FAITH AND LOVE

Pope Benedict XVI, Shepherd of Truth

Notable quotations from Pope Benedict XVI and official
teachings of the Roman Catholic Church

CHANGED LIVES

"Faith working through love" (Gal 5:6) becomes a new criterion of understanding and action that changes the whole of man's life...

LOVE AND EVANGELIZATION

It is the love of Christ that fills our hearts and impels us to evangelize... He sends us through the highways of the world to proclaim the Gospel to all the peoples of the earth...

CALLED BY LOVE

Through His love, Jesus Christ attracts to Himself the people of every generation: in every age He convokes the Church, entrusting her with the proclamation of the Gospel by a mandate that is ever new.

"GRACE AND JOY"

Faith grows when it is lived as an experience of love received and when it is communicated as an experience of grace and joy. It makes us fruitful, because it expands our hearts in hope and enables us to bear life-giving witness...

"THE WITNESS OF CHARITY"

The Year of Faith will ... be a good opportunity to intensify the witness of charity.

FAITH AND CHARITY

Faith without charity bears no fruit, while charity, without faith would be a sentiment constantly at the mercy of doubt. Faith and charity each require the other, in such a way that each allows the other to set out along its respective path.

RECOGNIZE JESUS

Through faith, we can recognize the face of the risen Lord in those who ask for our love... It is faith that enables us to recognize Christ and it is His love that impels us to assist Him whenever He becomes our neighbor along the journey of life.

"AUTHENTIC AND LASTING"

... May this Year of Faith make our relationship with Christ the Lord increasingly firm, since only in Him is there certitude for looking to the future and the guarantee of an authentic and lasting love.

(Source: Apostolic Letter Porta Fidei, issued 10/11/2011}