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Whenever we speak to others about our faith in Jesus Christ: God-made-man Who came to earth to save us, we are spreading the Gospel just as the Apostles did - and Lydia, and countless Christians through the ages. Even when we seem to see no results, God is bringing good out of our efforts and encounters.

A priest or seminarian, in his interactions each day, is as if swimming in a stream of truth in which there are cloudy deposits, which are worldly attitudes, modernist opinions and foolish ideas. Some of these will stick to him, unless by regular prayer he allows God to purify his heart, soul and mind. Then he will be worthy to preach the Gospel handed down since the Apostles.

We can talk, and help people outside the Church. Someone who is convinced that the Catholic Church is wrong about the sinfulness of abortion or any other major topic has built a great wall which obscures from view the Church and its entire, coherent body of teachings about faith and morals handed on since Christ and the Apostles.

Whether on the podium at Lourdes, or in a parish church, Christ is Really Present at every Mass, in all His glory: as truly Present as when He was with His disciples in Galilee. He is as Present, and as glorious, as at His Transfiguration on the mountain of Tabor, with three Apostles - though His glory is hidden today, under the appearance of bread and wine.

St Peter, like Pope Paul VI, was fearless in teaching the truth. Christ chose Saint Peter to be the first leader of the Apostles: the first Pope. Christ intended the Church always to have a leader; and all through the ages, the teaching of the Popes had been of paramount importance - including the 1968 Encyclical entitled 'Humanae Vitae', about the wrongness of contraceptive use.

Just as a man's pride can prevent him forgiving his wife her sins, if he asks: "Why should I forgive her when she has betrayed me?" - so a person's pride can prevent acceptance of the Pope's teaching on marriage, handed on since Christ and the Apostles, if she asks: "Why should I accept the Pope's teaching, when he has never been married?"

If a child could look back five centuries, then another five, then another - to when Christ lived on earth, she would see: the very same Catholic Faith is taught today, as in the first century after Christ. God the Father looks upon the earth, glad to see people who believe in the whole Deposit of Faith, handed down from the time of Jesus Christ and the Apostles. Yet very few believe the Faith in its entirety; so, in our age, as in the first century, and the fifth, tenth and fifteenth, there is a great need for witness, evangelisation, and intercession.

Any wife ought to say what she believes is right, in conversation with her husband, but in obedience to Christ and the Apostles she ought always to speak with respect, and bearing in mind the fact that, in God's sight, her husband is the head of the household; and God wants her to honour him as the head, according to the tradition.

We must pray with fervour, that everyone will see the truth: that from Christ, (and from His chosen Apostles) has come a river of redeemed humanity: each person forgiven and transformed by grace - except for those who now resemble dead fish floating in that river because they deserted Christ, whether through deliberate mortal sin or ceasing to believe in Him.

In every age, since the time of the Apostles, priests have faced opposition and persecution as they have gone about their work. It is important that they are faithful to preaching the truth - the Faith in its entirety - and faithful to the Mass. That is his task: to teach the faithful how to lead good lives and prepare for Heaven, and to feed the faithful with Jesus Christ's Sacred Body and Blood: to transform them.

None of us can imagine how close Christ is to His holy Mother Mary. He Who created her was later born of her. Her love for Him, and her trust in Him, were perfect. He confided in her. She knew, even before the Apostles did, that Christ would suffer; and so she prayed, and endured, and waited; and she consoled her beloved son by her presence.