Sunday, May 31, 2009

1Pet 4, 10-11 In all things God may be glorified

(1Pet 4, 10-11) In all things God may be glorified
[10] As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. [11] Whoever preaches, let it be with the words of God; whoever serves, let it be with the strength that God supplies, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
(CCC 864) "Christ, sent by the Father, is the source of the Church's whole apostolate"; thus the fruitfulness of apostolate for ordained ministers as well as for lay people clearly depends on their vital union with Christ (AA 4; cf. Jn 15:5). In keeping with their vocations, the demands of the times and the various gifts of the Holy Spirit, the apostolate assumes the most varied forms. But charity, drawn from the Eucharist above all, is always "as it were, the soul of the whole apostolate" (AA 3). (CCC 856) The missionary task implies a respectful dialogue with those who do not yet accept the Gospel (Cf. RMiss 55). Believers can profit from this dialogue by learning to appreciate better "those elements of truth and grace which are found among peoples, and which are, as it were, a secret presence of God" (AG 9). They proclaim the Good News to those who do not know it, in order to consolidate, complete, and raise up the truth and the goodness that God has distributed among men and nations, and to purify them from error and evil "for the glory of God, the confusion of the demon, and the happiness of man" (AG 9).

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