Since politics fundamentally should be a moral enterprise, the church in this sense has something to say about politics.
Purity of heart is what enables us to see.
A Christian knows when it is time to speak of God and when it is better to say nothing and to let love alone speak. He knows that God is love and that God’s presence is felt at the very time when the only thing we do is to love.
Almsgiving, according to the Gospel, is not mere philanthropy; rather it is a concrete expression of charity, a theological virtue that demands interior conversion to love of God and neighbor, in imitation of Jesus Christ, who, dying on the cross, gave his entire self for us.
May we be enlightened by a ray of the light that comes from Bethlehem, the light of He who is ‘The Greatest’ and made himself small.
With the Eucharist, therefore, heaven comes down to earth, the tomorrow of God descends into the present and it is as if time remains embraced by divine eternity.
Dear young people, the happiness you are seeking, the happiness you have a right to enjoy has a name and a face: it is Jesus of Nazareth, hidden in the Eucharist. Only he gives the fullness of life to humanity! With Mary, say your own “yes” to God, for he wishes to give himself to you.
Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything.
It is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors of hope.
The ways of the Lord are not comfortable, but we were not created for comfort, but for greatness, for good.
The primary contribution that the Church offers to the development of mankind and peoples does not consist merely in material means or technical solutions. Rather, it involves the proclamation of the truth of Christ.
Many people perceive Christianity as something institutional – rather than as an encounter with Christ – which explains why they don’t see it as a source of joy.
Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church is often labeled today as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and swept along by every wind of teaching, look like the only attitude acceptable to today’s standards.
Everything is a gift from God: it is only by recognizing this crucial dependence on the Creator that we will find freedom and peace.
Mary’s greatness consists in the fact that she wants to magnify God, not herself.
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.
The environment is God’s gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations, and towards humanity as a whole.
God no longer simply stands before us as the One who is totally Other. He is within us, and we are in him. His dynamic enters into us and then seeks to spread outward to others until it fills the world, so that his love can truly become the dominant measure of the world.
The Gospel purifies and renews: it bears fruit wherever the community of believers hears and welcomes the grace of God in truth and lives in charity. This is my faith; this is my joy.
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.