EVANGELII GAUDIUM - page 102

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prayer for help from Mary, or in the gaze of ten-
der love directed to Christ crucified. No one
who loves God’s holy people will view these ac-
tions as the expression of a purely human search
for the divine. They are the manifestation of a
theological life nourished by the working of the
Holy Spirit who has been poured into our hearts
(cf.
Rom
5:5).
126. Underlying popular piety, as a fruit of the
inculturated Gospel, is an active evangelizing
power which we must not underestimate: to do
so would be to fail to recognize the work of the
Holy Spirit. Instead, we are called to promote
and strengthen it, in order to deepen the never-
ending process of inculturation. Expressions of
popular piety have much to teach us; for those
who are capable of reading them, they are a
locus
theologicus
which demands our attention, especial-
ly at a time when we are looking to the new evan-
gelization.
Person to person
127. Today, as the Church seeks to experience
a profound missionary renewal, there is a kind
of preaching which falls to each of us as a dai-
ly responsibility. It has to do with bringing the
Gospel to the people we meet, whether they be
our neighbours or complete strangers. This is
the informal preaching which takes place in the
middle of a conversation, something along the
lines of what a missionary does when visiting a
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