The Christian Call to Personal Sanctification

Catechism of the Catholic Church sections # 2012-2016 and 2028-2029 are particularly relevant to these documents. However, all of Part Three, devoted to our life in Christ, is richly meaningful for this theme.	The story of Church letters	Background statements written by Msgr. Peter J. Elliott of the Archdiocese of Melbourne and copyrighted by Catholics Committed to Support the Pope are indicated by ©CCSP. All others are written and copyrighted by Martin K.Barrack.
Document	Description	Background
Exeunte Iam Anno Vatican Library	Encyclical on the Right Ordering of Christian Life, Pope Leo XIII, December 25, 1888	The Christmas letter of Pope Leo XIII, published at the end of 1888, might well represent the beginning of a new approach to the spiritual life. This Pope was especially attentive to the daily problems of Christians living in a rapidly changing world. Not only his social doctrine but also his teaching on Christian life reflects the conviction that only committed and prayerful men and women can bear witness to Jesus Christ and so meet the challenges of secularist influences such as materialism and the ideologies of liberalism and socialism. ©CCSP
Sapientiae Christianae Vatican Library	Encyclical on Christians as Citizens, Pope Leo XIII, January 10, 1890	The long tradition of reflecting on the role of the Christian in society goes back to the letters of St. Paul and St. Peter and, in the post-apostolic age, to the Letter of Diognetus. Pope Leo XIII, who systematized the social doctrine of the Church in Rerum Novarum, recognized that, in order to transform the social order, the Christian citizen must be a man or woman of strong and intelligent faith. ©CCSP
E Supremi Vatican Library	Restoration of all things in Christ, Encyclical of Pope St. Pius X, October 4, 1903	Pope St. Pius X took as his motto, “To Restore All Things in Christ.” (Eph 1:10) In his first encyclical, he sets forth the spiritual priorities of his pontificate, his vision of the renewal of the life of Catholics. Deeper faith and fervor would grow through re-discovering the life of grace in a well-ordered sacramental life, especially the frequent reception of the Blessed Eucharist. In an era when occultism and spiritism were fashionable, the Pope perceives the need to protect not only Catholic doctrine, but also classical spirituality from the influences of Modernism (see Lamentabili Sane, Pascendi Dominici Gregis, and Oath Against Modernism. A modernist “spirituality” would re-emerge later in the century, even among some Catholics, linked to the revival of occultism, gnosticism, and Eastern religions in the so-called “New Age” movement. ©CCSP
Mens Nostra Vatican Library	Encyclical on the Spiritual Exercises, Pope Pius XI, December 20, 1929	The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola are the foundation of Jesuit spirituality. As he focuses on the Spiritual Exercises, Pope Pius XI strongly commends discipline and order in the Christian’s interior life. The need to come apart from the world for a time, to “make a retreat” and to follow some form of spiritual exercises, is a normal part of a way of life, or rule of life. The various lay retreat movements were linked to the rise of the lay apostolates and their quest for a strong modern lay spirituality which would carry men and women trhough the challenges and sufferings of the age of the Depression, totalitarianism, and the Second World War. ©CCSP
Guiding Principles of the Lay Apostolate Papal Encyclicals Online	Address to the Second Congress for the Lay Apostolate, Pope Pius XII, October 5, 1957	In the post-war years, when various new spiritual movements were in their critical phases of development, Pope Pius XII strongly encourages the rapid growth of lay apostolates. But “activism” is not enough. The action of Catholic laity in society must be animated by and linked with a strong personal and communal spiritual life. Specific modern lay spiritualities were emerging at this time, such as the teachings of Blessed Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, Founder of Opus Dei, and Chiara Lubich of the Focolare Movement. Such distinctive kinds of lay spirituality, integrating daily work with prayer, would be strongly endorsed by the Second Vatican Council in Apostolicam Actuositatem and by Pope John Paul II in Christifideles Laici. ©CCSP
Paenitentiam Agere Vatican Library	Encyclical on the Need for the Practice of Interior and Exterior Penance, Pope John XXIII, July 1, 1962	A few months before the opening of the Second Vatican Council, Pope John XXIII calls all Catholics back to the classical path of penance, which is inseparable from personal prayer. His own interior life, later revealed in his published diaries, was a testimony to the essential place of the spirit and practice of penance in the Christian’s pilgrimage, for we are all called to be penitents.This largely ignored encyclical is an interesting contrast to an innovative mood emerging at this time. A superficial worldly mentality later led some to abandon the whole ascetical tradition and practice, with corresponding harm to personal faith, to souls, and to priestly and religious vocations. ©CCSP
Dives in Misericordia Vatican Library	Encyclical on Divine Mercy, Pope John Paul II, November 30, 1980	It has been said that the word “mercy” might well be set up over the door of every Catholic church. Mercy is a rich theme in God’s loving revelation of Himself, both in the Old and the New Testaments, in the liturgy and in the sacramental and pastoral life of the Church across the centuries. This encyclical of Pope John Paul II promotes the most encouraging attitude to our relationship with God: the humble acceptance of His boundless mercy. The inspiration of the private revelations of the Divine Mercy to the Polish nun, St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, may also be discerned this letter. As was the case with devotion to the Sacred Heart, (see Annum Sacrum), the Magisterium responds positively to an authentic spiritual experience and its corresponding spirituality, well founded in Scripture and Tradition. ©CCSP
Salvifici Doloris Vatican Library	Apostolic Letter on the Saving Mystery of Suffering, Pope John Paul II, February 11, 1984	The dilemma of human suffering has always plagued mankind. Why does a loving God permit suffering? In an age when suffering takes on new, subtle and terrible meanings, Pope John Paul II proclaims the logic of the Cross of Jesus Christ. He does not merely unwind the conundrum of suffering in a philosophical way; rather, he leads the faithful into the mystery of suffering and shows how suffering can and must be used as a means of redemption, hence leading us to salvation. The Pope thus continues the strong emphasis on the Redemption which is so characteristic of his Magisterium. ©CCSP
Reconciliatio et Poenitentia Vatican Library	Apostolic Exhortation on Reconciliation and Penance, Pope John Paul II, December 2, 1984	Pope John Paul II brings together the hopes and problems raised at the Synod of Bishops on Reconciliation. In the ten years since the renewal of the sacrament of Penance (see Misericordiam Suam) the positive emphasis on reconciliation had borne much fruit. However, such practices as replacing personal confession with general absolution had undermined the life of grace. In an age when people dismissed their personal responsibility for acts and the “sense of sin” had diminished, problems would continue. But certain abuses would begin to recede with the rediscovery of a more personalist approach to confession, penance, and reconciliation. ©CCSP
Dominum et Vivificantem Vatican Library	Encyclical on the Holy Spirit in the Life of the Church and the World, Pope John Paul II, May 18, 1986	In his rich encyclical on the Holy Spirit, “the Lord and Giver of Life,” Pope John Paul II not only provides necessary teaching on the Third Divine Person of the Holy Trinity, but he responds to the evident work of the Holy Spirit in the Church of his era. Since the Second Vatican Council, various new spiritual movements had placed much emphasis on rediscovering the charisms of the Holy Spirit. The Pope, who encourages and guides these movements, opens the treasury of Scripture and Tradition to reveal the Holy Spirit in the Church and the world, thus calling the faithful to be open to the work of God among us. ©CCSP
Veritatis Splendor Vatican Library	Encyclical on Certain Fundamental Questions of the Church’s Moral Teaching, Pope John Paul II, August 5, 1993	In one of the most important encyclicals of the century, Pope John Paul II confronts the great moral issues of the age by going behind controverted questions to the greater ethical principles. In so doing, he indicates false paths taken by some moral theologians and endorses the schools of moral theology which recognize an objective moral order and the reality of moral absolutes. The reader is attracted by the original way this encyclical is constructed around the personal scriptural questions, leading directly into the whole ethical drama of human existence. How are we to live in this world? How do I know right from wrong? How then am I to be saved? Ethics and morality are inseparable from sound spirituality; the moral and spiritual life form a unity. Ultimately, it is the Crucified Christ who makes it possible for us to live fully as the beings God wills us to be. ©CCSP
Gravissimum Sane Vatican Library	Letter to Families, Pope John Paul II, February 2, 1994	The International Year of the Family provides the occasion for Pope John Paul II to speak directly to families in a widely welcomed letter. There is a certain charm to the Letter to Families, which departs somewhat from the formal style of other documents. But, as he knocks on the door of each home, the Holy Father raises the “hard questions” and the concrete problems of modern family life which parents especially must confront each day. Yet it is here, in the family, that the call to holiness must be lived out. This is a classical example of the modern Magisterium applying the living truths of our Faith to specific situations of life and human experience. ©CCSP