I've heard priests ask "why is it so hard to get an organist these days" and I've seen priests spend hundreds of pounds on digital hymnals (electronic automatic organists) but I've yet to see a priest spend any money on the training of musicians. Across our diocese, how many young people and teenagers are being sponsored by the Church to take lessons as organists? Why is it so hard to get an organist these days? It's not rocket science.

Training of "extraordinary" ministers - Yes. Training of "ordinary" musicians - Nope.

Don't even get me started on chant.

A Church which only makes use of 'utility' music has fallen for what is, in fact, useless. She too becomes ineffectual. For her mission is a fair higher one...The Church must not settle down with what is merely comfortable and serviceable at the parish level; she must arouse the voice of the cosmos and, by glorifying the Creator, elicit the glory of the cosmos itself, making it also glorious, beautiful, habitable and beloved. Next to the saints, the art which the Church has produced is the only real 'apologia' for her history...The Church is to transform, improve, 'humanize' the world--but how can she do that if at the same time she turns her back on beauty, which is so closely allied to love? For together, beauty and love form the true consolation in this world, bringing it as near as possible to the world of the resurrection. The Church must maintain high standards; she must be a place where beauty can be at home; she must lead the struggle for that 'spiritualisation' without which the world becomes the 'first circle of hell'.

[link]

First circle of hell? That reminds me of something...

My unhappiness with the themes for Catholic youth work in the UK is well documented. "Be the change you want to see in the world..." (Ghandi), "Sometimes it falls on a generation to be great..." (Mandella) and "I am because we are..." (Ubuntu) are not exactly brimming with Christological significance.

Instead they betray a semi-pelagian humanist underpinning. We need to change ourselves. The sanctifying grace of God is nowhere to be seen. Baptism? Communion? Confession? These things are not for us! We will change ourselves! We will be great! We are because we are!

Anyways... thought you might like to see the themes that Pope Benedict has chosen for the next three World Youth Days...

Benedict XVI is inviting youth to celebrate the next two World Youth Days at the diocesan level, leading up to a culmination in the 2011 Madrid event.

A statement from the Holy See affirmed that the Pope picked event themes for the '09 and '10 youth days, "so as to help build a spiritual itinerary that will culminate in the World Youth Day celebrations scheduled to take place in Madrid, Spain."

The theme of the 2009 World Youth Day, which will be celebrated next Palm Sunday in Rome and in each diocese, is: "We Have Set Our Hope on the Living God" (1 Timothy 4:10).

In 2010, the celebration will also be held on Palm Sunday in all dioceses, with the theme: "Good Teacher, What Must I do to Inherit Eternal Life?" (Mark 10:17).

These celebrations will lead up to the international World Youth Day in Madrid, scheduled for Aug. 16-21, 2011, with the theme: "Rooted and Built Up in Jesus Christ, Firm in the Faith" (Colossians 2:7).

[link]

Notice how none of them are inspired by third world humanist philosophies. Notice how they are all of them based on scripture.

Yay the Pope.

They also work quite well with Bishop Drainey's "Who do you say I am?" (Matthew 16) meetings with young people in Hull.

Yay the Bishop as well...

Spanish newspaper 'La Razón' had an interview recently with the new "Prefect of Divine Worship" Cardinal Cañizares Llovera...

Reporter: Nevertheless, Benedict XVI has reiterated in some instances the propriety of receiving communion kneeling and in the mouth. Is it something important, or is it a mere matter of form?

Cardinal Cañizares: No, it is not just a matter of form. What does it mean to receive communion in the mouth? What does it mean to kneel before the Most Holy Sacrament? What does it mean to kneel during the consecration at Mass? It means adoration, it means recognizing the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist; it means respect and an attitude of faith of a man who prostrates before God because he knows that everything comes from Him, and we feel speechless, dumbfounded, before the wondrousness, his goodness, and his mercy. That is why it is not the same to place the hand, and to receive communion in any fashion, than doing it in a respectful way; it is not the same to receive communion kneeling or standing up, because all these signs indicate a profound meaning. What we have to grasp is that profound attitude of the man who prostrates himself before God, and that is what the Pope wants.

[link]

Hmmm. What would Saint Wilfrid do if he were still Bishop in these parts?

I can't see him sitting around waiting for somebody to tell him he has to do what the Pope wants. He would just do what the Pope wants.

That's why they call him Saint Wilfrid.

Imagine... Fr Aidan Nichols talking pretty much non-stop for an hour - deep, rich, hard to follow in places. Then a man I'd never heard of, one of those speakers you sit through while you wait for Scott Hahn, but Dr Michael Waldstein turned out to be the highlight of the day. An interesting and entertaining speaker he gave an excellent talk around the themes at the recent Synod on Scripture. After the break, the man who translated the Pope's book "Jesus of Nazereth" did his thing before it all ended with the legendary Scott Hahn. His wife wasn't with him, so he was Hahn Solo.

That's four fantastic hours of speaking.. far too much for me to blog in any kind of detail, even if I dedicated a week to it. So I'm not going to blog about it in detail. I'm going to give a few thoughts.

The theme of the conference was Scripture and Liturgy in the Theology of Benedict XVI. I must confess to having been far more interested in the liturgical aspect than the scriptural. Not because scripture isn't important (it clearly is) but because I already have a wealth of resources regarding scripture but when it comes to the liturgy I feel I am only scratching the surface.

I felt that the first speaker (Fr Aidan Nichols) used very difficult theological language to express concepts that could have been explained in more straightforward language. I managed to follow a lot of what he was saying, but I found myself thinking "If that's his point, why doesn't he just say so? Why is he making this so hard?". Still, he made some good points.

One of the things I found interesting was the conflict he identified between a Christianity which is very much about individual, personal relationship with Christ and 'opposite pole' liturgical actions where we act as a group, for instance when we speak the same words or make the same gestures. I found that interesting because while it's not a tension I've ever struggled with personally (My siblings and I have a personal relationship with my Mum, but we all sing Happy Birthday together) it explains a lot about some of the things people say and do. Especially when they clamour for individual 'jobs' in the mass.

As I have said, the second talk by De Michael Waldstein was pleasant surprise and a real treat. I recorded the talks and I plan to listen back to this one especially closely (and perhaps blog on it separately). A point he made (I think it was him, the talks are all blurring in to one) is that Scripture depends on Liturgy because deciding on the Canon of Scripture was originally deciding on 'what shall we have read at mass'. The idea that the Catholic Mass can in a sense be considered the cause of the New Testament is really interesting and it means that the scriptures are primarily meant to be read at mass. Not that private reading is forbidden (far from it) but that the scriptures are most at home when they are being read at mass.

Another point I found interesting... one that is perhaps obvious to my readers. It was Adrian Walker who reminded us that the meaning of symbols is inherently a part of the symbol and not something we project on it. The example he gave was water. Water is used a symbol for life because God gave water that meaning - not because we decided like some kind of code that water would mean life. Bizarrely, I knew that already in one specific circumstance - marriage. We didn't say "How shall we describe Christ and the Church, oh, how convenient, marriage will do". Marriage has that meaning inherently and we simply discover it. Interesting how I had managed to know that for marriage (I've thought about marriage a lot) but had failed to apply the same logic to symbols we see more regularly such as water and bread and wine.

Now. Before I descend in to full on critical mode, I want to say that it was a great conference. It really really was. I got loads and loads more out of it than you can see in this blog entry. Many thoughts and puzzles I had put on the back burner to worry about again someday suddenly awakened. New puzzles and questions and challenges to face. Well worth the cost of admission, I hope they do it again.

It was a great pleasure to meet Scott who is both good humoured and one of my heroes. In fact, it is precisely because he is one of my heroes that I feel obliged to write the following. Even though it pains me to do so.

There's a very real sense in which I think this conference fell short of what it could have been. Not to say that it wasn't excellent, it was, but something was missing for me: Practicality.

I remember a time when I was really struggling with questions about the Catholic faith, specifically questions from evangelical Christians. I remember having questions about the authority of the Pope vs the authority of Scripture. Questions about the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and the meaning of human sexuality. I remember looking within the Catholic Church in England and Wales and finding nothing. Most people I asked were not particularly interested, some simply reassured me that God would love me whatever I believe (which is true, but not helpful) and some even went to far as to say that (especially when it came to contraception) that other Christian denominations had it right and hopefully the Church will change to match them soon.

While the Catholics I knew were busy taking a pluralistic view (one type of Christianity is as good as any other) guys like Scott Hahn took a very different view. Scott Hahn has been a no-nonsense voice of reason. A valiant warrior on the side of a truly Catholic way of reading scripture. Biblical apologetics used reason, logic and evidence to give explanations for beliefs and demonstrated why some theological views are incorrect and others are true.

In the programme for the conference Stratford Caldecott, who chaired the conference, refers to "the tragic mistakes that have been made in the course of liturgical reform in the last forty years". It was very much my hope that at this conference these tragic mistakes might be identified, the reasons for the mistakes found and remedies suggested. Especially since the conference title ends 'in the Theology of Benedict XVI'. Pope Benedict's 'reform of the reform' has been intensely practical - changes in the style of vestments, arrangement of the altar, methods of receiving communion etc.

When during the Q&A I asked for practical suggestions, the panel deferred to a priest who gave an immensely unsatisfactory answer. Only when somebody else asked a similar question did the panel get involved and then I was immensely disappointed to hear Scott Hahn of all people say that if there's one thing he knows about arguments over the liturgy it's that he doesn't get involved. He spoke of having been to many kinds of masses (guitar masses, high masses, low masses, Latin masses, English masses, etc) and then said that the differences really don't matter. What's important is that at mass we are transported, really, to heaven.

[Update: In fairness to Scott, he didn't say they don't matter (see the comments below). He was unwilling to enter in to discussion about the differences and I took my trademark sloppy paraphrasing too far.]

Can you imagine asking Scott Hahn for practical suggestions on reading the Bible and him saying "I've read the Bible in English, Greek and Latin. I've used the historic critical method and the literal method, I've used the NIV, New Jerusalem, Douay Rheims and King James versions. They are all the same - What is important is that it's the Word of God"? I can't.

I'm sure Scott would feel able to say something about the pros and cons of reading the Bible in the original Greek. I'm sure he would have something to say about the relative merits of the NIV and King James bible translations. I know he would have something to tell me about the historical critical method of reading scripture.

So why the stonewalling when it comes to the liturgy? Why the pluralistic "it's all good" claim when Benedict XVI clearly doesn't think it's all the same. Benedict XVI clearly thinks that some things are a mistake and others are not. When the conferences own programme refers to "the tragic mistakes that have been made in the course of liturgical reform in the last forty years"?

It is absurd to speak of 'tragic mistakes' and then to dodge questions about what is a mistake.

My guess (and it's only a guess) is that there's a political motivation to the silence. Perhaps a desire not to upset the Bishop's Conference and to remain mainstream. Speaking out in favour of Pope Benedict's practice of giving communion only on the tongue to those kneeling would be a very good way to lose friends. I don't know that this is the case but it certainly seems plausible.

Pope Benedict's theology on the liturgy has real practical liturgical consequences...

If this book were to encourage, in a new way, something like a "liturgical movement", a toward the liturgy and toward the right way of celebrating the liturgy, inwardly and outwardly, then the intention that inspired it's writing would be richly fulfilled.

Joseph Ratzinger
Preface to The Spirit of the Liturgy
August 28, 1999

In the programme for the conference, Stratford Caldecott writes: "our gathering today in Oxford may be taken to mark another turning point - the coming of age and flowing together of the Liturgical movement with the Biblical movement in the Catholic Church".

But I simply cannot see how a liturgical movement can be truly said to have 'come of age' so long as it remains paralysed, unable to say with any clarity what a 'right way of celebrating the liturgy' even is, let alone how to start moving toward it.

I hope and pray and look forward with great joy to the day when the intention that inspired Pope Benedict's writing is richly fulfilled.

Yesterday was a good start, but we (just because I'm not a priest or internationally renowned author doesn't mean I can't be part of a liturgical movement) need to do better.

Pope Benedict recently deployed the latest in Vatican stealth technology...

It's not working very well yet.

Well spotted Photoshop Disasters.

General Intention...

That the Synod of Bishops may help the pastors and theologians, the catechists and promoters who are engaged in the service of the Word of God to courageously transmit the truth of faith in communion with the entire Church.

Mission Intention...

That in this month dedicated to the missions, through the promotional activities of the Pontifical Missionary Works and other organisms, every Christian community may feel the need to participate in the Church's universal mission with prayer, sacrifice and concrete help.

I stumbled across this today. I sometimes think this sort of thing but I tone it down for fear of coming across as some kind of extreme traditionalist...

The liturgical reform, in its concrete realization, has certainly strayed from its origin. The result has not been a reanimation (renewal), but a devastation. On one hand, there is a liturgy that has degenerated into a "show", in which one tries to render religion interesting with the aide of trendy amusements and maxims that arouse morals - which meets with temporary success within the group of liturgical manufacturers, but which encounters an attitude of very pronounced rejection by those who seek to find in the liturgy, not a spiritual "show-master", but an encounter with the living God before whom all "fabricating" becomes insignificant - an encounter which alone is capable of allowing us to reach the true richness of existence.

...

What happened after the Council was altogether different: instead of a liturgy, which was the fruit of continuous development, a fabricated liturgy was put in its place. A living, growing process was abandoned and the fabrication was begun. There was no further wish to continue the organic evolution and maturation of the living being throughout the centuries, and it was replaced -- as if in a technical production -- by a fabrication, a banal product of the moment.

J. Card. Ratzinger, Preface to Klaus Gamber's "The Reform of the Roman Rite"

[link]

Dearest Older Generation...

I know you've had a lot of fun with the Church, but do you think you could put it back together again when you've finished playing? It will be Leona's turn soon and I don't think she knows where all the pieces go.

Thanks

Address by the Holy Father to Young People Outside Notre Dame Cathedral...

Address by the Holy Father to Young People Inside St Joseph's Parish Hall...

And this is what he said...

Dear Young Friends,

After our prayerful celebration of Vespers in Notre-Dame, your enthusiastic greeting gives a warm and festive tone to our meeting this evening. It reminds me of that unforgettable gathering at World Youth Day in Sydney this past July – at which some of you were present. This evening I would like to talk to you about two very closely related matters; they represent a real treasure to be stored up in your hearts (cf. Mt 6:21).

The first has to do with the theme which was chosen for Sydney. It is also the theme of the prayer vigil which is about to begin. I am referring to a passage taken from the Acts of the Apostles, a book which has most appropriately been called the Gospel of the Holy Spirit: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you: and you will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). In Sydney, many young people rediscovered the importance of the Holy Spirit for the life of every Christian. The Spirit gives us a deep relationship with God, who is the source of all authentic human good. All of you desire to love and to be loved! It is to God that you must turn, if you want to learn how to love, and to find the strength to love. The Spirit, who is Love, can open your hearts to accept the gift of genuine love. All of you are seeking the truth; and all of you want to live in truth! This truth is Christ. He is the only Way, the one Truth and the true Life. To follow Christ means truly to “put out to sea”, as is said several times in the Psalms. The way of Truth is simultaneously one and manifold according to the variety of charisms, just as Truth is one while at the same time possessing an inexhaustible richness. Surrender yourselves to the Holy Spirit in order to find Christ. The Spirit is our indispensable guide in prayer, he animates our hope and he is the source of true joy.

To understand more deeply these truths of faith, I would encourage you to meditate on the importance of the sacrament of Confirmation which you have received and which leads you into a mature faith life. It is vital for you to understand this sacrament more and more in order to evaluate the quality and depth of your faith and to reinforce it. The Holy Spirit enables you to approach the Mystery of God; he makes you understand who God is. He invites you to see in your neighbours the brothers and sisters whom God has given you, in order to live with them in human and spiritual fellowship – in other words, to live within the Church. By revealing who the crucified and risen Lord is for us, he impels you to bear witness to Christ. You are at an age marked by great generosity. You need to speak about Christ to all around you, to your families and friends, wherever you study, work and relax. Do not be afraid! Have “the courage to live the Gospel and the boldness to proclaim it” (Message to the Young People of the World, 20 July 2007). So I encourage you to find ways of proclaiming God to all around you, basing your testimony on the power of the Spirit, whom we ask for in prayer. Bring the Good News to the young people of your age, and to others as well. They know what it means to experience difficulty in relationships, worry and uncertainty in the face of work and study. They have experienced suffering, but they have also known unique moments of joy. Be witnesses of God, for, as young people, you are fully a part of the Catholic community through your Baptism and our common profession of faith (cf. Eph 4:5). The Church has confidence in you, and I want to tell you so!

In this year dedicated to Saint Paul, I would like to entrust you with a second treasure, which was at the centre of the life of this fascinating Apostle: I mean the mystery of the Cross. On Sunday, in Lourdes, I will celebrate the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross together with countless other pilgrims. Many of you wear a cross on a chain around your neck. I too wear one, as every Bishop does. It is not a mere decoration or a piece of jewelry. It is the precious symbol of our faith, the visible and material sign that we belong to Christ. Saint Paul explains the meaning of the Cross at the beginning of his First Letter to the Corinthians. The Christian community in Corinth was going through a turbulent period, exposed to the corrupting influences of the surrounding culture. Those dangers are similar to the ones we encounter today. I will mention only the following examples: quarrels and conflicts within the community of believers, the seductiveness of ersatz religious and philosophical doctrines, a superficial faith and a dissolute morality. Saint Paul begins his Letter by writing: “The word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor 1:18). Then, the Apostle shows the clear contrast between wisdom and folly, in God’s way of thinking and in our own. He speaks of this contrast in the context of the founding of the Church in Corinth and in connection with his own preaching. He ends by stressing the beauty of God’s wisdom, which Christ and, in his footsteps, the Apostles, have come to impart to the world and to Christians. This wisdom, mysterious and hidden (cf. 1 Cor 2:7), has been revealed by the Spirit, because “those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are folly to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2:14).

The Spirit opens to human intelligence new horizons which transcend it and enable to perceive that the only true wisdom is found in the grandeur of Christ. For Christians, the Cross signifies God’s wisdom and his infinite love revealed in the saving gift of Christ, crucified and risen for the life of the world, and in particular for the life of each and every one of you. May this amazing realization lead you to respect and venerate the Cross. It is not only the symbol of your life in God and your salvation, but also – as you will understand – the silent witness of human suffering and the unique and priceless expression of all our hopes. Dear young people, I know that venerating the Cross can sometimes bring mockery and even persecution. The Cross in some way seems to threaten our human security, yet above all else, it also proclaims God’s grace and confirms our salvation. This evening, I entrust you with the Cross of Christ. The Holy Spirit will enable you to understand its mysteries of love. Then you will exclaim with Saint Paul: “May I never boast of anything, except the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal 6:14). Paul had understood the seemingly paradoxical words of Jesus, who taught that it is only by giving (“losing”) ones life that one finds it (cf. Mk 8:35; Jn 12:24), and Paul concluded from this that the Cross expresses the fundamental law of love, the perfect formula for real life. May a growing understanding of the mystery of the Cross lead some of you discover the call to serve Christ unreservedly in the priesthood and the religious life!

We are about to begin the prayer vigil, for which you have gathered here this evening. Remember the two treasures which the Pope has presented to you this evening: the Holy Spirit and the Cross! As I conclude, I would like to tell you once more that I have confidence in you, dear young people, and I want you to experience, today and in the future, the esteem and affection of the whole Church! May God be at your side each day. May he bless you, your families and your friends. I gladly grant my Apostolic Blessing to you, and to all the young people of France!

This is beautiful...

That faithful to the sacrament of matrimony every Christian family may cultivate the values of love and communion in order to be a small evangelizing community, sensitive and open to the material and spiritual needs of others.

I love how the seminarian speaks in Roman numerals... but seriously, there is a lot of good here. This is taken from a recent Q&A session between the Pope and seminarians.

Michael Horrer, Seminarian: Holy Father, my name is Michael Horrer and I am a seminarian. On the occasion of the XXIII World Youth Day of Sydney, in Australia, in which I took part with other young people of our diocese, you constantly reaffirmed to the 400,000 youth present the importance of the work of the Holy Spirit in us young people and in the Church. The theme of the Day was: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses" (Acts 1: 8).

We young people have now returned -- strengthened by the Holy Spirit and by his words - to our homes, our dioceses and our daily lives.

Holy Father, how can we live the gifts of the Holy Spirit in practice, here in our country and in our daily lives, in such a way that our relatives, friends and acquaintances feel and experience his power, and how can we exercise our mission as Christ's witnesses? What can you advise us in order to ensure that our diocese stays young, despite the aging of the clergy, so that it also stays open to the Spirit of God who guides the Church?

Benedict XVI: Thank you for your question. I am glad to see a seminarian, a candidate for the priesthood of this diocese, in whose face, in a certain sense, I can rediscover the young face of the diocese. And I am glad to hear that, together with others, you were in Sydney where at a great celebration of faith we experienced together precisely that the Church is young.

For Australians too, it was an important experience. At first they looked at this World Youth Day with great skepticism because it would obviously cause a lot of bother and many inconveniences to daily life, such as traffic jams, etc.

However, in the end -- as we also saw in the media whose prejudices crumbled, bit by bit -- everyone felt involved in this atmosphere of joy and faith; they saw that young people come and do not create problems of security or of any other kind but can be together joyfully.

They saw that faith today is a force that is present, a force that can give people the right orientation. This is why there was a moment in which we truly felt the breath of the Holy Spirit who sweeps away prejudices, who makes people understand that yes, here we find what closely affects us, this is the direction in which we must go; and in this way we can live, in this way the future unfolds.

You rightly said this was a strong moment of which we would take home with us a little spark. In daily life however, it is far more difficult in practice to perceive the action of the Holy Spirit, or even to be personally a means to enable him to be present, to ensure the presence of that breath which sweeps away the prejudices of time, which creates light in the darkness and makes us feel not only that faith has a future but that it is the future.

How can we do this? We cannot of course do it on our own. In the end, it is the Lord who helps us but we must be available as instruments. I would say simply: no one can give what he does not personally possess; in other words we cannot pass on the Holy Spirit effectively or make him perceptible to others unless we ourselves are close to him.

This is why I think that the most important thing is that we ourselves remain, so to speak, within the radius of the Holy Spirit's breath, in contact with him. Only if we are continually touched within by the Holy Spirit, if he dwells in us, will it be possible for us to pass him on to others.

Then he gives us the imagination and creative ideas about how to act, ideas that cannot be planned but are born from the situation itself, because it is there that the Holy Spirit is at work. Thus, the first point: we ourselves must remain within the radius of the Holy Spirit's breath.

John's Gospel tell us that after the Resurrection the Lord went to his disciples, breathed upon them and said: "Receive the Holy Spirit." This is a parallel to Genesis, where God breathes on the mixture he made with the dust from the earth and it comes to life and becomes man.

Then man, who is inwardly darkened and half dead, receives Christ's breath anew and it is this breath of God that gives his life a new dimension, that gives him life with the Holy Spirit.

We can say, therefore, that the Holy Spirit is the breath of Jesus Christ and we, in a certain sense, must ask Christ to breathe on us always, so that his breath will become alive and strong and work upon the world. This means that we must keep close to Christ.

We do so by meditating on his Word. We know that the principal author of the sacred Scriptures is the Holy Spirit. When through his Word we speak with God, when we do not only seek the past in it but truly the Lord who is present and speaks to us, then -- as I said in Australia -- it is as if we were to find ourselves strolling in the garden of the Holy Spirit; we talk to him and he talks to us.

Here, learning to be at home in this environment, in the environment of the Word of God, is a very important thing which, in a certain sense, introduces us into the breath of God. And then, naturally, this listening, walking in the environment of the Word must be transformed into a response, a response in prayer, in contact with Christ.

And of course, first of all in the blessed sacrament of the Eucharist in which he comes to us and enters us and is, as it were, amalgamated with us. Then, however, also in the sacrament of penance, which always purifies us, which washes away the grime that daily life deposits in us.

In short, it is a life with Christ in the Holy Spirit, in the Word of God and in the communion of the Church, in her community. St Augustine said: "If you desire the Spirit of God, you must be in the Body of Christ." Christ's Spirit moves within the Mystical Body of Christ.

All this must determine the shape that our day takes in such a way that it becomes structured, a day in which God has access to us all the time, in which we are in continuous contact with Christ and in which, for this very reason, we are continuously receiving the breath of the Holy Spirit.

If we do this, if we are not too lazy, undisciplined or sluggish, then something happens to us: the day acquires a form and in it our life itself acquires a form and this light will shine from us without us having to give it much thought or having to adopt a "propagandist" -- so to speak -- way of acting: It comes automatically because it mirrors our soul. To this I would then add a second dimension that is logically linked with the first: If we live with Christ we will also succeed in human things.

Indeed, faith does not only involve a supernatural aspect, it rebuilds man, bringing him back to his humanity, as that parallel between Genesis and John 20 shows: It is based precisely on the natural virtues: honesty, joy, the willingness to listen to one's neighbor, the ability to forgive, generosity, goodness and cordiality among people.

These human virtues show that faith is truly present, that we are truly with Christ and I believe that we should pay great attention to this, also regarding ourselves: To develop an authentic humanity in ourselves because faith involves the complete fulfillment of the human being, of humanity.

We should pay attention to carrying out human tasks well and correctly, also in our profession, in respect for our neighbor, in being concerned about our neighbor, which is the best way to be concerned about ourselves: In fact, "existing" for our neighbor is the best way of "existing" for ourselves.

And the latter subsequently gives rise to those initiatives that cannot be programmed: communities of prayer, communities that read the Bible together or that even provide effective help for people in need, who require it, who are on the margins of life, for the sick, for the disabled and many other things. This is when our eyes are opened to see our personal skills, to assume the corresponding initiatives and to be able to imbue others with the courage to do the same. And precisely these human things can strengthen us, in a certain way putting us in touch anew with God's Spirit.

The head of the Order of the Knights of Malta in Rome told me that at Christmas he went to the station with several young people to take a bit of Christmas to the homeless. While he himself was turning back, he heard one young man telling another: "This is more powerful than the discothèque. It is really beautiful here because I can do something for others!" These are the initiatives that the Holy Spirit inspires in us. With few words they enable us to feel the Spirit's power and we are made attentive to Christ.

Well, perhaps I have not said very practical things just now, but I believe the most important thing is, first of all, that our life should be oriented to the Holy Spirit, because we live in the milieu of the Spirit, in the body of Christ, and from this we experience humanization, we nurture the simple human virtues and thus learn to be good in the broadest sense of the word. Thus, one acquires a sensitivity for good initiatives which later, of course, develop a missionary force and in a certain sense prepare the ground for the moment when it becomes reasonable and comprehensible to speak of Christ and of our faith.

[link]

"Well, perhaps I have not said very practical things just now" - Wow, I wonder what he says when he get's really practical...