Aspal & St Patrick's Pontifical University announce partnership

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Aspal and St Patrick's Pontifical University

St Patrick's Pontifical University, Maynooth, is delighted to work with the team at Aspal.ie to deliver cutting edge digital catechesis right into the hands of people all across Ireland. Our collaboration allows for people in the comfort of their own homes to engage with the highest quality ongoing faith formation. This new means of digital catechesis - the future of faith learning - has been made possible thanks to the support of the Allchurches trust.

Digital Faith Formation is the future of our helping people to know God in a deeper way. We are delighted in this collaboration to lead people on this journey.


How Aspal Works

To register for a course simply log onto Aspal.ie and register for the course you want to follow. A member of the Aspal Team will contact you and get you set up on the system. Start your learning.

You can follow the course from the Aspal.ie website simply by logging in with the username and password that is given to you at registration or you can download the Aspal App to engage with your learning anywhere and even on the move.

The First Aspal Course

We are delighted to announce that the first, of many, Aspal.ie courses is now made available to all the parishes of Ireland. The Kiss of Christ, led by Fr Séamus O’Connell, is an online introduction to lectio divina in a pastoral key over the next eight weeks. Alternating between brief presentations which may be accessed at any point, and live lectio sessions, this short course will provide a pathway through lectio divina while participants journey with the Sunday gospels of Lent.


The Kiss of Christ

In Dei Verbum, the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation from the Second Vatican Council, and probably its most far-reaching document, the Church teaches that she unceasingly receives and offers to the faithful the Bread of Life from the table both of God’s word and of Christ’s body. (§21)

For well over a century, ever since the days of Pope Saint Pius X, the Church has been able to renew how it ‘offers to the faithful the Bread of Life’ at the table of Christ’s body. Not only has this renewal of Eucharistic life and practice permitted God’s people to be sustained by the Body of Christ, it has led to the renewal the Church’s inner life and our presence in the world.

However, the renewal of how the Church ‘offers to the faithful the Bread of Life’ at the table of God’s word is still in its early stages. This led Pope Saint John Paul II to ask, to what extent has the Word of God become more fully the soul of theology and the inspiration of the whole of Christian living, as Dei Verbum sought? (TMA §36)

This question he asked in 1994 as he began prepare for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000. You yourself will be best able to judge the Church’s response to his searching question.

The ancient discipline of lectio divina has re-emerged in the last 25 years as one balanced way for all the faithful to receive the word of God and be sustained by it. It brings together the Scriptures and life—what Pope Francis calls “that inseparable pair.” (Address to the Catholic Biblical Federation, April 2019). In a desire to sustain those involved in lectio divina and to provide for their ongoing formation, St Patrick’s Pontifical University, Maynooth is offering an online introduction to lectio divina in a pastoral key over the next eight weeks. Alternating between brief presentations which may be accessed at any point, and a fortnightly live lectio, this short course will provide a pathway through lectio divina while participants journey with the Sunday gospels of Lent.

Addressing the challenges of praying together during the Covid-19 pandemic has permitted many to gain confidence in negotiating virtual environments. Building on this confidence, the course, under the guidance of Father Séamus O’Connell, will provide resources and support for the prayerful reading of the Scriptures in a way that will nourish the faith of the individual, and inspire the lives of our parish and diocesans communities.

“To whom shall we go?” said Peter, “You have the words of eternal life.”


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