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The Fields Are Still Ripe For Harvesting (cf. Jn 4:35); God Continues To Give The Growth (cf. 1 Cor 3:6). We Can And Must Believe, With The Late Pope John Paul Ii, That God Is Preparing A New Springtime For Christianity (cf. Redemptoris Missio, 86). What Is Needed Above All, At This Time In The History Of The Church In America, Is A Renewal Of That Apostolic Zeal Which Inspires Her Shepherds Actively To Seek Out The Lost, To Bind Up Those Who Have Been Wounded, And To Bring Strength To Those Who Are Languishing (cf. Ez 34:16).

-Pope Benedict XVI

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The Fields Are Still

Pope Benedict XVI

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The Fields Are Still Ripe For Harvesting (cf. Jn 4:35); God Continues To Give The Growth (cf. 1 Cor 3:6). We Can And Must Believe, With The Late Pope John Paul Ii, That God Is Preparing A New Springtime For Christianity (cf. Redemptoris Missio, 86). What Is Needed Above All, At This Time In The History Of The Church In America, Is A Renewal Of That Apostolic Zeal Which Inspires Her Shepherds Actively To Seek Out The Lost, To Bind Up Those Who Have Been Wounded, And To Bring Strength To Those Who Are Languishing (cf. Ez 34:16).

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Greatest Treasure

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Without Fear We Must Set Sail On The Digital Sea.

Food Security Is An Authentically Human Requirement. Guaranteeing It For Present And Future Generations Also Means Safeguarding Ourselves Against The Uncontrolled Exploitation Of Natural Resources. Indeed, The Process Of Consumption And Waste Seems To Overlook Any Concern For ... Biodiversity, Which Is So Important For Agriculture.

This World In Which We Live Needs Beauty In Order Not To Sink Into Despair. Beauty, Like Truth, Brings Joy To The Human Heart, And Is That Precious Fruit Which Resists The Erosion Of Time, Which Unites Generations And Enables Them To Be One In Admiration. And All This Through The Work Of Your Hands . . . Remember That You Are The Custodians Of Beauty In The World.

Those Who Allow Themselves To Be Led By The Spirit Understand That Placing Oneself At The Service Of The Gospel Is Not An Optional Extra, Because They Are Aware Of The Urgency Of Transmitting This Good News To Others...i Assure You That The Spirit Of Jesus Today Is Inviting You Young People To Be Bearers Of The Good News Of Jesus To Your Contemporaries.

[the Atheist Believes] A World Marked By So Much Injustice, Innocent Suffering, And Cynicism Of Power Cannot Be The Work Of A Good God.

An Authentic Updating Of Sacred Music Can Take Place Only In The Lineage Of The Great Tradition Of The Past, Of Gregorian Chant And Of Sacred Polyphony.

We Can Learn From Him That Suffering And The Gift Of Himself Is An Essential Gift We Need In Our Time.

When, For Example, In The Name Of Non-discrimination, People Try To Force The Catholic Church To Change Her Position On Homosexuality Or The Ordination Of Women, Then That Means That She Is No Longer Allowed To Live Out Her Own Identity And That, Instead, An Abstract, Negative Religion Is Being Made Into A Tyrannical Standard That Everyone Must Follow. That Is Then Seemingly Freedom — For The Sole Reason That It Is Liberation From The Previous Situation.

Following Jesus In Faith Is To Walk With Him In The Communion Of The Church. You Cannot Follow Jesus Alone.

God Loves Us; We Need Only To Summon Up The Humility To Allow Ourselves To Be Loved.

Sometimes We Are Looked Upon As People Who Speak Only Of Prohibitions. Nothing Could Be Further From The Truth! Authentic Christian Discipleship Is Marked By A Sense Of Wonder. We Stand Before The God We Know And Love As A Friend, The Vastness Of His Creation, And The Beauty Of Our Christian Faith.

In The Month Of October, The Universal Church Highlights Her Missionary Vocation. Guided By The Holy Spirit She Knows She Is Called To Pursue The Work Of Jesus Himself, Proclaiming The Gospel Of The Kingdom Of God Which Is "righteousness And Peace And Joy In The Holy Spirit"

Our Knowledge Of Jesus Is In Need Above All Of A Living Experience: Another Person's Testimony Is Certainly Important, As In General The Whole Of Our Christian Life Begins With The Proclamation That Comes To Us From One Or Several Witnesses. But We Ourselves Must Be Personally Involved In An Intimate And Profound Relationship With Jesus.

The Destruction Of Images, The First Signs Of Which Reach Back To The 1920s, Eliminated A Lot Of Kitsch And Unworthy Art, But Ultimately It Left Behind A Void.

Global Interconnectedness Has Led To The Emergence Of A New Political Power, That Of Consumers And Their Associations. It Is Good For People To Realize That Purchasing Is Always A Moral - And Not Simply Economic - Act.

The Story Of Mary Of Magdalene Reminds Us All Of A Fundamental Truth...a Disciple Of Christ Is One Who, In The Experience Of Human Weakness, Has Had The Humility To Ask For His Help, Has Been Healed By Him And Has Set Out Following Closely After Him, Becoming A Witness Of The Power Of His Merciful Love That Is Stronger Than Sin And Death.

God Seeks Us Where We Are, Not So That We Stay There, But So That We May Come To Be Where He Is, So That We May Get Beyond Ourselves.

Christian Inspirational

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.

We Ask The Blessed Virgin For The Gift Of Conversion For All Christians, So That They May Announce And Give A Faithful And Coherent Witness To The Perennial Evangelical Message, Which Indicates To Humanity The Path To An Authentic Peace.

Adoration Outside Holy Mass Prolongs And Intensifies What Has Taken Place In The Liturgical Celebration And Makes A True And Profound Reception Of Christ Possible. I . . . Warmly Recommend, To Pastors And To All The Faithful, The Practice Of Eucharistic Adoration

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 Fundamental Task Of The Evangelization Of Culture Is The Challenge To Make God Visible In The Human Face Of Jesus.

The Eucharistic Sacrifice Of The Body And Blood Of Christ Embraces In Turn The Mystery Of Our Lord's Continuing Passion In The Members Of His Mystical Body, The Church In Every Age.

It Is Imperative That The Entire Christian Community In The United States Come To Realize The Grave Threats To The Church's Public Moral Witness Presented By A Militant Atheism Which Finds Increasing Expression In The Political And Cultural Spheres. The Seriousness Of These Threats Needs To Be Clearly Appreciated At Every Level Of Ecclesial Life.

Friends, Do Not Be Afraid Of Silence Or Stillness. Listen To God. Adore Him In The Eucharist.

Help Each Other To Live And To Grow In The Christian Faith So As To Be Valiant Witnesses Of The Lord. Be United, But Not Closed. Be Humble, But Not Fearful. Be Simple, But Not Naive. Be Thoughtful, But Not Complicated. Enter Into Dialogue With Others, But Be Yourselves.

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).

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

In Silence, We Are Better Able To Listen To And Understand Ourselves; Ideas Come To Birth And Acquire Depth; We Understand With Greater Clarity What It Is We Want To Say And What We Expect From Others; And We Choose How To Express Ourselves.

Enough With The Slaughters. Enough With The Violence. Enough With The Hatred In Iraq!

The Highest Things, The Things That Really Matter, We Cannot Achieve On Our Own; We Have To Accept Them As Gifts And Enter In To The Dynamic Of The Gift, So To Speak.

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

Society As A Whole Must Defend The Conceived Child's Right To Life And The True Good Of The Woman Who Can Never, In Any Circumstances, Find Fulfilment In The Decision To Abort.

Every Human Being Is Loved By God The Father. No One Need Feel Forgotten, For Every Name Is Written In The Lord's Loving Heart.

God's Heart Calls To Our Hearts, Inviting Us To Come Out Of Ourselves, To Forsake Our Human Certainties, To Trust In Him And, By Following His Example, To Make Ourselves A Gift Of Unbounded Love.

Love Is The Very Process Of Passing Over, Of Transformation, Of Stepping Outside The Limitations Of Fallen Humanity - In Which We Are All Separated From One Another And Ultimately Impenetrable To One Another - Into An Infinite Otherness.

The Answer To Our Cry Which God Gave In Jesus Infinitely Transcends Our Expectations, Achieving A Solidarity Which Cannot Be Human Alone, But Divine. Only The God Who Is Love, And The Love Which Is God, Could Choose To Save Us In This Way, Which Is Certainly The Lengthiest Way, Yet The Way Which Respects The Truth About Him And About Us: The Way Of Reconciliation, Dialogue And Cooperation.

You Must Know How To Translate The Indications Of The Word Into Daily Witness, Allowing Yourselves To Be Formed By The Word Which, Like Seed Sown In Good Soil, Brings Abundant Fruit. Thus You Will Remain Docile To The Spirit And Grow In Union With God, You Will Cultivate Fraternal Communion Among Yourselves And Be Ready To Serve Your Brethren Generously, Especially Those Most In Need.

To Have Christian Hope Means To Know About Evil And Yet To Go To Meet The Future With Confidence. The Core Of Faith Rests Upon Accepting Being Loved By God, And Therefore To Believe Is To Say Yes, Not Only To Him, But To Creation, To Creatures, Above All, To Men, To Try To See The Image Of God In Each Person And Thereby To Become A Lover. That's Not Easy, But The Basic Yes, The Conviction That God Has Created Men, That He Stands Behind Them, That They Aren't Simply Negative, Gives Love A Reference Point That Enables It To Ground Hope On The Basis Of Faith.

Our World Has Grown Weary Of Greed, Exploitation And Division, Of The Tedium Of False Idols And Piecemeal Responses, And The Pain Of False Promises.

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.

Young People In Particular, I Appeal To You: Bear Witness To Your Faith Through The Digital World.

Can We Remain Indifferent Before The Problems Associated With Such Realities As Climate Change?

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

Forgiveness Does Not Replace Justice.

The Church Is Missionary By Nature And Her Principal Task Is Evangelization, Which Aims To Proclaim And To Witness To Christ And To Promote His Gospel Of Peace And Love In Every Environment And Culture.

Can We Disregard The Growing Phenomenon Of "environmental Refugees", People Who Are Forced By The Degradation Of Their Natural Habitat To Forsake It - And Often Their Possessions As Well - In Order To Face The Dangers And Uncertainties Of Forced Displacement? Can We Remain Impassive In The Face Of Actual And Potential Conflicts Involving Access To Natural Resources? All These Are Issues With A Profound Impact On The Exercise Of Human Rights, Such As The Right To Life, Food, Health And Development.

Only If There Is Love, If Hearts Are Opened, Can One Person Truly Know The Other.

All The Saints Of God Are There To Protect Me, To Sustain Me And To Carry Me. And Your Prayers, My Dear Friends, Your Indulgence, Your Love, Your Faith And Your Hope Accompany Me.

I Believe That The Most Important Thing...is To Revive In The Whole Church That Positive Tension, That Yearning To Announce Christ Again To Contemporary Man.

Anyone Who Has Discovered Christ Must Lead Others To Him. A Great Joy Cannot Be Kept To Oneself. It Has To Be Passed On.

We Are Moving Toward A Dictatorship Of Relativism Which Does Not Recognize Anything As For Certain And Which Has As Its Highest Goal One's Own Ego And One's Own Desires.

The Cardinals Have Elected Me, A Simple And Humble Labourer In The Vineyard Of The Lord. The Fact That The Lord Knows How To Work And To Act Even With Inadequate Instruments Comforts Me, And Above All I Entrust Myself To Your Prayers.

Although The Particular Inclination Of The Homosexual Person Is Not A Sin, It Is More Or Less Strong Tendency Ordered To An Intrinsic Moral Evil, And Thus The Inclination Itself Must Be Seen As An Objective Disorder.

Lent Stimulates Us To Let The Word Of God Penetrate Our Life And In This Way To Know The Fundamental Truth: Who We Are, Where We Come From, Where We Must Go, What Path We Must Take In Life.

Perhaps Reluctantly We Come To Acknowledge That There Are Also Scars Which Mark The Surface Of Our Earth: Erosion, Deforestation, The Squandering Of The World’s Mineral And Ocean Resources In Order To Fuel An Insatiable Consumption.

The Ecclesial Communities Which Have Not Preserved The Valid Episcopate And The Genuine And Integral Substance Of The Eucharistic Mystery, Are Not Churches In The Proper Sense; However, Those Who Are Baptized In These Communities Are, By Baptism, Incorporated In Christ And Thus Are In A Certain Communion, Albeit Imperfect, With The Church.

A Spiritual Desert Is Spreading: An Interior Emptiness, An Unnamed Fear, A Quiet Sense Of Despair.

We Will Never Forget That Blessing. It Was The Most Pained And Moving Blessing, Which Left Us With The Extreme Testimony Of His Will To Complete His Ministry Until The End.

I Think In Particular Of Our Need To Speak To The Hearts Of Young People, Who, Despite Their Constant Exposure To Messages Contrary To The Gospel, Continue To Thirst For Authenticity, Goodness And Truth. Much Remains To Be Done, Particularly On The Level Of Preaching And Catechesis In Parishes And Schools, If The New Evangelization Is To Bear Fruit For The Renewal Of Ecclesial Life In America.

Jesus, The Word Incarnate, Is Always The Center Of Our Announcement, The Point Of Reference For Our Evangelizing Mission And For Its Methodology, Because He Is The Human Face Of God, Who Wishes To Meet All Men And Women So As To Bring Them Into Communion With Him, In His Love.

Too Often, Attention Is Diverted From The Needs Of Populations, Insufficient Emphasis Is Placed On Work In The Fields, And The Goods Of The Earth Are Not Given Adequate Protection. As A Result, Economic Imbalance Is Produced, And The Inalienable Rights And Dignity Of Every Human Person Are Ignored.

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.

At The Judgment, In Response To Our Questions, The Lord Will Show Us His Wounds, And We Will Understand. In The Meantime, However, He Simply Expects Us To Stand By Him And To Believe What These Wounds Tell Us, Even Though We Cannot Work Right Through The Logic Of This World.

The New Pope Knows That His Task Is To Make The Light Of Christ Shine Before Men And Women Of World - Not His Own Light, But That Of Christ.

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