Yesterday morning 11:30 in Rome, in the Sala Clementina at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father received in audience the participants in the Meeting of the Pontifical Mission Societies.
Your Eminence,
Venerable brothers in the Episcopate and in the priesthood,
Dear brothers and sisters,
I extend a cordial welcome to the National Director of the Pontifical Mission Works and to the members of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. I thank Cardinal Fernando Filoni and all of you who work in the service of the Church's missions to take the Gospel to people in every corner of the earth.
With the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, I wanted to invite all the faithful to a new level of evangelization; in our times, the mission to reach out toward all people is the driving force behind the fundamental dynamism of the Church. The itch to evangelize even to the ends of the earth, testified to by holy and generous missionaries, helps the entire community to achieve an extroverted and efficient pastoral approach, a renewal of the structures and efforts involved. Missionary action is the paradigm of every effort in the Church (cf Evangelii gaudium, 15).
To evangelize, in this time of great social transformation, requires a wholly outgoing Church, capable of working with discernment to address the different cultures and visions of man. For a world in transformation there is need of a renewed and transformed Church through contemplation and personal contact with Christ, and through the power of the Spirit. The Spirit of Christ is the source of renewal, which makes us find new ways, new creative methods, different forms of expression for the evangelization of the present-day world. He it is who gives the strength to undertake the missionary endeavour and the joy of proclamation, so that the light of Christ will illumine all those who do not yet know him or those who have rejected him. A necessary requirement for this is the courage to reach all the fringes that are in need of the light of the Gospel (Evangelii gaudium, 21). Neither our weaknesses, nor our sins, nor the many impediments that are placed in our path can hold us back from witnessing and proclaiming the Gospel. It is the experience of the encounter with the Lord Jesus which drives us and gives us the joy of proclaiming Him to all peoples.
The Church, missionary by nature, has as her fundamental prerogative the service of charity to all. Universal fraternity and solidarity are innate to her life and her mission in the world and for the world. Evangelization, which must reach everyone, must begin, however, with the least, with the poor, with those whose backs are bent from the weight and toil of life. By doing so the Church prolongs the mission of Christ himself, who came that they may have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10). The Church is the people of the Beatitudes, the home of the poor, of the afflicted, of the excluded and of the persecuted, of those who are hungry and thirsty for justice. You are asked to work so that the ecclesial communities will be able to receive the poor with preferential love, keeping the doors of the Church open so that all can enter and find refuge.
The Pontifical Mission Societies are the privileged instrument that revives and generously takes care of the missio ad gentes (the Church's mission to reach out to all people). This is why I turn to you as animators and formators of the missionary conscience of the local Churches: promote missionary co-responsibility with patient perseverance. There is such great need for priests, for consecrated persons and lay faithful gripped by the love of Christ and burning with passion for the Kingdom of God, who are willing to undertake the path of evangelization.
I thank you for your precious service, dedicated to spreading the Kingdom of God, to make the love and light of Christ reach all corners of the earth. May Mary, Mother of the living Gospel, accompany you always in your effort to support evangelization. Accompanying you also is my blessing for you and your collaborators. Thank you.
Audience of His Holiness, Pope Francis
with members of the Pontifical Mission Societies
Your Eminence,
Venerable brothers in the Episcopate and in the priesthood,
Dear brothers and sisters,
I extend a cordial welcome to the National Director of the Pontifical Mission Works and to the members of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. I thank Cardinal Fernando Filoni and all of you who work in the service of the Church's missions to take the Gospel to people in every corner of the earth.
With the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, I wanted to invite all the faithful to a new level of evangelization; in our times, the mission to reach out toward all people is the driving force behind the fundamental dynamism of the Church. The itch to evangelize even to the ends of the earth, testified to by holy and generous missionaries, helps the entire community to achieve an extroverted and efficient pastoral approach, a renewal of the structures and efforts involved. Missionary action is the paradigm of every effort in the Church (cf Evangelii gaudium, 15).
To evangelize, in this time of great social transformation, requires a wholly outgoing Church, capable of working with discernment to address the different cultures and visions of man. For a world in transformation there is need of a renewed and transformed Church through contemplation and personal contact with Christ, and through the power of the Spirit. The Spirit of Christ is the source of renewal, which makes us find new ways, new creative methods, different forms of expression for the evangelization of the present-day world. He it is who gives the strength to undertake the missionary endeavour and the joy of proclamation, so that the light of Christ will illumine all those who do not yet know him or those who have rejected him. A necessary requirement for this is the courage to reach all the fringes that are in need of the light of the Gospel (Evangelii gaudium, 21). Neither our weaknesses, nor our sins, nor the many impediments that are placed in our path can hold us back from witnessing and proclaiming the Gospel. It is the experience of the encounter with the Lord Jesus which drives us and gives us the joy of proclaiming Him to all peoples.
The Church, missionary by nature, has as her fundamental prerogative the service of charity to all. Universal fraternity and solidarity are innate to her life and her mission in the world and for the world. Evangelization, which must reach everyone, must begin, however, with the least, with the poor, with those whose backs are bent from the weight and toil of life. By doing so the Church prolongs the mission of Christ himself, who came that they may have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10). The Church is the people of the Beatitudes, the home of the poor, of the afflicted, of the excluded and of the persecuted, of those who are hungry and thirsty for justice. You are asked to work so that the ecclesial communities will be able to receive the poor with preferential love, keeping the doors of the Church open so that all can enter and find refuge.
The Pontifical Mission Societies are the privileged instrument that revives and generously takes care of the missio ad gentes (the Church's mission to reach out to all people). This is why I turn to you as animators and formators of the missionary conscience of the local Churches: promote missionary co-responsibility with patient perseverance. There is such great need for priests, for consecrated persons and lay faithful gripped by the love of Christ and burning with passion for the Kingdom of God, who are willing to undertake the path of evangelization.
I thank you for your precious service, dedicated to spreading the Kingdom of God, to make the love and light of Christ reach all corners of the earth. May Mary, Mother of the living Gospel, accompany you always in your effort to support evangelization. Accompanying you also is my blessing for you and your collaborators. Thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment