Skip to main content

Fr. Cantalamessa

The effort for a new evangelization is exposed to two dangers. One is inertia, laziness, of not doing anything and leaving everything to others. The other is launching into a feverish and empty human activism, with the result of losing, little by little, the contact with the source of the Word and of its efficacy. It is said: How can I pray in stillness when so many demands lay claim to my attention, how can I not run when the house is burning? It is true, but let us imagine a group of firefighters who would run to put out a fire and who discovered that they had not one drop of water in their tanks. This is how we are when we run to preach without first praying. Prayer is fundamen- tal for evangelization because ‘Christian preaching is not primarily a communication of doctrine but of existence.’ He evangelizes more who prays without speaking then he who speaks without praying
-Fr. Cantalamessa (Second Advent Sermon, 2011).
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Amelia Uelmen

Similarly, our common work to improve economic and social structures becomes less an act of problem-solving ingenuity on the part of those with resources or skills, and more an opportunity for a reciprocal exchange through which we discover all the ways in which we have been created as “gift” for one another. - Amelia Uelmen Caritas in Veritate and Chiara Lubich: Human Development from the Vantage Point of Unity
Post a Comment
Read more

Blessed Pope John Paul II

It is not wrong to want to live better; what is wrong is a style of life which is presumed to be better when it is directed towards 'having' rather than 'being', and which wants to have more, not in order to be more but in order to spend life in enjoyment as an end in itself. - Blessed Pope John Paul II Centessimus Annus
Post a Comment
Read more

Pope Benedict XVI

The invitation is to live every situation united to Christ, who takes upon his shoulders the whole burden of the world’s suffering and sin in order to bring light, hope and redemption. So it is that Jesus makes us capable in our turn of consoling those experiencing every sort of affliction. Profound union with Christ in prayer and trust in his presence, lead to the readiness to share in the suffering and troubles of our brethren. St Paul writes: “Who is weak, and am I not weak? Who is made to fall, and am I not indignant?” (cf. 2 Cor 11:29). This sharing is not born simply from kindness, nor solely from human generosity or an altruistic spirit; rather, it stems from the consolation of the Lord, from the steadfast support of the “transcendent power [that] belongs to God and not to us” (2 Cor 4:7).  -Pope Benedict XVI, Address to General Audience May 30th, 2012 (http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2012/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20120530_en.html)
Post a Comment
Read more