Pope Paul VI
You are not hermits withdrawn from the world in order to better give yourselves to God. It is in the world, in action itself that you must sanctify yourselves. The spirituality which should inspire you will therefore have its own characteristics… Suffice it to say it in a word: only your personal and profound union with Christ will ensure the fruitfulness of your apostolate, whatever it may be. You find Christ in Scripture, in active participation both in the liturgy of the Word and in the liturgy of the Eucharist. You find him in personal and silent prayer, irreplaceable to ensure the soul’s contact with the living God, the source of all grace.
The commitment to the apostolate in the midst of the world does not destroy these fundamental presuppositions of all spirituality, but presupposes them, even demands them. Who was more ‘committed’ than the great St Teresa, celebrated every year on this day of October 15? And who, more than her, knew how to find the strength and fruitfulness for her action in prayer and in a union with God at every moment? We intend to recognise her one day, as we did St Catherine of Siena, as a Doctor of the Church. […]
Called to address your second World Congress in 1957, under our predecessor Pius XII, we thought we could say to you: “Have confidence: Rome goes ahead and the Pope leads her”. Let Us repeat it to you today with a humble awareness of Our limits, but with the same joyful certainty, strengthened by the splendid experience which the Church has lived through in these ten years.
May in Our voice resound all the fervour of St Peter’s faith, all the ardour of St Paul’s charity. With his authority, we impart to all of you from our heart our apostolic blessing, which we extend to your families, to your countries, to the Catholic laity of the whole world.
From a Homily of the late Pope Paul VI during the Third World Congress for the apostolate of the laity on Sunday, October 15, 1967.