VATICAN - Cardinal Filoni to the priests of Saurimo: only from the encounter with the Lord one renews the zeal and joy for the mission

Tuesday, 13 November 2018 filoni   missionary animation   priests   local churches  

Saurimo (Agenzia Fides) - "This meeting offers me a favorable opportunity to wholeheartedly thank you for your service, your missionary witness and your commitment to awaken, among your faithful, the missionary awareness of their baptismal identity", said Cardinal Fernando Filoni who this morning met in Saurimo the priests of the ecclesiastical Province, according to the program of his pastoral visit in Angola (see Fides, 9/11/2018).
In particular, the Prefect of the Missionary Dicastery focused, recalling the extraordinary Missionary Month of October 2019, on the reawakening of the ad Gentes missionary conscience and on the missionary transformation of pastoral care, in order to undertake the new evangelization with greater impetus and enthusiasm, as Pope Francis suggests.
"One of the indispensable presuppositions, as the Holy Father points out, is to renew our encounter with Christ and let ourselves meet him", said the Cardinal, exhorting priests to always find time, despite multiple pastoral commitments, to pray before the tabernacle, meditate, stay in silence. "The encounter with the Lord will transform our lives and renew in us the zeal and joy we need for the work of evangelization.
Therefore intensify your encounter with the Lord to nourish your spiritual life".
Faced with so many scandals of which some priests were stained, Cardinal Filoni invited priests to renew their commitment to live priestly celibacy, supported by a "humble and trusting prayer", and reaffirmed: "By renouncing secularism and mediocrity, through our encounter with Christ, we can consequently renew the Church and all the pastoral and missionary dynamics". (SL) (Agenzia Fides, 13/11/2018)


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