The third Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis on the call to sanctity in the contemporary world, “Gaudete et Exsultate” (Rejoice and be glad) was published on 9 April. Five Chapters, 44 pages: not a treatise on holiness, but an invitation to all, especially the young people, to “let the call to sanctity echo once again” indicating its risks, challenges, its opportunities.” Francis remarked – “Holiness is the nicest countenance of the Church. Also in the most varied environments outside the Catholic Church, the Spirit arouses signs of his presence that even help the disciples of Christ.”
To become saints – the Pope sustained – we don’t have to copy lifestyles that may seem unreachable: “What counts is that each of the faithful discerns his own path and lets the best of himself emerge, that is, all the very personal things God has endowed him with and which does not lie in imitating something which was not conceived for him.” How can we answer this call? It’s done by tracing the path of the evangelical Beatitudes, a positive model “in the light of the Master” and a major road “against the current” with respect to the direction of the world everyone pursues.

Gaudete et Exsultate

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