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SISTERS CALLED BY CHRIST
Dearest Sisters, the Church needs you, I place great hope in you. I pray you to be true Spiritual Mothers and Sisters to all persons, especially to the sick, to the suffering, to the abandoned, to the children, to the young people. Go out to meet them. Don't wait for them to come to you.
Pope John Paul II
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THE CALL OF CHRIST'S HEART
''For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life'' (John 3:16). His divine Heart therefore calls our hearts, inviting us to come out of ourselves, to abandon our human certainties to trust him and, following his example, to make ourselves a gift of love without reserve.
Pope Benedict XVI
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THE CHURCH IS THE BRIDE OF CHRIST
During my sophomore year of college I took a class called ''The Theology of the Church'' whose main textbook was Henri de Lubac's ''Splendor of the Church.'' This book opened my eyes to something I had totally missed: the Church was not primarily an ''it;'' the Church was a ''she,'' the Bride of Christ. I finally realized Christ ''gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her...that he might present the Church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle...that she might be holy and without blemish'' (Eph 5:25-27). With this discovery came others. Namely, it is this same spotless bride that is on pilgrimage through history, mud-stained by the tumults of history, by persecutions and by the sins of her own members. Furthermore, I realized that to be a priest is to be a bridegroom of the Church for Christ. When I realized all of this, I fell in love with the Church, with her beauty and her plight, and wanted to give myself to her, to marry her, to serve her and only her on behalf of Jesus.
Father Kevin Augustyn
Archdiocese of Denver
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AN OFFERING TO THE LORD
''St. John Vianney considered this the golden rule for a life of obedience: 'Do only what can be offered to the good Lord.'''
Pope Benedict XVI
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