ASIA/SOUTH KOREA - WITH REGULAR EVENING PRAYER IN THE CATHEDRAL 100 LAY PEOPLE PREPARE FOR MISSION TO BEAR WITNESS TO FAITH IN SOCIETY

Monday, 12 January 2004

Seul (Fides Service ) – More than 100 lay people gather every evening for vespers at Myongdong cathedral in Seul. Regular participation in the Church’s Liturgy of the Hours is the fruit of a successful initiative launched in September by Rev. Father Thomas Lee Seong-man, at the end of a special formation course for committed lay Catholics.
“For many lay people in Korea the Liturgy of the Hours was a complicated way of prayer only for the clergy and religious. This initiative has helped them discover the beauty of the Church’s Liturgy, morning and evening prayer and realise that it is open to all. Our cathedral must be the heart of the city’s faith, a place in which there is a strong sense of faith. It is wonderful to hear the walls of the church vibrating with the evening prayers of the faithful” Father Thomas Lee Seong-man told Fides.
He explains that prayer helps the laity to prepare for their special mission in the world and in society. Community prayer is only one part of a general plan with which the local Church is giving special attention to the laity called to take part in initiatives of evangelisation and helping with pastoral work.
Recently the Catholic Bishops’ Conference focussed its pastoral programme on the family, basic nucleus for giving living witness of faith and spreading the Good News in society.
“I pray in the cathedral at least four times a week and it is an experience which fills me with God’s grace” one of the lay participants said. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 12/1/2004 lines 26 words 269)


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