Archbishop's Message

Holy Mother Church, like St. Ann the Mother of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, the time and again admonishes Her children to habitually accept the three means offered to them by the Holy Spirit, for the eschatalogical success of His baptismal mission as the Eternal Father’s Spirit of Truth in their spiritual souls, for their sanctification as the adopted children of the Eternal Father in the mystical Body of Christ, and merit His promised salvation for us in His Son our Lord Jesus Christ. These three means, necessary for making true spiritual progress in the Holy Spirit, are spiritual reading, meditation and prayer. Holy Scripture holds primacy of place among the various texts available for spiritual reading. The reading of Holy Scripture, especially of the Book of Sirach, produces a twofold effect in us. Not only does it inform us of God’s charity for us in Christ to redeem us from our sin-death condition and sanctify us, but it also instructs us to practice fasting and almsgiving as taught by our Lord to flee from the vanities of our sinful perishable world and love God with all our mind, heart, soul and strength.

The reading of Holy Scripture produces a reverential and salutary familiarity with God and leads us to guard it as the treasure of our personal lives in God’s Holy Catholic Church. Intelligent Catholics should pursue knowledge of God through diligent and religious study of the Holy Scripture in order to love God and neighbour in truth and love. Meditation consists in considering and personally realizing the truth of God’s Word to nourish one’s ‘obedience of faith’ to God. This leads a person to develop a pure and fruitful life of prayer and religious action. Then we may be confident that God will hear and answer our prayers because our prayers will be according to His truth. And so, spiritual reading, especially of the Holy Scripture, meditation and prayer are the necessary means whereby we may grow in the knowledge and love of God and of our neighbour and attain the salvation of God historically revealed to us by Him through His Son our Lord Jesus Christ and given by them to us through the mission of His Holy Spirit in our spiritual souls as the Spirit of God’s only- begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ.