| Friday,
June 20, 2008 Eucharist
and Mission”Once
we have truly met the Risen One, we cannot keep the Good News to ourselves and
the joy we have experienced. The encounter
with span Christ,constantly intensified and deepened in the Eucharist, issues
in the Church and in every Christian urgent summons to testimony and evangelization.”
The
Eucharist, God’s Gift for the
of the World, Chapter V
Catechist:
Cardinal Ivan Dias
Congregation for the
Evangelization of Peoples, Rome
Continent
of the day: Oceania Ivan
Dias was born April
14, 1936, in Bandra, a Catholic stronghold in the western Indian city of
Mumbai, then Bombay. After graduating from Jesuit-run St. Stanislaus
High School, he entered the seminary.
In a 2001 interview
with the Italian magazine, he said the Blessed Virgin Mary was important in his
vocation and is a continuing influence in his faith. "It was the Blessed
Mother who attracted and seized me," he said. "Her image is even on
my episcopal ring."
The cardinal said he learned his love for the liturgy
from his family.
"As is the case with many Indian families, my mother
took us to Mass every day. That is not unusual in India, because it is normal for a family to approach
the Eucharist each day," he said.
He was ordained a priest in 1958 and
worked at St. Stephen's Church in Mumbai for two years before going to Rome to study at the Vatican institute for diplomats. On completing his
studies in 1964, he was appointed to the Vatican Secretariat of State.
In
1982 he was consecrated archbishop and sent as apostolic nuncio to Ghana, Togo
and Benin. In 1987 he was appointed apostolic nuncio to South Korea, where he worked for four years. He said he
was impressed by the South Koreans' deep faith, which prompted him to learn Korean.
He eventually managed to function in more than a dozen different tongues.
In 1991 he was appointed apostolic nuncio to post-communist Albania, where his task was to rebuild the church
after decades of harshly imposed official atheism.
He was consecrated
archbishop of Bombay in 1996 and was made cardinal in 2001.
In
2006 Pope Benedict appointed him head of the Congregation for the Evangelization
of Peoples, which oversees and promotes the Church’s worldwide missionary and
evangelization work.
Afternoon:
Activities
for the transformation of the world, charity and service Evening:
Weekend journey begins
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