Living Stones

June 26, 2013. (Romereports.com) As he led his last general audience before heading out to his summer vacation, Pope Francis explained that the Church should be considered like a 'Temple.' The Pope said that all Christians play a fundamental role in this. Therefore, no one, he said, should feel useless.

POPE FRANCIS
“No one is useless in the Church – and should anyone tell you, 'Go home, you’re useless!' that's not true. No one is useless in the Church. We are all needed in order to build this temple. No one is secondary: “Ah, I am the most important one in the Church!” No! We are all equal in the eyes of God. But, some of you may ask, 'Mr. Pope, sir, you are not equal to us.” But I am just like each of you. We are all equal.”

As a metaphor, the Pope explained  that in order to build the Temple of the Church, 'living stones' are needed. That's why Christians, he said, should be active, they should care about others and should not shut themselves away.

POPE FRANCIS
“If we ask ourselves, 'Where we can meet God? Where can we enter into communion with Him through Christ? Where can we find the light of the Holy Spirit to enlighten our lives?' The answer is, 'in the People of God, among us, for we are Church – among us, within the People of God, in the Church – there we shall meet Jesus, we shall meet the Holy Spirit, we shall meet the Father.”

June 26, 2013. (Romereports.com) (-ONLY VIDEO-) During his weekly general audience, the Pope explained the views of the Church, as expressed by the Second Vatican Council. He said the Church can be considered a'Temple,' where Christians are like 'living stones'  who reveal the beauty of the Christian message.

CATECHESIS IN ENGLISH:  

Speaker: “Dear Brothers and Sisters: In our continuing catechesis on the Creed, today we consider the Church as God’s temple.  The great temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, a place of prayer and encounter with the Lord, was a prefigurement of the Church.  Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son who dwelt among us, is himself the definitive and living temple where we encounter God’s presence in our midst.  Christ makes us, the members of his mystical body, “living stones” for the construction of a “holy temple in the Lord” (Eph 2:21), in which we exercise our baptismal priesthood by offering spiritual sacrifices.   The Holy Spirit, in the variety of his gifts, unites us and enables us to contribute to the building up of the Church in holiness.  In this great work, each of us has a part to play; each of us, as a “living stone”, is needed for the growth and the beauty of God’s holy temple.  Let us ask the Lord to help us to take an ever more active part in the Church’s life and mission, guided by the Holy Spirit and with Jesus as our cornerstone.”