The Joy of the Gospel

I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. Wonderful. It's just that there is something wrong, it seems, with my preference for this encounter: can I stay in a quiet, somewhat dimly lit chapel in front of the Blessed Sacrament for a few hours each day? One hour? Somehow I get the feeling that the answer is "no." If I don't encounter him in the least of my brethren, or every person I meet, then I am missing too much. This is the joy which we experience daily, amid the little things of life, as a response to the loving invitation of God our Father: “My child, treat yourself well, according to your means… Do not deprive yourself of the day’s enjoyment” (Sir14:11, 14). .... There are Christians whose lives seem like Lent without Easter. Ouch. an evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral Ouch again. I get the feeling that, if Pope Francis knew me at all, I'd ... be lumped in with the above two examples of being poor witness. This is good reading. I need it desperately.