“Bethlehem, house of bread” is the title of the liturgical and pastoral aid that the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) has prepared for the time of Advent and Christmas 2004. Divided into three parts, it opens with an introduction by Monsignor Giuseppe Betori, general secretary of CEI. “Telling the story of the birth of Jesus writes Msgr. Betori the evangelist Luke notes that ‘Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem’. Luke’s account is not mere information, but the indication of a route that we too are invited to take to be able to celebrate and experience the Nativity of the Lord. In this perspective, the time of Advent becomes for every believer an invitation to go up to Bethlehem, to make, that is, the effort of a progressive ascent to the places where the history of God becomes salvation for all mankind”. The booklet also contains references to the Year of the Eucharist opened by John Paul II on 17 October (it will run till October 2005) and the National Eucharistic Congress due to be held in Bari in May 2005. The booklet contains three parts: in the first, the criterion that inspires the reflection for each Sunday and Solemnity is that of the relation between the Word that is announced and celebrated and the Word that enters into action in the life of the believer. The second part offers some suggestions for prayer that may help parish communities to find suitable places and times for rediscovering the desire and the need to meet together to pray. The third and final part offers some suggestions for hymns. For further information: tel. 0039/06/66398245, www.chiesacattolica.it.
