23)
"The forms and tasks of life are many but holiness is one—that sanctity
which is cultivated by all who act under God's Spirit and, obeying the Father's
voice and adoring God the Father in spirit and in truth, follow Christ, poor,
humble and cross-bearing, that they may deserve to be partakers of his glory.
Each one, however, according to his own gifts and duties must steadfastly
advance along the way of a living faith, which arouses hope and works through
love" (Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Const. on the Church Lumen
Gentium, November 21, 1964, n. 41).
24)
"Charity is the soul of the holiness to which all are called" (Catechism
of the Catholic Church, n. 826). "Love causes man to find fulfillment
through the sincere gift of self. To love means to give and to receive
something which can be neither bought nor sold, but only given freely and
mutually" (John Paul II, Letter to Families Gratissimam Sane,
February 2, 1994, n. 11).
25)
Cf. John Paul II, Apost. Exhort. Familiaris Consortio, November 22,
1981, n. 13. "Keeping God's law in particular situations can be difficult,
extremely difficult, but it is never impossible. This is the constant teaching
of the Church's tradition" (John Paul II, Enc. Veritatis Splendor,
August 6, 1993, n. 102).
"It
would be a very grave error to conclude that the norm taught by the Church is in
itself only an 'ideal' which must then be adapted, put in proportion, aligned,
they say, with the concrete possibilities of man, according to a 'weighing of
the various goods in question'. But what are the 'concrete possibilities of
man?' And of what man are we speaking? Of man dominated by
concupiscence or of man redeemed by Christ? For this is the matter under
consideration: the reality of the redemption of Christ. Christ has
redeemed us! This means: He has given us the possibility of
realizing the entire truth of our being. He has liberated our liberty
from the domination of concupiscence. And if redeemed man sins again,
that is not due to the imperfection of the redeeming act of Christ, but to the will
of man who subtracts himself from the grace gushing out from that act. The
commandment of God is certainly proportioned to the capacities of man: but to
the capacities of man to whom the Holy Spirit has been given, the man who, if
he has fallen into sin, can always obtain pardon and enjoy the presence of the
Spirit" (John Paul II, Discourse to Participants in a Course on
Responsible Procreation, March 1, 1984).
26)
"To acknowledge one's sin, indeed—penetrating still more deeply
into the consideration of one's own personhood—to recognize oneself as being a
sinner, capable of sin and inclined to commit sin, is the essential first step
in returning to God. (...) In effect, to become reconciled with God presupposes
and includes detaching oneself consciously and with determination from the sin
into which one has fallen. It presupposes and includes, therefore, doing
penance in the fullest sense of the term: repenting, showing this repentance,
adopting a real attitude of repentance—which is the attitude of the person who
starts out on the road of return to the Father. (...) In the concrete
circumstances of sinful humanity, in which there can be no conversion without
the acknowledgment of one's own sin, the Church's ministry intervenes in each
individual case with a precise penitential purpose. That is, the Church's
ministry intervenes in order to bring the person to the 'knowledge of
self'" (John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apost. Exhort. Reconciliatio et
Paenitentia, Dec. 2, 1984, n. 13).
"When
we realize that God's love for us does not cease in the face of our sin or recoil
before our offenses, but becomes even more attentive and generous; when we
realize that this love went so far as to cause the passion and death of the
Word made flesh who consented to redeem us at the price of his own blood, then
we exclaim in gratitude: 'Yes, the Lord is rich in mercy,' and even: 'The Lord is
mercy'" (ibid., n. 22).
27)
"Christian spouses and parents are included in the universal call to
sanctity. For them this call is specified by the sacrament they have celebrated
and is carried out concretely in the realities proper to their conjugal and
family life. This gives rise to the grace and requirement of an authentic and
profound conjugal and family spirituality that draws its inspiration
from the themes of creation, covenant, cross, resurrection and sign" (John
Paul II, Apost. Exhort. Familiaris Consortio, Nov. 22, 1981, n. 56).
"Authentic
married love is caught up into divine love and is directed and enriched by the
redemptive power of Christ and the salvific action of the Church, with the
result that the spouses are effectively led to God and are helped and
strengthened in their lofty role as fathers and mothers. Spouses, therefore,
are fortified and, as it were, consecrated for the duties and dignity of their
state by a special sacrament; fulfilling their conjugal and family role by
virtue of this sacrament, spouses are penetrated with the spirit of Christ and
their whole life is suffused by faith, hope, and charity; thus they
increasingly further their own perfection and their mutual sanctification, and
together they render glory to God" (Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Past. Const. on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, December
7, 1965, n. 48).
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