552. Let us thus recover our fervor of spirit. Let us preserve the delightful and comforting joy of evangelizing, even when it is in tears that we must sow.
How timely a thought, that we are in a season of scandal and deep disappointment. Many saints endured similar dark hours. Will we find the courage to continue, as they did?
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.(Evangelii Nuntiandi 80)
Let us recover apostolic courage and boldness.
Thoughts on this? Have we a hope for finding fervor in an age of discouragement?
For deeper examination, check an English translation of the 2007 document from the Aparecida Conference.
Catholic Sensibility 