St Irenaeus declared: “Where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God.” Ee need to remember that we cannot “bottle up” the Spirit (cf. Pope Francis) We cannot reduce the Church to a small group of like-minded people who coopt one another in order to feel strong and secure.

The growth of the Church does not aim at making it stronger, more powerful or more influential in society but at being a place where all can experience God’s loving embrace.

If we keep the Good News locked up in our homes and Christian communities then faith, hope and love will wither and we will all shrink. Self-satisfaction and self-righteousness are not evangelical values and they will not foster life within us, in our Churches and in the world.

Our hearts and our institutions need to be stretched and challenged regularly so that we may bear witness to what the Kingdom is really about: “goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Rm 14:17)

As a Church and as followers of Christ, we are supposed to grow, to change, to let go of what is old and embrace what is new. One danger for us is to become stuck in the mud of our habits, to cling to the security we enjoy in our comfort zones.

The mystery of the Church and of the Kingdom are still waiting for their full revelation. It is up to each one of us to participate in this unveiling by responding to Christ’s calling.

The challenge for us who are always tempted to be blind, is to discern in our families and Christian communities, all the new forms of leprosy, all our brothers and sisters who, while physically alive, are emotionally, spiritually or psychologically wounded and even dead.

The Lord does not call us in order to keep us in a cosy fish-tank, he sends us out far and wide, he wants us to go where spontaneously we might not want to go: to the dead, the lepers, the possessed, those who are, according to Jewish mentality, sources of defilement and impurity

The Church is not a club where the members elect one another leaving outside those who do not fit the requirements and criteria of selection. It is the Lord who calls, it is the Lord who invites all men and women to be part of the one family of God.

Jesus, by his own authority calls you and me to journey together. This is a very important point: we do not choose one another, it is the Lord who gives us to one another. None of us has the right to decide who is part of the fellowship, and who is not.

We may be deaf to Jesus’ call, we may surround ourselves with so much noise that we become unable to listen to Jesus’ voice, but the fact is that Jesus summons all of us in order to confide to each one of us a mission for the good of all our brothers and sisters.

At theological and pastoral levels, our greatest sins could be our laziness or a cruel lack of courage and imagination. The first step would be for us to develop in our Churches an atmosphere where each one would be encouraged and helped to discern what his or her skills are.

Lord, when our hearts are hard and parched, come upon us with a shower of mercy and peace. Lord, when our beggarly hearts sit crouched, shut up in a corner of bitterness and anger, break open the door, and come in to reconcile and give life.

It is in mending the broken relationships in our families and communities that we prepare a less divided world. It is in caring for all the altars within, our hearts, which have been marred by wounds and hurts that we accomplish our Christian mission of reconciliation.

The first circular letter from Abbot Primate Jeremias Schröder OSB: osb.org/wp-content/upl…

Jesus is not in the business of keeping up appearances, he is not impressed by our polite, well-mannered relationships. We have to go deeper and work with the Spirit for the cleansing of our hearts, for their purification from all that prevents them from resembling Jesus’ Heart.

As long as we believe we can journey separated from others members of the same body; we maintain a wall of self-sufficiency around us or our communities; we believe that we have nothing to receive from others; then we miss the point of what it means to be a follower of Christ.

St Paul reminds us that death cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (cf. Rm 8:37-39). So trusting in God’s mercy, we are called to believe that death was unable to separate from the love of God all those who have crossed the threshold of death.

What could it mean for us to become holy as God is holy? A careful study would easily show us that throughout the ages holiness has been a way for God to express his love for the world. To become holy is to love as God loves.

We are not free-lance apostles. We are and have to remain dependant on God. We are nothing without the One who sends us. In fulfilling our mission we have to rely on God’s authority, strength and wisdom. Everything is from God.