By: Augustine Victor, Parish Communication Agent-Thika
