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The Sharing Of Goods And Resources, From Which Authentic Development Proceeds, Is Not Guaranteed By Merely Technical Progress And Relationships Of Utility, But By The Potential Of Love That Overcomes Evil With Good.

-Pope Benedict XVI

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The Sharing Of Goods

Pope Benedict XVI

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The Sharing Of Goods And Resources, From Which Authentic Development Proceeds, Is Not Guaranteed By Merely Technical Progress And Relationships Of Utility, But By The Potential Of Love That Overcomes Evil With Good.

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Advent Is The Spiritual Season Of Hope Par Excellence, And In This Season The Whole Church Is Called To Be Hope, For Itself And For The World.

That The Different Christian Confessions, Aware Of The Need For A New Evangelisation In This Period Of Profound Transformations, May Be Committed To Announcing The Good News And Moving Towards The Full Unity Of All Christians In Order To Offer A More Credible Testimony Of The Gospel.

Without The Eucharist, The Church Simply Does Not Exist.

Prudence Does Not Mean Failing To Accept Responsibilities And Postponing Decisions; It Means Being Committed To Making Joint Decisions After Pondering Responsibly The Road To Be Taken, Decisions Aimed At Strengthening That Covenant Between Human Beings And The Environment, Which Should Mirror The Creative Love Of God, From Whom We Came And Towards Whom We Are Journeying.

Purity Of Heart Is What Enables Us To See.

Advent's Intention Is To Awaken The Most Profound And Basic Emotional Memory Within Us, Namely, The Memory Of The God Who Became A Child. This Is A Healing Memory; It Brings Hope. The Purpose Of The Church's Year Is Continually To Rehearse Her Great History Of Memories, To Awaken The Heart's Memory So That It Can Discern The Star Of Hope.

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.

That The Entire People Of God, To Whom Christ Entrusted The Mandate To Go And Preach The Gospel To Every Creature, May Eagerly Assume Their Own Missionary Responsibility And Consider It The Highest Service They Can Offer Humanity.

To Me, Its Seems Necessary To Rediscover - And The Energy To Do So Exists - That Even The Political And Economic Spheres Need Moral Responsibility, A Responsibility That Is Born In Man's Heart And, In The End, Has To Do With The Presence Or Absence Of God.

From Earliest Times, Water Has Always Been Acknowledged As A Primary Human Good And An Indispensable Natural Resource. Around The Great Rivers Of The World, Like The Mississippi, Great Cultures Have Developed, While Over The Course Of The Centuries The Prosperity Of Countless Societies Has Been Linked To These Waterways. Today, However, The Great Fluvial Systems Of Every Continent Are Exposed To Serious Threats, Often As A Result Of Man's Activity And Decisions.

God's Love For His People Is So Great That It Turns God Against Himself, His Love Against His Justice.

We Become New If We Let Ourselves Be Grasped And Shaped By The New Man, Jesus Christ. He Is The New Man Par Excellence. In Him The New Human Existence Became Reality And We Can Truly Become New If We Deliver Ourselves Into His Hands And Let Ourselves Be Moulded By Him.

If We Allow The Love Of Christ To Change Our Heart, Then We Can Change The World. This Is The Secret Of Authentic Happiness.

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.

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.

Listen To The Voice Of The Earth.

There Is Nothing More Beautiful Than To Be Surprised By The Gospel, By The Encounter With Christ. There Is Nothing More Beautiful Than To Know Him And To Speak To Others Of Our Friendship With Him.

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.

It Is Rational To Believe, As It Is Our Very Existence That Is At Stake.

In The Desert We Rediscover The Value Of What Is Essential For Living; Thus In Today's World There Are Innumerable Signs, Often Expressed Implicitly Or Negatively, Of The Thirst For God, For The Ultimate Meaning Of Life. And In The Desert People Of Faith Are Needed Who, By The Example Of Their Own Lives, Point Out The Way To The Promised Land And Keep Hope Alive.

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.

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

The Only Really Effective Apologia For Christianity Comes Down To Two Arguments, Namely, The Saints The Church Has Produced, And The Art Which Has Grown In Her Womb.

Since Politics Fundamentally Should Be A Moral Enterprise, The Church In This Sense Has Something To Say About Politics.

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Islam Has A Total Organization Of Life That Is Completely Different From Ours; It Embraces Simply Everything,...there Is A Very Marked Subordination Of Woman To Man; There Is A Very Tightly Knit Criminal Law, Indeed, A Law Regulating All Areas Of Life, That Is Opposed To Our Modern Ideas About Society. One Has To Have A Clear Understanding That It Is Not Simply A Denomination That Can Be Included In The Free Realm Of A Pluralistic Society.

Do Not Be Afraid To Say “yes” To Jesus, To Find Your Joy In Doing His Will...

We, However, Have A Different Goal: The Son Of God, The True Man. He Is The Measure Of True Humanism. An "adult" Faith Is Not A Faith That Follows The Trends Of Fashion And The Latest Novelty; A Mature, Adult Faith Is Deeply Rooted In Friendship With Christ. It Is This Friendship That Opens Us Up To All That Is Good And Gives Us A Criterion By Which To Distinguish The True From The False, And Deceit From Truth.

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.

Do You Want To Know Yourself Better? Then Discover Silence.

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.

When, In Adoration, We Look At The Consecrated Host, The Sign Of Creation Speaks To Us. And So, We Encounter The Greatness Of His Gift; But We Also Encounter The Passion, The Cross Of Jesus And His Resurrection. Through This Gaze Of Adoration, He Draws Us Toward Himself, Within His Mystery, Through Which He Wants To Transform Us As He Transformed The Host.

Society Today Is Being Fragmented By A Way Of Thinking That Is Inherently Short-sighted Because It Disregards The Full Horizon Of Truth - The Truth About God And About Us. By Its Nature, Relativism Fails To See The Whole Picture. It Ignores The Very Principles That Enable Us To Live And Flourish In Unity, Order And Harmony.

[evangelization] Is Not Something Optional, But The Very Vocation Of The People Of God, A Duty That Corresponds To It By The Command Of The Lord Jesus Christ Himself

Every Human Life Is Precious In God's Sight And No Effort Should Be Spared In The Attempt To Promote Throughout The World A Genuine Respect For The Inalienable Rights And Dignity Of Individuals And Peoples Everywhere.

Indeed, Beauty Is One Of Mankind's Greatest Needs; It Is The Root From Which The Branches Of Our Peace And The Fruits Of Our Hope Come Forth. Beauty Also Reveals God Because, Like Him, A Work Of Beauty Is Pure Gratuity; It Calls Us To Freedom And Draws Us Away From Selfishness.

How Much Filth There Is In The Church, Even Among Those Who, In The Priesthood, Should Belong Entirely To Him. How Much Pride, How Much Self-sufficiency.

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Est Autem Fides Sperandarum Substantia Rerum, Argumentum Non Apparentium. – Faith Is The Hypostasis Of Things Hoped For; The Proof Of Things Not Seen.

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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.

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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.

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Hope Is Practiced Through The Virtue Of Patience, Which Continues To Do Good Even In The Face Of Apparent Failure, And Through The Virtue Of Humility, Which Accepts God's Mystery And Trusts Him Even At Times Of Darkness.

Grant That We May Be One Flock And One Shepherd! Do Not Allow Your Net To Be Torn, Help Us To Be Servants Of Unity!

The Human Person Finds His Perfection "in Seeking And Loving What Is True And Good.

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.

I Encourage All Of You To Discover Ever More Fully In The Eucharist, The Sacrament Of Christ's Sacrificial Love, The Inspiration And Strength Needed To Work Ever More Generously For The Spread Of God's Kingdom And The Growth Of The Civilization Of Love.

If A Pope Clearly Realizes That He Is No Longer Physically, Psychologically, And Spiritually Capable Of Handling The Duties Of His Office, Then He Has A Right And, Under Some Circumstances, Also An Obligation To Resign.

If Jesus Has Become Your Hope, Communicate This To Others With Your Joy And Your Spiritual, Apostolic And Social Engagement. Let Christ Dwell Within You, And Having Placed All Your Faith And Trust In Him, Spread This Hope Around You. Make Choices That Demonstrate Your Faith.

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Christian Inspirational

Dear Friends, May No Adversity Paralyze You. Be Afraid Neither Of The World, Nor Of The Future, Nor Of Your Weakness. The Lord Has Allowed You To Live In This Moment Of History So That, By Your Faith, His Name Will Continue To Resound Throughout The World.

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In Silence, We Are Better Able To Listen To And Understand Ourselves; Ideas Come To Birth And Acquire Depth... Deeper Reflection Helps Us To Discover The Links Between Events That At First Sight Seem Unconnected... For This To Happen, It Is Necessary To Develop An Appropriate Environment, A Kind Of 'eco-system' That Maintains A Just Equilibrium Between Silence, Words, Images And Sounds.

We Are Still Awaiting Easter; We Are Not Yet Standing In The Full Light But Walking Toward It Full Of Trust.

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.

Again And Again It Astonishes Us That God Makes Himself A Child So That We May Love Him, So That We May Dare To Love Him, And As A Child Trustingly Lets Himself Be Taken Into Our Arms. It Is As If God Were Saying: I Know That My Glory Frightens You, And That You Are Trying To Assert Yourself In The Face Of My Grandeur. So Now I Am Coming To You As A Child, So That You Can Accept Me And Love Me.

I Have A Mustard Seed; And I Am Not Afraid To Use It.

Freedom Is Not Only A Gift, But A Summons To Personal Responsibility.

Personal Responsibility

These Days We Are All Pained By The Disaster Caused By The Hurricane In The United States Of America.

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.

For More Than 160 Years, Through The Initiative Of The French Bishop Charles De Forbin Janson, The Childhood Of Jesus Has Become The Icon For The Commitment Of Christian Children Who Help The Church In Her Task Of Evangelization By Prayer, Sacrifice And Gestures Of Solidarity....thousands Of Children Meet The Needs Of Other Children, Driven By The Love That The Son Of God, Become A Child, Brought To The Earth. I Say Thanks To These Little Ones And I Pray That They Will Always Be Missionaries.

I Send Them My Warmest Encouragement To Persevere In The Patience And Charity Of Christ.

The Happiness You Have A Right To Enjoy Has A Name And A Face: It Is Jesus Of Nazareth, Hidden In The Eucharist.

Receiving The Eucharist Means Adoring Him Whom We Receive. Only In This Way Do We Become One With Him, And Are Given, As It Were, A Foretaste Of The Beauty Of The Heavenly Liturgy. The Act Of Adoration Outside Mass Prolongs And Intensifies All That Takes Place During The Liturgical Celebration Itself.

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

Love Alone Makes Us Happy, Because We Live In Relation, And We Live To Love And To Be Loved.

I Say To You Dear Young People: Do Not Be Afraid Of Christ! He Takes Nothing Away, And He Gives You Verything. When We Give Ourselves To Him, We Receive A Hundredfold In Return. Yes, Open, Open Wide The Doors To Christ And You Will Find True Life.

We Live In A Society In Which It Seems That Every Space, Every Moment Must Be 'filled' With Initiatives, Activity, Sound; Often There Is Not Even Time To Listen And Dialogue... Let Us Not Be Afraid To Be Silent Outside And Inside Ourselves, So That We Are Able Not Only To Perceive God's Voice, But Also The Voice Of The Person Next To Us, The Voices Of Others.

The Catechism Was Not Written To Please You. It Will Not Make Life Easy For You, Because It Demands Of You A New Life.

Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene Is A Classic Example Of Science Fiction.

It Is When We Attempt To Avoid Suffering By Withdrawing From Anything That Might Involve Hurt, When We Try To Spare Ourselves The Effort And Pain Of Pursuing Truth, Love, And Goodness, That We Drift Into A Life Of Emptiness, In Which There May Be Almost No Pain, But The Dark Sensation Of Meaninglessness And Abandonment Is All The Greater.

The Missionary Experience Is Part Of Christian Formation And It Is Important For Adolescents And Young People To Be Able To Live It Personally.

Being A Christian Means Having Love. That Is Unbelievably Difficult And, At The Same Time, Incredibly Simple.

Over The Pope As Expression Of The Binding Claim Of Ecclesiastical Authority, There Stands One's Own Conscience Which Must Be Obeyed Before All Else, Even If Necessary Against The Requirement Of Ecclesiastical Authority.

A New Generation Of Christians Is Being Called To Help Build A World In Which God's Gift Of Life Is Welcomed, Respected And Cherished-not Rejected, Feared As A Threat And Destroyed. A New Age In Which Love Is Not Greedy Or Self-seeking, But Pure, Faithful And Genuinely Free, Open To Others, Respectful Of Their Dignity, Seeking Their Good, Radiating Joy And Beauty. A New Age In Which Hope Liberates Us From The Shallowness, Apathy And Self-absorption That Deaden Our Souls And Poison Our Relationships.

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.

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.

The Aim Of All Christian Education, Moreover, Is To Train The Believer In An Adult Faith That Can Make Him A "new Creation", Capable Of Bearing Witness In His Surroundings To The Christian Hope That Inspires Him.

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.

Our Christian Conviction Is That Christ Is Also The Messiah Of Israel. Certainly It Is In The Hands Of God How And When The Unification Of Jews And Christians Into The People Of God Will Take Place.

Dear Young People, Let Me Now Ask You A Question. What Will You Leave To The Next Generation? Are You Building Your Lives On Firm Foundations, Building Something That Will Endure?

The Essence Of Christianity...is An Ever-new Encounter With... The God Who Speaks To Us, Who Approaches Us And Who Befriends Us!

To The Extent That We Nourish Ourselves On Christ And Are In Love With Him, We Feel Within Us The Incentive To Bring Others To Him: Indeed, We Cannot Keep The Joy Of The Faith To Ourselves; We Must Pass It On.

Humanity Today Is Rightly Concerned About The Ecological Balance Of Tomorrow. It Is Important For Assessments In This Regard To Be Carried Out Prudently, In Dialogue With Experts And People Of Wisdom, Uninhibited By Ideological Pressure To Draw Hasty Conclusions, And Above All With The Aim Of Reaching Agreement On A Model Of Sustainable Development Capable Of Ensuring The Well-being Of All While Respecting Environmental Balances.

The Ways Of The Lord Are Not Easy, But We Were Not Created For An Easy Life, But For Great Things, For Goodness.

There May Be A Basis In The Case Of Some Individuals, As Perhaps When A Male Prostitute Uses A Condom, Where This Can Be A First Step In The Direction Of A Moralisation, A First Assumption Of Responsibility...

Look At The Face Of The Other... Discover That He Has A Soul, A History And A Life, That He Is A Person And That God Loves This Person.

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.

Material Possessions, In Themselves, Are Good. We Would Not Survive For Long Without Money, Clothing And Shelter. We Must Eat In Order To Stay Alive. Yet If We Are Greedy, If We Refuse To Share What We Have With The Hungry And The Poor, Then We Make Our Possessions Into A False God. How Many Voices In Our Materialist Society Tell Us That Happiness Is To Be Found By Acquiring As Many Possessions And Luxuries As We Can! But This Is To Make Possessions Into A False God. Instead Of Bringing Life, They Bring Death.

The Catholic Church Is Not Dead, It Is Not Even Tired!

How Many People Also In Our Time Are In Search Of God, In Search Of Jesus And Of His Church, In Search Of Divine Mercy, And Are Waiting For A "sign" That Will Touch Their Minds And Their Hearts! Today, As Then, The Evangelist Reminds Us That The Only "sign" Is Jesus Raised On The Cross: Jesus Who Died And Rose Is The Absolutely Sufficient Sign. Through Him We Can Understand The Truth About Life And Obtain Salvation.

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

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 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 Blessing Hands Of Christ Are Like A Roof That Protects Us. But At The Same Time, They Are A Gesture Of Opening Up, Tearing The World Open So That Heaven My Enter In, May Become "present" Within It.

Today The Great Gift Of God's Creation Is Exposed To Serious Dangers And Lifestyles Which Can Degrade It. Environmental Pollution Is Making Particularly Unsustainable The Lives Of The Poor Of The World ... We Must Pledge Ourselves To Take Care Of Creation And To Share Its Resources In Solidarity.

Both Strength Of Mind And Body Are Necessary, Strengths Which In The Last Few Months Have Deteriorated In Me To The Extent That I Have Had To Recognize My Incapacity To Adequately Fulfill The Ministry Entrusted To Me.

The Wrath Of God Is A Way Of Saying That I Have Been Living In A Way That Is Contrary To The Love That Is God. Anyone Who Begins To Live And Grow Away From God, Who Lives Away From What Is Good, Is Turning His Life Toward Wrath.

Joy Is The True Gift Of Christmas, And We Can Communicate This Joy Simply: With A Smile, A Kind Gesture, A Little Help, Forgiveness. And The Joy We Give Will Certainly Come Back To Us.

Art And The Saints Are The Greatest Apologetics For Our Faith.

The Twelve Apostles Are The Most Evident Sign Of Jesus' Will Regarding The Existence And Mission Of His Church, The Guarantee That Between Christ And The Church There Is No Opposition: Despite The Sins Of The People Who Make Up The Church, They Are Inseparable. Therefore, A Slogan That Was Popular Some Years Back, 'jesus Yes, Church No,' Is Totally Inconceivable With The Intention Of Christ. This Individualistically Chosen Jesus Is An Imaginary Jesus.

Guarantees That

The Main Task For Us All Is That Of A New Evangelization Aimed At Helping Younger Generations To Rediscover The True Face Of God, Who Is Love. To You Young People, Who Are In Search Of A Firm Hope, I Address The Very Words That Saint Paul Wrote To The Persecuted Christians In Rome At That Time: "may The God Of Hope Fill You With All Joy And Peace In Believing, So That You May Abound In Hope By The Power Of The Holy Spirit" (rom 15:13).

[non-catholic Christians Are] In A Gravely Deficient Situation In Comparison With Those Who, In The [roman Catholic] Church, Have The Fullness Of The Means Of Salvation.

Thus, The Apostles' Adventure Began As A Gathering Of Persons Who Open To One Another Reciprocally. A Direct Knowledge Of The Teacher Began For The Disciples.

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).

The Gospel Is Not Merely A Communication Of Things That Can Be Known - It Is One That Makes Things Happen And Is Life-changing. The Dark Door Of Time, Of The Future, Has Been Thrown Open. The One Who Has Hope Lives Differently; The One Who Hopes Has Been Granted The Gift Of A New Life.

The Church's Mission Is To Spread Hope "contagiously" Among All Peoples... It Is Only In This Mission That The True Journey Of Humanity Is Understood And Attested.

Being Missionaries Means Loving God With All One's Heart, Even To The Point, If Necessary, Of Dying For Him... Being Missionaries Means Stooping Down To The Needs Of All, Like The Good Samaritan, Especially Those Of The Poorest And Most Destitute People.

To Be Sure, It Was Not Easter Sunday But Holy Saturday, But, The More I Reflect On It, The More This Seems To Be Fitting For The Nature Of Our Human Life: We Are Still Awaiting Easter; We Are Not Yet Standing In The Full Light But Walking Toward It Full Of Trust.

Art Is Elemental. Reason Alone As It's Expressed In The Sciences Can't Be Man's Complete Answer To Reality, And It Can't Express Everything That Man Can, Wants To, And Has To Express. I Think God Built This Into Man. Art Along With Science Is The Highest Gift God Has Given Him.

Not All Moral Issues Have The Same Moral Weight As Abortion And Euthanasia. There May Be Legitimate Diversity Of Opinion Even Among Catholics About Waging War And Applying The Death Penalty, But Not... With Regard To Abortion And Euthanasia.

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.

The Real 'action' In The Liturgy In Which We Are All Supposed To Participate Is The Action Of God Himself. This Is What Is New And Distinctive About The Christian Liturgy: God Himself Acts And Does What Is Essential.

One Of The Most Serious [challenges] Is Increased Military Spending And The Cost Of Maintaining And Developing Nuclear Arsenals. Enormous Resources Are Being Consumed For These Purposes, When They Could Be Spent On The Development Of Peoples, Especially Those Who Are Poorest. For This Reason I Firmly Hope That, During The Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty Review Conference To Be Held This May In New York, Concrete Decisions Will Be Made Towards Progressive Disarmament, With A View To Freeing Our Planet From Nuclear Arms

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.

Rock... Is The Expression Of Elemental Passions... In The Ecstasy Of Having All Their Defenses Torn Down, The Participants Sink, As It Were, Beneath The Elemental Force Of The Universe.

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

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.

Standards Of Conduct Appropriate To Civil Society Or The Workings Of A Democracy Cannot Be Purely And Simply Applied To The Church.

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.

I'm Not A Man Who Constantly Thinks Up Jokes.

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

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.

The Rediscovery Of The Value Of One's Own Baptism Is At The Root Of Every Christian's Missionary Commitment, Because As We See In The Gospel, Those Who Allow Themselves To Be Fascinated By Christ Cannot Fail To Witness To The Joy Of Following In His Footsteps... We Understand Ever More That It Is Precisely In Virtue Of Baptism That We Possess A Co-natural Missionary Vocation.

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

God Of Peace, Bring Your Peace To Our Violent World: Peace In The Hearts Of All Men And Women And Peace Among The Nations Of The Earth.

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).

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.

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.

We Live Our Lives By Philosophies, Amid Worldly Affairs And Occupations That Totally Absorb Us And Are A Great Distance From The Manger. In All Kinds Of Ways, God Has To Prod Us And Reach Out To Us Again And Again, So That We Can Manage To Escape From The Muddle Of Our Thoughts And Activities And Discover The Way That Leads To Him. But A Path Exists For All Of Us. The Lord Provides Everyone With Tailor-made Signals.

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

Mission Is A Workshop Where There Is Room For All.

The Unbreakable Bond Between Love Of God And Love Of Neighbor Is Emphasized. One Is So Closely Connected To The Other That To Say That We Love God Becomes A Lie If We Are Closed To Our Neighbor Or Hate Him Altogether. Saint John's Words Should Rather Be Interpreted To Mean That Love Of Neighbor Is A Path That Leads To The Encounter With God, And That Closing Our Eyes To Our Neighbor Also Blinds Us To God.

Do Not Be Fooled By Those Who See You As Just Another Consumer In A Market Of Undifferentiated Possibilities, Where Choice Itself Becomes The Good, Novelty Usurps Beauty, And Subjective Experience Displaces Truth.

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.

The Relationship Between Individuals Or Communities And The Environment Ultimately Stems From Their Relationship With God. When ‘man Turns His Back On The Creator’s Plan, He Provokes A Disorder Which Has Inevitable Repercussions On The Rest Of The Created Order.

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.

The Church's Mission Is Not Political In Nature. Her Task Is To Open The World To The Religious Sense By Proclaiming Christ.

My Dear Friends, God’s Creation Is One And It Is Good. The Concerns For Nonviolence, Sustainable Development, Justice And Peace, And Care For Our Environment Are Of Vital Importance For Humanity. They Cannot, However, Be Understood Apart From A Profound Reflection On The Innate Dignity Of Every Human Life From Conception To Natural Death: A Dignity Conferred By God Himself And Thus Inviolable.

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.

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.

One Doesn't Begin To Be A Christian Because Of An Ethical Decision Or A Great Idea, But Rather Because Of An Encounter With An Event, With A Person, Who Gives New Horizons To Life, And With That, A Decisive Orientation.

Before His Gaze All Falsehood Melts Away. This Encounter With Him, As It Burns Us, Transforms And Frees Us, Allowing Us To Become Truly Ourselves... His Gaze, The Touch Of His Heart Heals Us Through An Undeniably Painful Transformation "as Through Fire". But It Is A Blessed Pain, In Which The Holy Power Of His Love Sears Through Us Like A Flame, Enabling Us To Become Totally Ourselves And Thus Totally Of God.

Truth Is Not Determined By A Majority Vote.

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.

One Who Has Hope Lives Differently.

The Holy Spirit Gives Us Joy. And He Is Joy. Joy Is The Gift In Which All The Other Gifts Are Included. It Is The Expression Of Happiness, Of Being In Harmony With Ourselves, That Which Can Only Come From Being In Harmony With God And With His Creation. It Belongs To The Nature Of Joy To Be Radiant; It Must Communicate Itself. The Missionary Spirit Of The Church Is None Other Than The Impulse To Communicate The Joy Which Has Been Given.

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.

The World Needs More Than Just Itself. Amid The Dreariness, People Do Not Need A Distraction That Will In The End Become Dreary Itself; They Are Asking For Mystery, Even If They Do Not Realize This Themselves. They Need The Sign Of The Wholly Other, The Living Word Of God, Entering Into This Our Age In Unadulterated Trustworthiness And Dynamism.

Our First Experience Of God Is So Important, We Either Experience Him As The Police Guard That Wants To Punish Or As Creative Love That Awaits.

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.

Too Often [the Church] Is Weighted Down And Burdened With The Sins And Failings Of Her Children; Too Often She Appears Disfigured And Discouraged.

You Have Before You The Task Of Seeking New Ways To Announce Christ In Situations Of Rapid And Often Profound Transformation, And Of Emphasizing The Missionary Character Of All Pastoral Activity.

We Can Not Communicate With The Lord If We Do Not Communicate With Each Other. If We Want To Present Ourselves To Him, We Must Take A Step Towards Meeting One Another. To Do This We Must Learn The Great Lesson Of Forgiveness: We Must Not Let The Gnawings Of Resentment Work In Our Soul But Must Open Our Hearts To The Magnanimity Of Listening To Others, Open Our Hearts To Understanding Them, Eventually To Accepting Their Apologies, To Generously Offering Our Own.

Listening To Others

We Do Not Seek A Christ Whom We Have Invented, For Only In The Real Communion Of The Church Do We Encounter The Real Christ.

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.

May You Always Experience The Joy That Comes From Putting Christ At The Centre Of Your Lives.

It Is Deplorable That Homosexual Persons Have Been And Are The Object Of Violent Malice In Speech Or In Action. Such Treatment Deserves Condemnation From The Church's Pastors Wherever It Occurs. ... The Intrinsic Dignity Of Each Person Must Always Be Respected In Work, In Action And In Law.

Every State Has The Primary Duty To Protect Its Own Population From Grave And Sustained Violations Of Human Rights, As Well As From The Consequences Of Humanitarian Crises, Whether Natural Or Man-made.

Dear Brothers And Sisters...the Lord Is Calling Me To "climb The Mountain", To Devote Myself Even More To Prayer And Meditation. But This Does Not Mean Abandoning The Church, Indeed, If God Is Asking Me To Do This, It Is So I Can Continue To Serve The Church With The Same Dedication And The Same Love With Which I Have Done Thus Far, But In A Way That Is Better Suited To My Age And My Strength

Make Sure That Every Person, Of Whatever Background, Can Find In You A Welcoming Heart.

God Is Alive. He Has Created Every One Of Us, And He Knows Us All. He Is So Great That He Has Time For The Little Things In Our Lives: “every Hair Of Your Head Is Numbered”. God Is Alive, And Makes Sense To Become A Priest: The World Needs Priests, Pastors, Today, Tomorrow And Always, Until The End Of Time.

Both Need Each Other: The Agnostic Cannot Be Content To Not Know, But Must Be In Search Of The Great Truth Of Faith; The Catholic Cannot Be Content To Have Faith, But Must Be In Search Of God All The Time, And In The Dialogue With Others, A Catholic Can Learn More About God In A Deeper Fashion.

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.

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.

Everything In This World Will Pass Away. In Eternity Only Love Will Remain.

By Itself, The Question Of The Liturgy's Essence And The Standards Of The Reform Has Brought Us Back To The Question Of Music And Its Position In The Liturgy. And As A Matter Of Fact One Cannot Speak About Worship At All Without Also Speaking Of The Music Of Worship.

The Earth Is Indeed A Precious Gift Of The Creator Who, In Designing Its Intrinsic Order, Has Given Us Bearings That Guide Us As Stewards Of His Creation. Precisely From Within This Framework, The Church Considers Matters Concerning The Environment And Its Protection Intimately Linked To The Theme Of Integral Human Development.

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"

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.

Holiness Never Goes Out Of Fashion.

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.

God's Love Does Not Distinguish Between The Infant In The Mother's Womb Or The Child Or The Youth Or The Adult Or The Older Person. In Each One God Sees His Image And Likeness. Human Life Is A Manifestation Of God And His Glory.

Tell Others About The Truth That Sets You Free.

Deeply Saddened By The News Of The Terrorist Attacks In Central London, The Holy Father Offers His Fervent Prayers For The Victims And For All Those Who Mourn.

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.

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