The Joy of the Gospel: Evangelii Gaudium

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It is not healthy to love silence while fleeing interaction with others, to want peace and quiet while avoiding activity, to seek prayer while disdaining service. Everything can be accepted and integrated into our life in this world, and become a part of our path to holiness. We are called to be contemplatives even in the midst of action, and to grow in holiness by responsibly and generously carrying out our proper mission. May you come to realize what that word is, the message of Jesus that God wants to speak to the world by your life. Let yourself be transformed. Let yourself be renewed by the Spirit, so that this can happen, lest you fail in your precious mission. The Lord will bring it to fulfilment despite your mistakes and missteps, provided that you do not abandon the path of love but remain ever open to his supernatural grace, which purifies and enlightens.

Le sfide esistono per essere superate. Siamo realisti, ma senza perdere l’allegria, l’audacia e la dedizione piena di speranza! Non lasciamoci rubare la forza missionaria! That mission has its fullest meaning in Christ, and can only be understood through him. At its core, holiness is experiencing, in union with Christ, the mysteries of his life. It consists in uniting ourselves to the Lord’s death and resurrection in a unique and personal way, constantly dying and rising anew with him. But it can also entail reproducing in our own lives various aspects of Jesus’ earthly life: his hidden life, his life in community, his closeness to the outcast, his poverty and other ways in which he showed his self-sacrificing love. The contemplation of these mysteries, as Saint Ignatius of Loyola pointed out, leads us to incarnate them in our choices and attitudes. [18] Because “everything in Jesus’ life was a sign of his mystery”, [19] “Christ’s whole life is a revelation of the Father”, [20] “Christ’s whole life is a mystery of redemption”, [21] “Christ’s whole life is a mystery of recapitulation”. [22] “Christ enables us to live in him all that he himself lived, and he lives it in us”. [23] VKonferencja Ogólna Episkopatu Ameryki Łacińskiej i Karaibów, Dokument z Aparecidy (29 czerwca 2007), 264. The processes of beatification and canonization recognize the signs of heroic virtue, the sacrifice of one’s life in martyrdom, and certain cases where a life is constantly offered for others, even until death. This shows an exemplary imitation of Christ, one worthy of the admiration of the faithful. [2] We can think, for example, of Blessed Maria Gabriella Sagheddu, who offered her life for the unity of Christians. Sogno una scelta missionaria capace di trasformare ogni cosa, perché le consuetudini, gli stili, gli orari, il linguaggio e ogni struttura ecclesiale diventino un canale adeguato per l’evangelizzazione del mondo attuale, più che per l’autopreservazione. La riforma delle strutture, che esige la conversione pastorale, si può intendere solo in questo senso: fare in modo che esse diventino tutte più missionarie, che la pastorale ordinaria in tutte le sue istanze sia più espansiva e aperta, che ponga gli agenti pastorali in costante atteggiamento di “uscita” e favorisca così la risposta positiva di tutti coloro ai quali Gesù offre la sua amicizia. Come diceva Giovanni Paolo II ai Vescovi dell’Oceania, «ogni rinnovamento nella Chiesa deve avere la missione come suo scopo per non cadere preda di una specie d’introversione ecclesiale». [25]Giovanni Paolo II, Esort. ap. postsinodale, Christifideles laici(30 dicembre 1988), 51: AAS 81 (1989), 493. W tym świetle ekumenizm jest wkładem w jedność rodziny ludzkiej. Obecność na Synodzie patriarchy Konstantynopola, Jego Świątobliwości Bartłomieja I, oraz arcybiskupa Canterbury, Jego Łaskawości Rowana Douglasa Williamsa [193], była prawdziwym darem Bożym i cennym świadectwem chrześcijańskim.

Tommaso da Kempis, De Imitatione Christi, Liber I, IX, 5: «Andar sognando luoghi diversi, e passare dall’uno all’altro, è stato per molti un inganno». Giovanni Paolo II, Esort. ap. postsinodale Ecclesia in Africa (14 settembre 1995), 52: AAS 88 (1996), 32-33; Id., Lett enc. Sollicitudo rei socialis (30 dicembre 1987), 22: AAS 80 (1988), 539.Istnieją struktury kościelne, które mogą warunkować ewangelizacyjny dynamizm; podobnie, dobre struktury służą, kiedy jest życie, które je ożywia, podtrzymuje i osądza. Bez nowego życia i autentycznego ewangelicznego ducha, bez «wierności Kościoła swojemu powołaniu», każda nowa struktura w krótkim czasie ulega degradacji. What follows is not meant to be a treatise on holiness, containing definitions and distinctions helpful for understanding this important subject, or a discussion of the various means of sanctification. My modest goal is to repropose the call to holiness in a practical way for our own time, with all its risks, challenges and opportunities. For the Lord has chosen each one of us “to be holy and blameless before him in love” ( Eph 1:4). A Christian cannot think of his or her mission on earth without seeing it as a path of holiness, for “this is the will of God, your sanctification” ( 1 Thess 4:3). Each saint is a mission, planned by the Father to reflect and embody, at a specific moment in history, a certain aspect of the Gospel.

This should excite and encourage us to give our all and to embrace that unique plan that God willed for each of us from eternity: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you” ( Jer 1:5). V Konferencja Ogólna Episkopatu Ameryki Łacińskiej i Karaibów, Dokument z Aparecidy (29 czerwca 2007), 360. Joseph Ratzinger, Aktualna sytuacja wiary i teologii. Konferencja wygłoszona podczas Spotkania Przewodniczących Komisji Episkopatów Ameryki Łacińskiej do spraw nauki wiary, jakie miało miejsce w Guadalajarze, Meksyk, 1996. Opublikowana w: L’Osservatore Romano, 1 listopada 1996, cytowana w: V Konferencja Ogólna Episkopatu Ameryki Łacińskiej i Karaibów, Dokument z Aparecidy (29 czerwca 2007), 12.

Dal momento che questa Esortazione è rivolta ai membri della Chiesa Cattolica, desidero affermare con dolore che la peggior discriminazione di cui soffrono i poveri è la mancanza di attenzione spirituale. L’immensa maggioranza dei poveri possiede una speciale apertura alla fede; hanno bisogno di Dio e non possiamo tralasciare di offrire loro la sua amicizia, la sua benedizione, la sua Parola, la celebrazione dei Sacramenti e la proposta di un cammino di crescita e di maturazione nella fede. L’opzione preferenziale per i poveri deve tradursi principalmente in un’attenzione religiosa privilegiata e prioritaria. So let us set out once more, illumined by our encounter with the risen Lord and prompted by his Spirit. Let us set out again with burning hearts, with our eyes open and our feet in motion. Let us set out to make other hearts burn with the word of God, to open the eyes of others to Jesus in the Eucharist, and to invite everyone to walk together on the path of peace and salvation that God, in Christ, has bestowed upon all humanity.