July 18
"In a wholly singular way she [Mary] cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope, and burning charity in the work of the Savior in restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is mother to us in the order of grace."
-Vatican Council II, Lumen Gentium
July 17
"Holy Spirit, come into my heart. Bring new life to the ancient prayers I learned as a child, and inspire me to voice my innermost thoughts to the God who knows them all. Amen."
-Johnnette Benkovic Williams
July 16
“There is a Marian ‘style’ to the Church’s work of evangelization. Whenever we look to Mary, we come to believe once again in the revolutionary nature of love and tenderness. In her we see that humility and tenderness are not virtues of the weak but of the strong..."
-Pope Francis
July 15
“With the Holy Spirit, Mary is always present in the midst of the people. She joined the disciples in praying for the coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:14) and thus made possible the missionary outburst which took place at Pentecost. She is the Mother of the Church which evangelizes, and without her we could never truly understand the spirit of the new evangelization...
July 14
“One who accompanies others has to realize that each person’s situation before God and their life in grace are mysteries which no one can fully know from without. Someone good at such accompaniment does not give in to frustrations or fears. He or she invites others to let themselves be healed, to take up their mat, embrace the cross, leave all behind, and go forth ever anew to proclaim the Gospel.
July 13
“I believe in person to person. Every person is Christ for me, and since there is only one Jesus, there is only one person in the world for me at that moment.”
-St. Teresa of Calcutta
July 12
“One thing Jesus asks of me: that I lean upon Him; that in Him and in Him alone I put my complete trust; that I surrender myself to Him unreservedly. I need to give up on my own desires in the work of my perfection. Even when all goes wrong, and I feel as if I was a ship without a compass, I must give myself completely to Him. I must not attempt to control God’s action, I must not count the stages in the journey He would have me make.
July 11
“[W]e exhort all evangelizers, whoever they may be, to pray without ceasing to the Holy Spirit with faith and fervor and to let themselves prudently be guided by Him as the decisive inspirer of their plans, their initiatives and their evangelizing activity.”
-Pope Paul VI
July 10
“Evangelization consists mostly of patience and disregard for constraints of time. Faithful to the Lord’s gift, it also bears fruit. An evangelizing community is always concerned with fruit, because the Lord wants her to be fruitful. It cares for the grain and does not grow impatient at the weeds.
July 9
“An evangelizing community gets involved by word and deed in people’s daily lives; it bridges distances, it is willing to abase itself if necessary, and it embraces human life, touching the suffering flesh of Christ in others. Evangelizers thus take on the ‘smell of the sheep’ and the sheep are willing to hear their voice.
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