The Year of Grace is principally an invitation to encounter Christ anew and it is one that hordes of Catholics throughout Australia are taking up, national Year of Grace Project Officer Father Peter Brock said when he visited Perth last week.
More than four months after the year began at Pentecost, YOG initiatives have taken flight throughout the country.
Fr Brock says that every diocese and Eastern Rite Eparchy in the country has a YOG coordinator, a first for any Australia-wide Church initiative, and he has spent the best part of his two years in the role keeping them abreast of one another’s activities.
Fr Brock’s visit to The Faith Centre and to local YOG coordinator Paddy Buckley came just in time for the launch of the YOG e-bulletin, spurring local Catholics on in the twofold aims of the year – to “start afresh from Christ” and to spend time contemplating His face.
Dioceses around the country are trying different things and sharing them with one another.
A Benedictine nun in Rockhampton has launched “Take two for Jesus”, sending a prayer each day to people who have signed up to receive her emails.
In Western Sydney, 80 Year 11 and 12-aged students from four local Catholic high schools were encouraged to come together for prayer.
In Brisbane, Archbishop Mark Coleridge is leading prayer sessions in different parts of the city, giving locals the chance to experience different kinds of prayer – Taize and Lectio Divina being among them
“It’s an invitation that says ‘you might not ever have experienced this before. Come along and find something that nurtures and nourishes you’,” Fr Brock said.
Archbishop Coleridge was one of four bishops nominated by the Australian bishops’ conference to develop the YOG idea; the other bishops who were nominated include Bishop Michael Putney, Bishop David Walker and then-Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne, Timothy Costelloe SDB.
Sydney Bishop Peter Comensoli told Pope Benedict about the Australian bishops’ proposal for a Year of Grace and received his blessing for the initiative in Rome in October last year.
Two days after that meeting, the Pope announced a Year of Faith for the entire, global Church.
The Year of Faith began on October 11, 2012. Fr Brock says the Year of Grace and the Year of Faith are entirely complementary.
“You can’t have faith without grace and grace leads to faith and nurtures faith … They complement each other and run in tandem,” he said.
To sign up for the Year of Grace e-bulletin, visit www.yearofgrace.catholic.org.au. For information on local initiatives, visit The Faith Centre at www.thefaith.org.au.