Pope lauds Catholic volunteer work
November 14, 2011
Addressing the Pontifical Council Cor Unum on the occasion of the European Year of Volunteering, Pope Benedict thanked “the millions of Catholic volunteers who contribute, regularly and generously, to the Church’s charitable mission throughout the world.”
“For Christians, volunteer work is not merely an expression of good will,” he said. “It is based on a personal experience of Christ.”
“Christ’s grace helps us to discover within ourselves a human desire for solidarity and a fundamental vocation to love,” the Pope added. “His grace perfects, strengthens and elevates that vocation and enables us to serve others without reward, satisfaction or any recompense. Here we see something of the grandeur of our human calling: to serve others with the same freedom and generosity which characterizes God himself. We also become visible instruments of his love in a world that still profoundly yearns for that love amid the poverty, loneliness, marginalization and ignorance that we see all around us.”
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