Aperuit Illis: Apostolic Letter Instituting the Sunday of the Word of God

With this Apostolic Letter, Pope Francis establishes that “the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time is to be devoted to the celebration, study and dissemination of the Word of God”. He invites local communities to find ways to “mark this Sunday with a certain solemnity”. As Pope Francis writes: “The relationship between the risen Lord, the community of believers and sacred Scripture is essential to our identity as Christians. Without the Lord who opens our minds to them [as he did for the disciples on the road to Emmaus], it is impossible to understand the Scriptures. Yet the contrary is equally true: without the Scriptures the events of the mission of Jesus and his Church would remain incomprehensible.” Hence, St Jerome could rightly claim: ‘ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ’.”

Additional Information