A project of the Spirituality Committee of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales
We offer the Sunday Responsorial Psalm as a focus for prayer and reflection
during the week ahead for yourself or to share with others.
You could note your own thoughts as a possible personal journal.
As we begin a new year we take the opportunity to renew our commitment to living our Christian Catholic faith in the service of the gospel for the Church, our neighbour and the world which is our common home.
The Sunday of the Word of God reminds us of the great gift we have in the scriptures for which we must be constantly grateful to the Lord. There is a handbook of resources for the celebration available to download: www.evangelizatio.va/content/pcpne/en/attivita/parola/2026/sussidio.html
Pope Leo’s Message for the World Day of Peace 1 January 2026 – extract
Dear brothers and sisters, whether we have the gift of faith or feel we lack it, let us open ourselves to peace! Let us welcome it and recognize it, rather than believing it to be impossible and beyond our reach. Peace is more than just a goal; it is a presence and a journey. Even when it is endangered within us and around us, like a small flame threatened by a storm, we must protect it, never forgetting the names and stories of those who have borne witness to it. Peace is a principle that guides and defines our choices. Even in places where only rubble remains, and despair seems inevitable, we still find people who have not forgotten peace. Just as on the evening of Easter Jesus entered the place where his disciples were gathered in fear and discouragement, so too the peace of the risen Christ continues to pass through doors and barriers in the voices and faces of his witnesses. This gift enables us to remember goodness, to recognize it as victorious, to choose it again, and to do so together
Sunday 4 January Second Sunday of Christmas
Sunday 11 January Feast of the Baptism of the Lord
Sunday 18 January Second Sunday of Ordinary Time
Sunday 25 January Third Sunday of Ordinary Time
Sunday of the Word of God
