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Apostolic And Missionary Fruitfulness Is Not Principally Due To Programmes And Pastoral Methods That Are Cleverly Drawn Up And "efficient", But Is The Result Of The Community's Constant Prayer (cf. "evangelii Nuntiandi," 75). Moreover, For The Mission To Be Effective, Communities Must Be United, That Is, They Must Be "of One Heart And Soul" (cf. Acts 4:32), And They Must Be Ready To Witness To The Love And Joy That The Holy Spirit Instils In The Hearts Of The Faithful (cf. Acts 4:32).

-Pope Benedict XVI

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Apostolic And Missionary Fruitfulness

Pope Benedict XVI

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Apostolic And Missionary Fruitfulness Is Not Principally Due To Programmes And Pastoral Methods That Are Cleverly Drawn Up And "efficient", But Is The Result Of The Community's Constant Prayer (cf. "evangelii Nuntiandi," 75). Moreover, For The Mission To Be Effective, Communities Must Be United, That Is, They Must Be "of One Heart And Soul" (cf. Acts 4:32), And They Must Be Ready To Witness To The Love And Joy That The Holy Spirit Instils In The Hearts Of The Faithful (cf. Acts 4:32).

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The Examination Of Conscience Has An Important Educational Value. It Teaches Us To Look Sincerely At Our Own Lives, To Compare Them With The Truth Of The Gospel And To Evaluate Them With Parameters That Are Not Only Human But Drawn From Divine Revelation. Comparison With The Commandments, With The Beatitudes, And Above All With The Precept To Love, Represents The First Great 'school Of Penance

It Is Important Always To Remember That Virtual Contact Cannot And Must Not Take The Place Of Direct Human Contact With People At Every Level Of Our Lives.

With The Synod Assembly, Therefore, I Heartily Recommend To The Church's Pastors And To The People Of God The Practice Of Eucharistic Adoration, Both Individually And In Community

Authentic Love Is Obviously Something Good... When We Love, We Become Most Fully Ourselves, Most Fully Human... People Often Think They Are Being Loving When Actually They Are Being Possessive Or Manipulative. People Sometimes Treat Others As Objects To Satisfy Their Own Needs... How Easy It Is To Be Deceived By The Many Voices In Our Society That Advocate A Permissive Approach To Sexuality, Without Regard For Modesty, Self-respect Or The Moral Values That Bring Quality To Human Relationships! This Is Worship Of A False God. Instead Of Bringing Life, It Brings Death.

It Is Not By Sidestepping Or Fleeing From Suffering That We Are Healed, But Rather By Our Capacity For Accepting It, Maturing Through It And Finding Meaning Through Union With Christ, Who Suffered With Infinite Love.

Selfishness And Fear Are At The Root Of (pro-abortion) Legislation...we In The Church Have A Great Struggle To Defend Life...life Is A Gift Not A Threat.

Music, Great Music, Distends The Spirit, Arouses Profound Emotions And Almost Naturally Invites Us To Raise Our Minds And Hearts To God In All Situations Of Human Existence, The Joyful And The Sad. Music Can Become Prayer.

The Christian Faith Can Never Be Separated From The Soil Of Sacred Events, From The Choice Made By God, Who Wanted To Speak To Us, To Become Man, To Die And Rise Again, In A Particular Place And At A Particular Time.

People From The World's Richest Countries Should Be Prepared To Accept The Burden Of Debt Reduction For Heavily Indebted Poor Countries, And Should Urge Their Leaders To Fulfill The Pledges Made To Reduce World Poverty, Especially In Africa, By The Year 2015.

The Deepest Poverty Is The Inability Of Joy, The Tediousness Of A Life Considered Absurd And Contradictory. This Poverty Is Widespread Today, In Very Different Forms In The Materially Rich As Well As The Poor Countries. The Inability Of Joy Presupposes And Produces The Inability To Love, Produces Jealousy, Avarice - All Defects That Devastate The Life Of Individuals And Of The World. This Is Why We Are In Need Of A New Evangelization - If The Art Of Living Remains An Unknown, Nothing Else Works... This Art Can Only Be Communicated By [one] Who Has Life - He Who Is The Gospel Personified.

Respecting The Environment Does Not Mean Considering Material Or Animal Nature More Important Than Man. Rather, It Means Not Selfishly Considering Nature To Be At The Complete Disposal Of Our Own Interests, For Future Generations Also Have The Right To Reap Its Benefits And To Exhibit Towards Nature The Same Responsible Freedom That We Claim For Ourselves. Nor Must We Overlook The Poor, Who Are Excluded In Many Cases From The Goods Of Creation Destined For All.

Believers Are Increasingly Aware That, Unless The Good News Is Made Known Also In The Digital World, It May Be Absent In The Experience Of Many People For Whom This Existential Space Is Important.

For In This World, Marked By Sin, The Gravitational Pull Of Our Lives Is Weighted By The Chains Of The "i" And The "self." These Chains Must Be Broken To Free Us For A New Love That Places Us In Another Gravitational Field Where We Can Enter New Life.

The Goods Of Creation Belong To Humanity As A Whole. Yet The Current Pace Of Environmental Exploitation Is Seriously Endangering The Supply Of Certain Natural Resources Not Only For The Present Generation, But Above All For Generations To Come.

The State Which Would Provide Everything, Absorbing Everything Into Itself, Would Ultimately Become A Mere Bureaucracy Incapable Of Guaranteeing The Very Thing Which The Suffering Person—every Person—needs: Namely, Loving Personal Concern. We Do Not Need A State Which Regulates And Controls Everything, But A State Which, In Accordance With The Principle Of Subsidiarity, Generously Acknowledges And Supports Initiatives Arising From The Different Social Forces And Combines Spontaneity With Closeness To Those In Need. The Church Is One Of Those Living Forces.

After Having Repeatedly Examined My Conscience Before God, I Have Come To The Certainty That My Strengths, Due To An Advanced Age, Are No Longer Suited To An Adequate Exercise Of The Petrine Ministry.

We Cannot Live, We Cannot Look At The Truth About Ourselves Without Letting Ourselves Be Looked At And Generated By Christ In Daily Eucharistic Adoration.

Let Us Seek In Particular To Communicate The Deepest Joy, That Of Knowing God In Christ.

Lifting One's Gaze To The Living God, The Guarantor Of Our Freedom And Of Truth, Is A Premise For Arriving At A New Humanity. Nowadays, In A Special Way, The World Needs People Capable Of Proclaiming And Bearing Witness To God Who Is Love, And Consequently The One Light Which In The End, Illumines The Darkness Of The World And Gives Us Strength To Live And Work

Eternity Is Not An Unending Succession Of Days In The Calendar, But Something More Like The Supreme Moment Of Satisfaction, In Which Totality Embraces Us And We Embrace Totality.

In A Nuclear War There Would Be No Victors, Only Victims. The Truth Of Peace Require That All-whether Those Governments Which Openly Or Secretly Possess Nuclear Arms, Or Those Planning To Acquire Them- Agree To Change Their Course By Clear And Firm Decision And Strive For A Progressive And Concerted Nuclear Disarmament. The Resources Which Would Be Saved Could Then Be Employed In Projects Of Development Capable Of Benefiting All Their People, Especially The Poor.

Nuclear Disarmament

Non-african Missionaries, Responding Generously To The Lord's Call With Ardent Apostolic Zeal, Came To Share The Joy Of Revelation. Following In Their Footsteps, Africans Are Today Missionaries On Other Continents.

The Fact That The Church Is Convinced Of Not Having The Right To Confer Priestly Ordination On Women, Is Now Considered By Some As Irreconcilable With The European Constitution.

We Cannot Keep To Ourselves The Words Of Eternal Life Given To Us In Our Encounter With Jesus Christ: They Are Meant For Everyone, For Every Man And Woman. ... It Is Our Responsibility To Pass On What, By God's Grace, We Ourselves Have Received.

From The Point Of View Of The Christian Faith, Man Comes In The Profoundest Sense To Himself Not Through What He Does But Through What He Accepts. He Must Wait For The Gift Of Love, And Love Can Only Be Received As A Gift... One Must Wait For It, Let It Be Given To One. And One Cannot Become Wholly Man In Any Other Way Than By Being Loved, By Letting Oneself Be Loved... If He Declines To Let Himself Be Presented With The Gift, Then He Destroys Himself.

It Is True That The Muslim World Is Not Totally Mistaken When It Reproaches The West Of Christian Tradition Of Moral Decadence And The Manipulation Of Human Life. ... Islam Has Also Had Moments Of Great Splendor And Decadence In The Course Of Its History.

The Abuse Of Faith Has To Be Resisted Precisely.

The "door Of Faith" (acts 14:27) Is Always Open For Us, Ushering Us Into The Life Of Communion With God And Offering Entry Into His Church. It Is Possible To Cross That Threshold When The Word Of God Is Proclaimed And The Heart Allows Itself To Be Shaped By Transforming Grace. To Enter Through That Door Is To Set Out On A Journey That Lasts A Lifetime.

I Am Consoled By The Fact That The Lord Knows How To Work And How To Act, Even With Insufficient Tools.

The Diligent Reading Of Sacred Scripture Accompanied By Prayer Brings About That Intimate Dialogue In Which The Person Reading Hears God Who Is Speaking, And In Praying, Responds To Him With Trusting Openness Of Heart. If It Is Effectively Promoted, This Practice Will Bring To The Church-i Am Convinced Of It-a New Spiritual Springtime.

Today, Having A Clear Faith Based On The Creed Of The Church Is Often Labeled Today As Fundamentalism. Whereas Relativism, That Is, Letting Oneself Be "tossed Here And There, Carried About By Every Wind Of Doctrine," Seems The Only Attitude That Can Cope With Modern Times.

The Fundamental Human Right, The Presupposition Of Every Other Right, Is The Right To Life Itself. This Is True Of Life From The Moment Of Conception Until Its Natural End. Abortion, Consequently, Cannot Be A Human Right – It Is The Very Opposite. It Is “a Deep Wound In Society”.

Everyone Should Educate Themselves In More Wise And Responsible Consumption; Promote Personal Responsibility, Along With The Social Dimension Of Rural Activities, Which Are Based On Perennial Values, Such As Hospitality, Solidarity, And The Sharing Of The Toil Of Labor.

The More Ardent The Love For The Eucharist In The Hearts Of The Christian People, The More Clearly Will They Recognize The Goal Of All Mission: To Bring Christ To Others. Not Just A Theory Or A Way Of Life Inspired By Christ, But The Gift Of His Very Person. Anyone Who Has Not Shared The Truth Of Love With His Brothers And Sisters Has Not Yet Given Enough.

In The Eyes Of The Unrighteous It Appeared That God Did Not Intervene And That His Son Died, But For Believers It Was At That Precise Moment That True Glory Was Manifested And Definitive Salvation Achieved.

I Thank You, Dear Brothers, For Preaching The Love Of Christ And Exhorting Your People To Tolerance, Respect And Love Of Their Brothers And Sisters And Of All Persons. In This Way You Exercise The Prophetic Ministry That The Lord Has Entrusted To The Church, And In Particular To The Successors Of The Apostles (cf. Pastores Gregis, 26).

Each Of Us Has A Mission . . . Each Of Us Is Called To Change The World, To Work For A Culture Of Life, A Culture Forged By Love And Respect For The Dignity Of Each Human Person.

The Horizon Of Love Is Truly Boundless: It Is The Whole World!

The Faith Does Not Mean An Alienation From Any Culture For Any People Because All Cultures Await Christ And Are Not Destroyed By The Lord. In Fact, They Reach Their Maturity.

The One And Only Gospel Waits To Be Proclaimed By Everyone Together, In Love And Reciprocal Esteem.

We Are No Longer Able To Hear God - There Are Too Many Frequencies Filling Our Ears.

Ultimately, In The Battle Against Lies And Violence, Truth And Love Have No Other Weapon Than The Witness Of Suffering.

An Adult Faith Does Not Follow The Waves Of Fashion And The Latest Novelties.

We Can Fall, But In The End We Fall Into God's Hands, And God's Hands Are Good Hands.

Men And Women Were Created For Something Great, For Infinity. Nothing Else Will Ever Be Enough.

A World Filled With Temptations Needs Priests Who Are Totally Dedicated To Their Mission. Accordingly, They Are Asked In A Very Special Way To Open Themselves Fully To Serving Others As Christ Did By Embracing The Gift Of Celibacy.

It Is Necessary Not Only To Relieve The Gravest Needs But To Go To Their Roots, Proposing Measures That Will Give Social, Political And Economic Structures A More Equitable And Solidaristic Configuration.

Jesus Christ Does Not Teach Us A Spirituality “of Closed Eyes”, But One Of “alertness”, One Which Entails An Absolute Duty To Take Notice Of The Needs Of Others And Of Situations Involving Those Whom The Gospel Tells Us Are Our Neighbours. The Gaze Of Jesus, What “his Eyes” Teach Us, Leads To Human Closeness, Solidarity, Giving Time, Sharing Our Gifts And Even Our Material Goods.

Mary's Greatness Consists In The Fact That She Wants To Magnify God, Not Herself.

We Were Looking For A 'good Shepherd,' And Instead We Got A German Shepherd.

Jesus Resolved The False Opposition Between Obedience And Freedom And Opened The Path To Freedom

Making The Sign Of The Cross - As We Will Do During The Blessing - Means Saying A Visible And Public "yes" To The One Who Died And Rose For Us, To God Who In The Humility And Weakness Of His Love Is The Almighty, Stronger Than All The Power And Intelligence Of The World.

No Law Made By Man Can Overturn That Of The Creator Without Dramatically Affecting Society In Its Very Foundation.

We Must Have Great Respect For These People Who Also Suffer And Who Want To Find Their Own Way Of Correct Living. On The Other Hand, To Create A Legal Form Of A Kind Of Homosexual Marriage, In Reality, Does Not Help These People.

Discovering The Beauty And Joy Of Faith Is A Path That Every New Generation Must Take On Its Own.

The Proclamation Of The Gospel Remains The Primary Service That The Church Owes To Humanity, To Offer The Salvation Of Christ To The Man Of Our Time, Who Is In Many Ways Humiliated And Oppressed, And To Orientate In A Christian Way Cultural, Social, And Ethical Transformations That Are Unfolding In The World.

The Church Does Not Engage In Proselytism. Instead, She Grows By "attraction": Just As Christ "draws All To Himself" By The Power Of His Love, Culminating In The Sacrifice Of The Cross, So The Church Fulfills Her Mission.

Holiness Never Goes Out Of Fashion.

If You Follow The Will Of God, You Know That In Spite Of All The Terrible Things That Happen To You, You Will Never Lose A Final Refuge. You Know That The Foundation Of The World Is Love, So That Even When No Human Being Can Or Will Help You, You May Go On, Trusting In The One That Loves You.

Faith In The Resurrection Of Jesus Says That There Is A Future For Every Human Being; The Cry For Unending Life Which Is A Part Of The Person Is Indeed Answered... God Exists: That Is The Real Message Of Easter. Anyone Who Even Begins To Grasp What This Means Also Knows What It Means To Be Redeemed.

Continue To Walk In The Faith And, Faithful To The Mandate That Has Been Entrusted To You, Go Out With Solicitude And Joy Toward All Creatures And Pass On To Them The Gifts Of Salvation...let Yourselves Be Guided By The Holy Spirit To Be The Leaven Of New Life, Salt Of The Earth And Light Of The World.

Prayer Itself, Born In Catholic Families, Nurtured By Programs Of Christian Formation, Strengthened By The Grace Of The Sacraments, Is The First Means By Which We Come To Know The Lord’s Will For Our Lives. To The Extent That We Teach Young People To Pray, And To Pray Well, We Will Be Cooperating With God’s Call. Programs, Plans And Projects Have Their Place; But The Discernment Of A Vocation Is Above All The Fruit Of An Intimate Dialogue Between The Lord And His Disciples. Young People, If They Know How To Pray, Can Be Trusted To Know What To Do With God’s Call.

The World Needs Transparent Lives, Clear Souls, Pure Minds That Refuse To Be Perceived As Mere Objects Of Pleasure.

Mission Is A Duty About Which One Must Say 'woe To Me If I Do Not Evangelize' (1 Corinthians 9:16)...redemption And Mission Are Acts Of Love [because] Those Who Proclaim The Gospel Participate In The Charity Of Christ.

In The Eucharist, The Son Of God Comes To Meet Us And Desires To Become One With Us; Eucharistic Adoration Is Simply The Natural Consequence Of The Eucharistic Celebration, Which Is Itself The Church's Supreme Act Of Adoration.

A Good School Provides A Rounded Education For The Whole Person. And A Good Catholic School, Over And Above This, Should Help All Its Students To Become Saints.

The Great Tasks Facing The Ecclesial Community In The Modern World - And Among The Many I Particularly Stress Evangelization And Ecumenism - Are Centered On The Word Of God And, At The Same Time, Draw Therefrom Their Justification And Support.

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