What is the Church?
Pope Benedict writes this:
"We ourselves are the church; she is more than an organization, she is an organism of the Holy Spirit, a living thing that encompasses all of us from within...we all carry on her life together in faith, just as she carries us. She is an organic growth and development through the centuries that is ongoing even today. Through her the mystery of the incarnation continues to be present: Christ walks through the ages."
If the church is alive then it must awaken in people's souls.
St. Paul in the letter to Galatians expresses what that awakening looks like, how that awakening manifest itself in existence.
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, peace, joy, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control...now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their flesh with its passion and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit."
This is the living organism of the Church; this is the vital spirit that animates us all; this is the spirit that makes us a member of the Body of Christ; this is the fruit that must be awaken in our souls.
Then they will know we are christian and Jesus Christ is Lord.
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