Attached is Archbishop Farrell’s new Pastoral Letter Building Hope with Open Hearts which will be highlighted this weekend.
It launches across the Archdiocese a significant new phase of the Building Hope pastoral renewal initiative, and will be followed in September by the publication of the Building Hope Pastoral Strategic Planning Resource 2025–2027 and associated Workshops.
In his Pastoral Letter Archbishop Farrell said, “JESUS’ CONCERN IS FOR OUR HEARTS… he seeks to draw us close, heart-to-heart with him. ‘Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest’ (Mt 11:28). Jesus calls us to closeness with God, into intimacy with the One who gives us life, and invites us into the relationship that brings us into fullness of life (Jn 10:10). It is in the depth of our hearts (Mk 7:6) that we meet God as we respond to the mysteries of life, and are brought into silence and wonder.
“This relationship is the deeper – one might say, sacred – foundation of our life in the Church. With Christ – through Him, and with Him, and in Him – we live out the gospel, we live out of the words and actions of Jesus that have been handed on to us. This relationship with Jesus is also the foundation of Building Hope, as we’ve been calling our journey of renewal in the Archdiocese of Dublin: as people of faith, ‘encounter with the person of Jesus makes us who we are, and shapes what we do’. (Statement of Mission, February 2022).
Archbishop Farrell concluded, “The Church in Europe finds itself in a time, both of decline and of new beginning. The decline is there for all to see. However, Christ calls people of faith to look at the Church from the standpoint of His Father. Let us look at the Church – and the world – with the eyes of God. Smallness is not an end-point, but a beginning. This is how the Church began. It is always how the Church begins. Let us find our way, step-by-step, working more deeply together, as we build our partnerships of parishes, embracing the road the Spirit is bringing us on, in such a way that, as Pope Francis says, ‘our lives can become a song of love for God, for humanity, with and for creation’ (Hope and Act with Creation, 9).”
To read the full text of Archbishop Farrell’s pastoral letter click on this link: Building Hope With Open Hearts September 2024
It may also be read on the Diocesan website here.
It will be referred to this weekend at all masses. Hard copies will be available also from our churches.
