Failing To Be There When

Perhaps The Lord Has Called Me And Preserved Me For This Service Not Because I Am Particularly Fit For It, Or So That I Can Govern And Rescue The Church From Her Present Difficulties, But So That I Can Suffer Something For The Church, And In That Way It Will Be Clear That He, And No Other, Is Her Guide And Saviour

Of All Human Activities, Man's Listening To God Is The Supreme Act Of His Reasoning And Will.

Without Repeating Everything That We Have Already Mentioned, It Is Appropriate First Of All To Emphasize The Following Point: For The Church, The First Means Of Evangelization Is The Witness Of An Authentically Christian Life, Given Over To God In A Communion That Nothing Should Destroy And At The Same Time Given To One's Neighbor With Limitless Zeal. As We Said Recently To A Group Of Lay People, “modern Man Listens More Willingly To Witnesses Than To Teachers, And If He Does Listen To Teachers, It Is Because They Are Witnesses.

The Eucharistic Mystery Stands At The Heart And Center Of The Liturgy Since It Is The Fount Of Life By Which We Are Cleansed And Strengthened To Live Not For Ourselves But For God And To Be United In Love Among Ourselves.

The Task Of Evangelizing All People Constitutes The Essential Mission Of The Church. It Is A Task And Mission Which The Vast And Profound Changes Of Present-day Society Make All The More Urgent. Evangelizing Is In Fact The Grace And Vocation Proper To The Church, Her Deepest Identity. She Exists In Order To Evangelize.