Because none of you taped your erection yesterday. Oh, that would be terrible. So, we still need a little, maybe, conference on the part of the Mass that we call the Mass of the Catechumen, so the service of the Word. Yesterday I outlined to you the pattern of that threefold division of scriptures, especially evidence in the Old Testament, which really, in a wonderful way, reflects the order of life of the Divine Trinity. In the first, in the five books of Moses, that we call the basic the Magna Carta, so to speak, of the community life of the chosen people.

[01:02]

The chosen people is God's Son, adopted Son. In that, the Father manifests his will. And then in the second part of the books of the Old Testament, what we call the historical books, and prophetical books and which are concerned with the conquest of the Holy Lands, started by Joshua, Jesus. God or the Lord makes room or the Lord gives grace or the Lord saves better. The Lord saves. In this conquest, the conquest of the Holy Land is the topic under the leadership of Jesus, and there is, of course, a prophecy of the work of redemption as Jesus our Lord later on will start it when he begins his messianic redeeming career at the moment where he himself

[02:15]

goes into the Jordan and there is baptized by John the Baptist and then goes up again to the other side of the river and there heaven is opened and the voice of the Father can be heard, this is my beloved Son. So that is, therefore, leads us into the opens up to us the Pascha Domini Christ's passing over into the promised land or into the rest for his people, as the epistle to the Hebrews later on explains it. And then finally, the Holy Spirit, the spirit of sacrifice and praise, the spirit of life, who fills the land, and which then reveals itself in the books of wisdom, the wisdom books, who teach, let us say, the good life, the godly life, and the Psalms, who are the voice of the Spirit,

[03:36]

filling the lands and the temple with the songs of praise, the glorification of God. So also in the New Testament we see that in some way, in a similar way, likewise, outlined in the four Gospels, which are the manifestation of the Father in his Son, who sees me, sees the Father, and the Gospels give us, outline to us, show us the face of Christ, who is the manifestation of the Father. While then later in the Acts of the Apostles, the conquest is... Outlined were the apostles following the leadership of the risen Savior. That's so beautiful and so important, following the leadership of the risen Savior, of Jesus, Joshua, of the new covenant.

[04:46]

St. Paul, as you remember, doesn't do the big step from Asia Minor into Europe, that's decisive, that's a fatal step, without being admonished by the risen Saviour. He is not being sent without having seen him. Paul, why do you persecute me? So that is the Acts of the Apostles, the conquest of the world. under the leadership of the risen Saviour. Therefore the Acts of the Apostles start with the report of the Ascension, the Enthronisation of the Curios. And then the Epistles as the New Testament wisdom books, where St Paul and the other apostles explain to the Christian people the way, the Christian way of life, applying it, as St.

[06:01]

Paul does, for example, in the epistles to the Corinthians, applying the Holy Spirit to concrete situations which arise in the life of the community. And then in the end we have the apocalypse, and that is the great New Testament final song of praise, the canticle of the Lamb, which is sung by the bride of the Lamb, the Church. So I only mention that, you know, that in this way you see right away also the The characteristic note of the Word of God, it is a word of life, and it is not given to us in any kind of abstract way. The Holy Scriptures are not a very practical and sometimes maybe too practical catechism, but the Holy Scriptures are a manifestation of life, words of life.

[07:12]

And Holy Scripture is there because it gives us the manifestation of God's will and the revelation of God's truth in the form of concrete history, of the history of the chosen people and of the life here on earth of the Son of God in the Gospels. so that reading the Scriptures really means entering into the inner life of God, into the life of the Holy Trinity. In the Scriptures, that divine economy, that divine way or design of salvation is revealed to us. From the Father, salvation descends. through the Son, who then gives us the Holy Spirit as his gift, as his permanent presence with us and in us, so that then in the unity of the Holy Spirit we return

[08:33]

unto the Father on the way in which the Son had descended to us. The one line, the line of descent, is from the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. The way of return for us as Christians is in the unity of the Holy Spirit which is concrete to us in the visible church founded by Christ on the rock, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, in the love which binds us to our brethren, we return through Christ as the high priest and mediator of the New Testament to the Father. And that, Father, is the last end and goal of our Christian life.

[09:39]

And that also is important for us to remember when we think now, how do we approach the Scriptures? The Scripture is, to say the Scriptures are in some way, the world incarnate. the word that has taken form, the word that we can hear. Through the Gospels, as St. Leo the Great explains that so beautifully, in the Gospels we are, as it were, put again into the immediate presence of Christ. We see him, we see him. being nailed to the cross. We see him being lifted up on the cross. We see him dying. We are really witnesses to his death and his resurrection. And so, but we are these witnesses, we see Christ in that way, always in the unity of the Holy Spirit.

[10:45]

And that was the reason why the Church of old insisted so much on that principle that Holy Scripture should be listened to in the concrete, in the gathering of all the faithful. It shouldn't be a matter of private study. It shouldn't be only and exclusively somebody as an individual taking the book and then studying it and then trying to understand it on his own. That is the unfortunate way of the Protestant Reformation. The ecclesiastical principle, the principle of the Church, has always been the original and true theological principle that the word of God has to be listened to, has to be heard, has to be received in the ecclesia.

[11:46]

Why? Because the word of God has to be heard and makes itself heard and understood only in the spirit and only by being in a concrete way taken out of our individual homes, having left the individual homes, having gathered together in the parish church, and realizing that there we are together, rich and poor and black and white and whatever we is, There we are united in the one Holy Spirit, and there we are able, in the purity of love, to understand the Word of Christ. And then, in this way, seeing His face in the light of the Holy Spirit, we return to our Heavenly Father.

[12:49]

That is the order of our Christian life, and that order has to be kept also in our approach to the Scriptures. It's so beautiful. Of course, this concrete approach, I mean, as a member of the community, to listen to the Word of God and in this way be reunited, too, the Father. That, of course, receives even a greater concreteness still and a greater degree of reality as soon as this announcing of the Word takes place in the Eucharistic gathering, in what the Greeks used to call the Synaxis, in those who are come together there for the celebration of the Holy Mass, of the Holy Sacrifice, because in the Holy Sacrifice, in the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice, again also the same order is being preserved and on a higher level of reality.

[14:17]

on the sacramental level of reality. Just as it's so beautiful if we think about it, you know, in the celebration of the Mass, the first thing, we see that still in the service that we have on Good Friday, which has preserved the original order of things, you know, there, the clergy comes in, the congregation is gathered together, then the first thing that takes place is a prostration in silence. And that is, of course, the emptying of oneself. You see, you remember the word of Isaiah that I quoted yesterday from the 66th chapter, and this is the second verse. where the word of the Lord is announced by the prophet.

[15:25]

The whole universe has been created by my hand. To me, everything belongs. Therefore, how can you build a house for me? How can you prepare a dwelling place for me in a material sense? What I am looking for, that's the word of God, is a humble, contrite heart, a listening heart that trembles at my word. There is the resting place. That is the recipient, the only possible vessel where the word of God can be heard and can be received. And therefore, at the beginning, some commentators of the Mass try to and like to, in order to make things easy for the people to understand, put the celebration of Mass into a pattern

[16:44]

of this kind, which is, say, now, first there is the introids and the curia laison, and there's the gloria, and there's the collect, and then all that is summed up under this formula, we speak to God. And then comes the epistle, and then comes the gospel, I mean the mass of the catechumens, and that is summed up under the headline, God speaks to us. Now that, to my mind, is too simple a way to approach it, and even in some ways simply not right, because we may, with this kind of approach, completely miss the point. That is the reason why I emphasise to you so much that the first part of the Mass, consisting of the prayers at the foot of the altar, of the introit and of the Kyrie eleison and the Gloria and the Collect are really not on the same line as the mass of the catechumens in the strict sense of the word.

[18:03]

They are only a preparation They are rites, ceremonies and prayers which have for their purpose to constitute the unity of the people of God. It's the act of gathering together, the act of being united officially in the name of Christ. So it's a preparation. And we cannot say that it would be, to my mind, a disturbance of the real order of things if we put that all on the same level. See, that's one of the difficulties which people have, you know, in approaching the mass. They are too much, as I say, take the mass as a quantitative unit.

[19:06]

You know, we sometimes contribute to that a little by inculcating and rubbing it in, so to speak, that you have to be there at the beginning when the priest comes in, and you shouldn't leave before the last gospel has been said, you know. So then, you see, only you really assist. By that, we may sometimes create the idea that there is a certain quantity of service and that quality of service is all more or less on the same level. It's a kind of a pious exercise, starts at that time, ends at that time, and that may contribute a little to people, you see, to realize that or to forget the fact that the Mass, the celebration of Mass, really takes place on completely different levels and therefore also has completely different degrees of importance than there is, for example, the prayers at the foot of the altar, by the very fact that they are being said in plano,

[20:19]

And we can see that also that these prayers at the foot of the altar are varying even now in the Roman Church. The Dominicans have another form of prayers at the foot of the altar. The Carthusians have another form of prayers at the foot of the altar. We have another form. So I mean there are many different forms. By that already one can see that these prayers at the foot of the altar certainly don't have the same degree of importance you know, say, the same also level of sacramental reality. And therefore, if somebody, you know, misses that, you know, let us say often, it's not so terrible, it's just the first, you know, beginning. The same has to be said also, for example, the last gospel. You see, we can see that at the end of the Mass, you see, when it kind of peters out, so to speak. Now, one thing after, and this has been added and that has been added after the post-communion, a special blessing, then after that special blessing out of medieval special devotion to the prologue of St.

[21:33]

John, the prologue of St. John, which was considered the Middle Ages as a kind of formula of safety, you know, was set during thunderstorms and so on, so it was very popular, and people attributed a great power to it, and therefore put great store in its being. It was a kind of a special devotion to the prologue of the Gospel of St. John. So that was added and was added as an integral part, you know, and then today after that, you know, still come the three Hail Marys and the so on and all kinds and more and more is still being added to that. It's not enough, you know, with the three times, you know, Cor Jesu Sacratissimum Isabel Novus, but then still another formula may be added, you know, the... So, I mean, we have constantly... But these additions, you know, are, of course, on a different level of reality.

[22:40]

I mean, if we see that at the Pontifical Mass, then the bishop just starts Initium Sancti Evangelii at the altar, but then he says it by himself and with his assistants, and he goes and leaves already the altar. So in that way, the Mass is not rigid, let us say, a quantity of devotion that has to be absolved, you know, from the first letter to the last letter. But it is a celebration which takes part on different levels, as life always has that gradation. Even gradation, one can say, is a law of life. In that way, you see, the Mass is, in this gathering of the Mass, one cannot simply put that under the heading, we speak to God. First of all, really, if you look at the essential structure of the Mass, it corresponds completely to the basic law of the Christian life.

[23:49]

And the basic law of the Christian life is that it descends from the Father through the Son to us in the Holy Spirit who is the gift. So it is God who takes and keeps the initiative. He loves us first. And that was strictly kept in the in the whole, let us say, the living consciousness of the early church. And that also is still today the order of the mass. The gathering together is one thing, yes, it is, one could say, a kind of tuning in from the part of the congregation. And that surely is true. But this tuning in is on a completely different level from then the announcing of the Word of God.

[24:57]

That is, one can say, the real beginning of the Mass. So beautifully expressed and still, you know, kept in the liturgy of Good Friday. Frustration is silent prostration, the listening contrite heart that trembles at God's word. And then into that silence the word of God is announced, and that word of God is the manifestation of his love that is seeking the heart's I lead you into the desert in order there to speak to your heart. These words of Jeremiah, the prophet, are absolutely true also in our days. So it is really this speaking, God speaking to us, really that is the beginning, you see, of his dealing with us.

[26:03]

So, and therefore also the... the way, you know, in which this word of love then is announced to us. You know, you remember that even in former times, of course, and in many parts of the churches, for example, in the Church of Syria, the old order is still preserved, just as we had in the synagogue. You know, we had the one reading, the basic reading of the Pentateuch, and then added to that an added reading from the prophets, the prophetical books, and then added to that the homily or the sermon of the rabbi, the explanation of it. So that was the order in the synagogue. Now, in our days, as in the Syrian church, we still have, for example, first,

[27:07]

readings from the Old Testament. And there too, the Pentateuch first, and then the prophets, and then the wisdom books. And then after that, the epistles, the wisdom books of the New Testament, and then finally the gospel. That order has always been kept, you know, that the readings would build up to the Gospel because the Gospel is in a special way the manifestation of the risen Saviour, no doubt about it. The gospel, therefore, is a special presence, really, of the risen Savior among and in his church. That is the reason why we say, why we stand. As soon as the gospel is being announced, everybody stands. Why do we stand? Here we are in the presence of the Lord. And therefore, also, these acclamations, Gloria tibi domine,

[28:12]

Glory be to thee, O Lord. We greet him as present in his gospel, and that is the way we treat the gospel. The gospel is preceded by two acolytes with lights, and the gospel is being incensed. The gospel is being treated as the presence of Christ among us in his word, on the level of the word, certainly, but a real presence. So therefore the other readings found in the celebration of the Mass, their place before it comes to this final climax in the proclamation of the Gospel. But the beautiful thing there, too, is, you know, that the announcing of the Word of God in the celebration of the Holy Liturgy, I mean, by the Church in that official way where this gathering of the Ecclesia takes place, and there we are.

[29:24]

that this proclamation of the Word of God is given to us and is done in what we would call an organic way. An organic way. We start from the beginning, also in our missal now, in our present Sunday Mass, the usual Mass, we have only two, Lessons left, the Epistle and the Gospel. Originally, there was the reading from the Old Testament. Now, in our present Missal, we have it in such a way that the Old Testament is only read on penitential days of some penitential character, either on Ember Days or in Advent or in Lent. But that doesn't really matter. fundamental idea remains the same, that the Church in her solemn assembly really presents the faithful with the whole of Holy Scripture as a living organism, and therefore going from the Old Testament to the Epistles and finally reaching its fullness in the Gospel.

[30:44]

And the gospel, again, which has in the mass such, let us say, character of actuality, expressed in this standing and listening, and expressed in that jubilant response, also expressed, if I may add that right here, in the singing of the Alleluia as preceding the reading of the Gospel. I think that is such a beautiful, wonderful usage, you know, to introduce the reading of the Gospel with the Alleluia, because the Alleluia is, as it were, the red carpet, you know, that we turn out, I don't know if that's the right word, in order to let the risen Saviour come in, enter.

[31:45]

The Alleluia had such a wonderful expression of that sentence or realisation of that sentence that always fascinates me, it's in Advent, I think it's the second Sunday of Advent, that I want to let the glory of my voice be heard in the joy of your hearts. That's such a Wonderful word, and so significant because that idea is put in practice in the celebration of the Mass. The Alleluia expresses our joy, and joy is the, we call it virtue, which really opens our hearts, while fear always contracts.

[32:46]

The joy opens the heart. To hear what? To hear the glad tidings, the glad tidings. And they are glad tidings because they are tidings of, in last analysis, that come from the mouth of the risen Lord. All the Gospels, it's another thing which is so beautiful to think about, all the Gospels have been written, conceived, composed in the light of the resurrection. And they are really, in that way, the presence of the risen, victorious Christ among us. So this then, and that is the last thought that I wanted to just recommend to your own consideration, that the word, Holy Scripture, which in this way, in the gathering of the church, that means in the unity of a loving spirit, is announced to us in its organic fullness as a living word, as a word into which we enter, not, let us say, in a static way, but in a dynamic way.

[34:04]

It is milk for the children. It is at the same time solid food for those who believe and are trained in the faith. So the Old Testament and the New Testament, the words of the apostles and the gospels, all that is presented to us in the mass of the catechumens for our instruction, for our spiritual growth. But it takes still a special degree of reality as soon as we consider that the mass of the catechumens is again in itself a preparation for the mass of the faithful, which is the sacramental renewal of the work of redemption, of Christ's Pascha, of his passing through the death into the glory of the Resurrection.

[35:07]

and the readings of the Mass of the Catechumens, as we have them now in our Roman Missal, have to be seen and have to be meditated upon in the light of the sacramental presence which they really prepare. The reading of the Gospel, where we all stand and we sing, Glory be to thee, O Lord, really corresponds to the sacramental fulfillment of the Mass in Holy Communion. The Word and the meal belong together. So beautiful is that. when, for example, brought, you know, to our attention, I mean, so that we can really grasp it so clearly in the, you know, take the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, where we have the gospel of his being convinced, you know, the doubting Thomas,

[36:17]

by the presence of the risen Saviour who tells him, put your hand into my side and be not an unbeliever but a believer. That's the gospel. But then this verse of the gospel is repeated at Holy Communion when the people come and receive the body of the risen Saviour and therefore are able, as it were, to put the hand of their faith into his open side and say in receiving holy communion, in their fullness of their faith, my Lord and my God. There is the relation between the gospel announcement and the sacramental fulfilment. between the word and the food, the word of the mind and the sacramental food of the Eucharistic banquet.

[37:28]

Such a beautiful, wonderful way. So, I mean, the fact, you know, that in our present Roman rite the mass of the catechumens, or the service of the word, you know, is linked up and united to The sacramental renewal of Christ's work of redemption in the canon of the Mass and in the sacramental meal makes the announcement a promulgation of God's Word in Holy Mass, even a greater for us, a greater actual reality. That's, for example, too, if you look forward, you know, to the Feast of Pentecost, and there we see that, that beautiful intro, you know, Spiritus Domini, Replevit Orbem Terrarum, Alleluia. The Spirit is of the Kyrios, of the risen Savior, fills the whole universe, alleluia, and this spirit which embraces or comprehends, embraces everything.

[38:45]

That has the knowledge of the Word. So wonderful. You see, this Spirit of the risen Saviour, which fills the whole earth, what is that orbis terrarum? That is the ecclesia. And that is, on the Feast of Pentecost, in a concrete way, that is the throng that throngs our parish church on that great feast, you know, to the overflowing. And there is the Holy Spirit, and there it fills, you know, that church full with people, you know, the spirit of fullness, the fruit, The generous fruit, the abundant fruit, the really mature fruit of Christ's Pascha, et hoc quod on continent omnia, and this spirit that holds everything together, that has the knowledge of the Word.

[39:58]

That really, that in Troy, is the most wonderful explanation of the mass of the catechumens. There we are gathered together and together representing, as it were, the fullness of the Spirit in that gathering. we in that spirit listen to the Word and we understand it because it is the Spirit that has full knowledge of the Word, and the Word is the risen Saviour. That is what Saint Paul says. Nobody can say Christ is the Kurios, the Lord, if he is not in the Holy Spirit. So, you see, all these things have such a wonderful meaning for us, and therefore the way in which the Church presents or announces the Word of God in the Mass is for us a source, you know, for our own spiritual life.

[41:08]

encouragement and also shows the way in which we ourselves have to listen to the word, how we have to understand it, how do I have to interpret it. And also then the other thing, and let me ask that still at the last thing, also the way in which we preach the glad tidings. Because you know the mass of the catechumen really ends in the homily. the homily of the priest. There too is such a beautiful way in which the Church wants to make the word which is being announced in the Mass of the Catechumens an actual reality for the people who now at this moment listen to it. The priest has that obligation and function to apply, to make real to the people what has been announced as the Word of God in the Epistle and in the Gospel.

[42:15]

That's the meaning of the homily. And therefore, it's called homily. You see, the whole you can already see. The way in which the Church... treats or announces the Word of God in holy mass, really, as I said before, takes place on the level, on the plane on which the whole mass is conceived. And the mass is essentially the sacrament of union. It is the realization of what we call in the ascetical and mystical language, it is the realization among God's people of the via unitiva. You know how we distinguish that. The via purgativa, the via illuminativa, and the via unitiva, the way of.

[43:18]

of purgativa, the way of cleansing, the purgatio, the way of illumination, of enlightenment, and the way of union. Then are the three essential stages in which our initiation into the life of Christ takes place. via purgativa, illuminativa, and unitiva. The via purgativa is the realm of penance, of the change, of the turn, of the conversio from the world to God. That's the via purgativa. To this via purgativa corresponds, in the old Christian terminology, what we call the kind of preaching which is called admonitio, exhortatio.

[44:28]

You know that if you are familiar with the writings of the Fathers, you find that They are very often, for example, take Clement of Alexandria. Clement of Alexandria has written, let's say, three kinds of writing. One is, the first is the exhortatio agentes, that means the admonition directed to the pagans. This admonition directed to the pagans is a, one can say, a fanfare, I mean, it's a trumpet call which is directed as for its purpose to pierce the crust, which is of selfishness, of resistance, of pride, which is around men as long as they are children of wrath. lost in their own pride and in their selfishness. So the admonition is a specific kind of preaching which is intended to pierce the hardened hearts, to therefore open it up to the heart of the sinner.

[45:45]

That is today, as I say, our mission, preaching. When we have a mission for the people of the parish, the idea of a mission is to be a trumpet call, to break through the crust, as I say, of routine and of rut into which Christians also necessarily fall again and again. Then after that preaching, which serves or expresses or realises the vita purgativa, then we have the vita illuminativa, and that is the enlightenment, that is then the feeding of the people with Christian doctrine, and that illumination that is in a systematic and elementary way that is done in what we call catechetical preaching, that is the catechesis in the old Christian, and that is, for example, Clement of Alexandria is what he calls the paedagogos, the pedagogue, you know, that is the educator.

[47:05]

Now, that is catechetical preaching. In this catechetical preaching, we build up, let us say, a systematic knowledge, elementary knowledge of the Christian truth in the hearts of the faithful, catechism. But then we have something beyond catechism, thank God, Because, after all, we live in the messianic age. And as I told you before, the messianic age is the age of the fullness of the Spirit. But what is the Spirit? The Spirit is the Spirit that has the knowledge of the Word, you know. Therefore, fullness of knowledge is really a constitutive element of the messianic age and therefore is something which is really due to the people of God of the New Testament.

[48:08]

It cannot be kept all the time on the level of the elementary school. It's unnatural. It's against the dignity of the Christian faith. If religion in our schools is always treated in the same absolutely elementary way, in last analysis that may result in a certain contempt for the Christian religion. We have to open to people the depth and the abundance and the richness of God's Word, and that is done in the homily. The homily means in English friendly, a friendly heart-to-heart talk. That's a homily. A homily, therefore, is different. It is not a trumpet call which is aimed at breaking, hardened the crust around the heart.

[49:10]

It is not catechetical teaching which is done in the school, but it is homily. That means it is a way in which the priest as the friend of those who are gathered together around the altar. And after all, one must say the great, especially today, it's so overwhelming. We experience that here in such a marvelous way on Good Friday, on Holy Thursday, where The entire congregation and the church was jammed with people, but everybody went to Holy Communion. Now, one must say that if one preaches to a community where the great majority goes and receives Holy Communion, now that congregation lives in the state of grace. Therefore, that congregation doesn't have to be

[50:13]

hollered at all the time, you know, but here are the friends of God, that is God's family, that are God's children, and they really live on the level of union, otherwise they wouldn't receive Holy Communion, wouldn't make any sense. And therefore also the preaching at Mass should be a homily. That means it should move on the level of union. That means it should be an introducing in the way in which St. John, let us say, was leaning at the Last Supper, at the breast of the law, a loving introduction into the deeper mysteries of our Christian faith. And I can tell you from the reactions that we get day after day that people are just starving for that kind of thing. and that there is, and that is probably, too, a result of our growing Catholic education.

[51:19]

Many of the people who now assist at our Masses and in the parish church are people who went through Catholic schools, who therefore, in Catholic high schools and also Catholic colleges, were trained in the elements of the catechism. so that when they come into their parish church and assist at their Mass, they would love to hear something which goes beyond the catechism, but which leads them more deeply into the truth and into the beauty and fullness of our Christian faith as it is contained in the Gospels. Imagine, for example, that St. Augustine, you know, to his simple little congregation in Tagaste, called Deliver. I think there are 156 sermons on the Gospel of St. John. constantly with the attention of the people around him.

[52:22]

On a level, if you compare that to some of our preaching in our days, which is in haphazard, very often just an improvised thing, you see, out of the spur of the moment, not prepared, and the people who sit and listen to it, of course, realize if a priest is prepared or if he is not, you know. And if he is not prepared... It's the old thing again. There we see. So it's really, we have the obligation, I think, especially with the rapidly increasing receiving of Holy Communion, and therefore also the increasing, let us say, of a general level in our communities, in our congregations. We have to risk, let us say, it's a good risk to my mind, we have to risk to lead people

[53:25]

beyond the elements of the faith into the fullness of the Scripture. And, for example, this idea, you know, of explaining, unfolding, you know, the depth of the Gospel of Saint John, that isn't even necessary. I mean, that would be a later stage. But, for example, to explain to people a psalm, a psalm which is completely, in that way, on the level, let us say, of the people's life, but still is a beautiful and sublime manifestation of God's wisdom and of the Holy Spirit. Those things, I think, that are the things that people today need, and I think my deepest conviction that the Church in the United States could be helped a great deal through a kind of preaching which moves on that level. But you can at the same time see also right away that kind of preaching, in order to be able to do it, you have to have to meditate yourself.

[54:33]

You have to be soaked in the fullness of the Scriptures, really yourself. But I'm absolutely sure that if a priest lives his priestly life faithful to the constantly repeated admonitions of the Church, not to forego his meditation, but to keep on his studying of Holy Scripture, keep on, you see, to feed his own mind with the Word of God, I'm sure that then he also will be able to become a preacher who gives the good word, the verbum bonum, to his sheep that will really feed them and not leave them disappointed.

[55:23]

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