|Bishop Barron
翻译|Carrie

朋友们，今天的福音，摘自《路加福音》出色的第十章，是教会的写照。它体现了耶稣对信徒的要求以及如何实践。我们是传教教会。主派遣我们去传播祂的圣言、为祂工作。我们不应自私自利地把基督福音据为己有，而是应该把它像种子一样撒播开去。

 

我们同心协力、团结合作。神职人员需要群众的支持、祈祷、对话和质疑。方济各得到了圣痕之后数月内聚集了众多支持者；圣道明从一开始就有兄弟们的帮助。德兰修女引来了众多往昔的学生加入她的救济组织。我们不特立独行。

 

对于传道工作来说，祈祷并非可有可无、锦上添花的，而是教会工作的命脉。没有祈祷，我们将一事无成；没有祈祷，一切传道工作都寸步难行。我们要时时刻刻祈祷、祈祷、祈祷。

 

Friends, today’s Gospel, taken from the magnificent tenth chapter of Luke’s Gospel, is a portrait of the Church. It shows us what Jesus wants his followers to do and how to do it. We are a missionary Church. We are sent by the Lord to spread his word and do his work. The Christian Gospel is just not something that we are meant to cling to for our own benefit. Rather, it is like seed that we are meant to give away.

 

We do this work together, with others, in community. Ministers need people to support them, pray for them, talk to them, challenge them. Francis of Assisi had an experience of God and then, within months, gathered people around him; Dominic, from the beginning, had brothers in his work; and Mother Teresa attracted a number of her former students to join her in her mission. We don’t go it alone.

 

And prayer is not incidental to ministry. It is not decorative. It is the lifeblood of the Church’s efforts. Without it, nothing will succeed; without it, no ministers will come forward. At all points, pray, pray, pray.