QUOTATION: Evangelization

Effective Christian witness is not about bombarding people with religious messages, but about our willingness to be available to others “by patiently and respectfully engaging their questions and their doubts as they advance in their search for the truth and the meaning of human existence” (BENEDICT XVI, Message for the 47th World Communications Day, 2013).  We need but recall the story of the disciples on the way to Emmaus.  We have to be able to dialogue with the men and women of today, to understand their expectations, doubts and hopes, and to bring them the Gospel, Jesus Christ himself, God incarnate, who died and rose to free us from sin and death.  We are challenged to be people of depth, attentive to what is happening around us and spiritually alert.  To dialogue means to believe that the “other” has something worthwhile to say, and to entertain his or her point of view and perspective.  Engaging in dialogue does not mean renouncing our own ideas and traditions, but the claim that they alone are valid or absolute.

--Pope Francis, Message for 48th World Communications Day, January 24, 2014.

QUOTATION: Reaching Out

As I have frequently observed, if a choice has to be made between a bruised Church which goes out to the streets and a Church suffering from self-absorption, I certainly prefer the first.  Those “streets” are the world where people live and where they can be reached, both effectively and affectively.  The digital highway is one of them, a street teeming with people who are often hurting, men and women looking for salvation or hope.  By means of the internet, the Christian message can reach “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).  Keeping the doors of our churches open also means keeping them open in the digital environment so that people, whatever their situation in life, can enter, and so that the Gospel can go out to reach everyone.  We are called to show that the Church is the home of all.

--Pope Francis, Message for 48th World Communications Day, January 24, 2014.

QUOTATION: Take Risks!

Let us go forth, then, let us go forth to offer everyone the life of Jesus Christ. Here I repeat for the entire Church what I have often said to the priests and laity of Buenos Aires: I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security. I do not want a Church concerned with being at the centre and which then ends by being caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures. If something should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light and consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support them, without meaning and a goal in life. More than by fear of going astray, my hope is that we will be moved by the fear of remaining shut up within structures which give us a false sense of security, within rules which make us harsh judges, within habits which make us feel safe, while at our door people are starving and Jesus does not tire of saying to us: “Give them something to eat” (Mk 6:37).

--Pope Francis Evangelii Gaudium #49, November 24, 2013.

QUOTATION: Evangelization Begins with Charity

To convert people from error to the truth, it is not enough to preach to them, you must first practice charity towards them. In other words, you will win over those who have been mislead by error only if you practice charity. Charity first and then, proclaim the truth.

--Fr. John Hardon, “Saint Peter Canisius - Jesuit Saint”, 1998.

QUOTATION: Be Heralds of the Word

I say to you, dear brothers and sisters: be everywhere heralds of the word of life in our neighbourhoods, our workplaces and everywhere that people meet one another and develop relationships. You must go outside. I do not understand Christian communities that are shut into a parish.

--Pope Francis, Address to Participants in the Ecclesial Convention of the Diocese of Rome, June 17, 2013.

QUOTATION: Defeatism

One of the more serious temptations which stifles boldness and zeal is a defeatism which turns us into querulous and disillusioned pessimists, “sourpusses”. Nobody can go off to battle unless he is fully convinced of victory beforehand. If we start without confidence, we have already lost half the battle and we bury our talents. While painfully aware of our own frailties, we have to march on without giving in, keeping in mind what the Lord said to Saint Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9).

 --Pope Francis Evangelii Gaudium #85, November 24, 2013

QUOTATION: Evangelization

Young and inexperienced religious often fall into the mistake of imagining they can convert souls by constant preaching. No, this is not a good way; it only wearies them. If you wish to gain their hearts soften their characters and correct their faults, you must first conciliate and take care of them, showing them much care and consideration. The greater number are ignorant when they come and take pleasure in evil. It is not possible to win them to God except by treating them with extreme consideration.

--St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier, Conferences and Instructions

QUOTATION: Blog Evangelisation

Young religious ought to enter blogs and correct the opinions of the youth, showing them the true Jesus.

--Cardinal Camillo Ruini, Vicar of Rome, Address to Union of Major Superiors of Italy, 2007.

QUOTATION: Go Forth!

Let us urge our young people to go forth. Of course, they will make mistakes, but let us not be afraid! The Apostles made mistakes before us. Let us urge them to go forth. Let us think resolutely about pastoral needs, beginning on the outskirts, with those who are farthest away, with those who do not usually go to church. They are the VIPs who are invited. Go and search for them at the crossroads.

--Pope Francis, Homily, World Youth Day, Rio de Janeiro, July 27, 2013

QUOTATION: Preaching

When the malice of wicked men increases, and converts are abused with insults, preaching, far from being curtailed, should be increased.

--St. Thomas Aquinas

QUOTATION: Evangelization

What will reconvert the world of today? Only a constellation of saints can lead the masses back to Christ and the Church. Mere democratic aspirations, as conceived by Lamennais and many others, are not sufficient.

 --Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting

QUOTATION: False Ideas

Catholic doctrine tells us that the primary duty of charity does not lie in the toleration of false ideas, however sincere they may be, nor in the theoretical or practical indifference towards the errors and vices in which we see our brethren plunged. Further, whilst Jesus was kind to sinners and to those who went astray, He did not respect their false ideas, however sincere they might have appeared. He loved them all, but He instructed them in order to convert them and save them.

--Pope St. Pius X, Our Apostolic Mandate, August 25, 1910

QUOTATION: Christians

Instead of seeming to impose new obligations, they should appear as people who wish to share their joy, who point to a horizon of beauty and who invite others to a delicious banquet. It is not by proselytizing that the Church grows, but "by attraction".

--Pope Francis, Gospel of Joy, 15

QUOTATION: The Lack of Evangelization

A very wise priest once told me that we were facing a situation that is the complete opposite of the Parable of the Lost Sheep.  The shepherd had ninety-nine sheep in his flock and went out to search for the one that was lost; we have one in the flock and ninety-nine that we are not searching for.

--Pope Francis, Pope Francis: His Life in His Own Words

QUOTATION: Evangelization

If a person can save the wayward soul of his neighbour, he will save his own.

--St. Andre Bessette, as quoted in Frère André disait souvent... Recueil de paroles de Frère André rapportées par ses amis.

QUOTATION: Respect for Others

If you don't accept that there are people with different opinions even opposing opinions, opinions that you don't share, and if you don't respect them or pray for them, you will never redeem them in your heart.  We must not let ideology trump morality.

--Pope Francis, Pope Francis: His Life in His Own Words

QUOTATION: Evangelization

Jesus when sending his disciples out to announce that kingdom, told them: "Give freely." The Lord wants his kingdom to be spread through acts of gratuitous love.  Thus, men recognized the early Christians as bearers of a message that overflowed from them.  "Freely you have received, freely give." I would like these words of the Gospel to be engraved very deeply on your Lenten heart.  The Church grows by attraction, by witness-- not by proselytism.

--Pope Francis (Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio), Lenten Message, Ash Wednesday, 2012

QUOTATION: Evangelization

A Catholic who does not strive to spread his Faith is a parasite on the life of the Church.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: Evangelization

He who converts his neighbour has performed the most practical Christian-political act of all.

--C.S. Lewis, “Meditation on the Third Commandment”, God in the Dock

QUOTATION: Evangelization

We always do well to remember that the child, youth, and adult whom God places on our path is neither a vessel to be filled with content, nor a person we must conquer.

-- Pope Francis (Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio), Letter to the Catechists of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, 2010