Love of N eighbor

Love of Neighbor

John 13:34-35

“I give you a new commandment: love one another.

As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.

This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love

for one another."

John Henry NewmanCardinal and Blessed

Dear Jesus, help me to spread Your fragrance everywhere I go.Flood my soul with Your spirit and life. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly, that my life may only be a radiance of Yours.Shine through me, and be so in meThat every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus!Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine, so

to shine as to be a light to others; The light, O Jesus will be all from You; none of it will be mine; It will be you, shining on others through me.Let me thus praise You the way You love best, by shining on those around me. Let me preach You without preaching, not by words but by my example, by the catching force of the sympathetic influence of what I do,The evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You. Amen.

John Henry NewmanCardinal and Blessed

“God has created me to do some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may not know what it is in this life, but I shall be told in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connections between persons. He has not created me for nothing. I shall do good. I shall do his work. Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever I do, wherever I am, I cannot be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrows may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about.”

Evangelii NuntiandiOn Evangelization in the Modern World

Apostolic exhortation by Pope Paul VI Issued on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Dec.

8, 1975 – approximately ten years after Vatican II concluded




This document began a string of important documents which have refreshed the Church in her mission.




This document began a string of important documents which have refreshed the Church in her mission.

Since the world has changed so significantly in the past 100 years, we needed to remember who we are at our roots, but also be able to reimagine our mission in this new context.


Apostolic exhortation by Pope Paul VI Issued on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8,

1975 – approximately ten years after Vatican II concluded This document began a string of important documents

which have refreshed the Church in her mission. Since the world has changed so significantly in the past

100 years, we needed to remember who we are at our roots, but also be able to reimagine our mission in this new context.

EVERY member of the Body of Christ has a role to play in this mission.


“Such an exhortation seems to us to be of capital importance, for the presentation of the Gospel message is not an optional contribution for the Church. It is the duty incumbent on her by the command of the Lord Jesus, so that people can believe and be saved. This message is indeed necessary. It is unique. It cannot be replaced. It does not permit either indifference, syncretism or accommodation. It is a question of people's salvation. It is the beauty of the Revelation that it represents. It brings with it a wisdom that is not of this world. It is able to stir up by itself faith -- faith that rests on the power of God. It is truth. It merits having the apostle consecrate to it all his time and all his energies, and to sacrifice for it, if necessary, his own life” (5).


How did Jesus evangelize? What were the different facets of his evangelization?


How did Jesus evangelize? What were the different facets of his evangelization?

How must we evangelize? Read paragraphs 21-24 and 31 Within small groups, come up with a hearty

list that answers the following questions: What are the different facets of our

evangelization? Throughout this course (readings, field trips,

guest speakers, etc.), how have you seen these facets in action?


The whole Church therefore is called upon to evangelize, and yet within her we have different evangelizing tasks to accomplish. This diversity of services in the unity of the same mission makes up the richness and beauty of evangelization. We shall briefly recall these tasks (66).


The whole Church therefore is called upon to evangelize, and yet within her we have different evangelizing tasks to accomplish. This diversity of services in the unity of the same mission makes up the richness and beauty of evangelization. We shall briefly recall these tasks (66).

Priesthood: paragraph 68 Religious Life: paragraph 69 Laity: paragraphs 70-73

Given in Rome, at St. Peter's, on the twenty-second day of November, the Solemnity of Christ the King, in the year 1981, the fourth of the Pontificate of John Paul II.

Familiaris ConsortioOn the Role of the Christian Family in the

Modern World

Given in Rome, at St. Peter's, on the twenty-second day of November, the Solemnity of Christ the King, in the year 1981, the fourth of the Pontificate of John Paul II.

Groups: Group 1: FC 14+27 Group 2: FC 15+21 Group 3: FC 36-37 Group 4: FC 38-40 Group 5: FC 41+44 Group 6: FC 53-54 Group 7: FC 59-60

Familiaris ConsortioOn the Role of the Christian Family in the

Modern World

Conclusion of Unit 6Our Common Spirit of Evangelization

As we read, be thinking about and taking notes on these questions: No matter what state of life you are

in, what is required of us as members of the Church?

With what spirit should all of us be carrying out the evangelical mission of the Church?


It must be said that the Holy Spirit is the principal agent of evangelization: it is He who impels each individual to proclaim the Gospel, and it is He who in the depths of consciences causes the word of salvation to be accepted and understood.[118] But it can equally be said that He is the goal of evangelization: He alone stirs up the new creation, the new humanity of which evangelization is to be the result, with that unity in variety which evangelization wishes to achieve within the Christian community. Through the Holy Spirit the Gospel penetrates to the heart of the world, for it is He who causes people to discern the signs of the times -- signs willed by God -- which evangelization reveals and puts to use within history (75).


. . . It is often said nowadays that the present century thirsts for authenticity. Especially in regard to young people it is said that they have a horror of the artificial or false and that they are searching above all for truth and honesty. These "signs of the times" should find us vigilant. Either tacitly or aloud -- but always forcefully -- we are being asked: Do you really believe what you are proclaiming? Do you live what you believe? Do you really preach what you live? The witness of life has become more than ever an essential condition for real effectiveness in preaching. Precisely because of this we are, to a certain extent, responsible for the progress of the Gospel that we proclaim . . .


. . . We therefore address our exhortation to our brethren in the Episcopate, placed by the Holy Spirit to govern the Church. We exhort the priests and deacons, the bishops' collaborators in assembling the People of God and in animating spiritually the local communities. We exhort the religious, witnesses of a Church called to holiness and hence themselves invited to a life that bears testimony to the beatitudes of the Gospel. We exhort the laity: Christian families, youth, adults, all those who exercise a trade or profession, leaders, without forgetting the poor who are often rich in faith and hope -- all lay people who are conscious of their evangelizing role in the service of their Church or in the midst of society and the world. We say to all of them: our evangelizing zeal must spring from true holiness of life, and, as the Second Vatican Council suggests, preaching must in its turn make the preacher grow in holiness, which is nourished by prayer and above all by love for the Eucharist.


The world which, paradoxically, despite innumerable signs of the denial of God, is nevertheless searching for Him in unexpected ways and painfully experiencing the need of Him -- the world is calling for evangelizers to speak to it of a God whom the evangelists themselves should know and be familiar with as if they could see the invisible. The world calls for and expects from us simplicity of life, the spirit of prayer, charity towards all, especially towards the lowly and the poor, obedience and humility, detachment and self-sacrifice. Without this mark of holiness, our word will have difficulty in touching the heart of modern man. It risks being vain and sterile (76).


The work of evangelization presupposes in the evangelizer an ever increasing love for those whom he is evangelizing. That model evangelizer, the Apostle Paul, wrote these words to the Thessalonians, and they are a program for us all: "With such yearning love we chose to impart to you not only the gospel of God but our very selves, so dear had you become to us.” What is this love? It is much more than that of a teacher; it is the love of a father; and again, it is the love of a mother. It is this love that the Lord expects from every preacher of the Gospel, from every builder of the Church. A sign of love will be the concern to give the truth and to bring people into unity. Another sign of love will be a devotion to the proclamation of Jesus Christ, without reservation or turning back (79).


Let us therefore preserve our fervor of spirit. Let us preserve the delightful and comforting joy of evangelizing, even when it is in tears that we must sow. May it mean for us -- as it did for John the Baptist, for Peter and Paul, for the other apostles and for a multitude of splendid evangelizers all through the Church's history -- an interior enthusiasm that nobody and nothing can quench. May it be the great joy of our consecrated lives. And may the world of our time, which is searching, sometimes with anguish, sometimes with hope, be enabled to receive the Good News not from evangelizers who are dejected, discouraged, impatient or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervor, who have first received the joy of Christ, and who are willing to risk their lives so that the kingdom may be proclaimed and the Church established in the midst of the world (80).

from Mother Teresa


No matter what state of life you are in, what is required of us as members of the Church?

With what spirit should all of us be carrying out the evangelical mission of the Church?

Documents

Love of N eighbor