"Without these four coordinates, the Church becomes a human society, a political party -- majority, minority -- changes are made as if it were a company, according to majority or minority… But the Holy Spirit is not there. And the presence of the Holy Spirit is precisely guaranteed by these four coordinates."
The four coordinates can be used to judge whether a situation is truly ecclesial, he said. If any of the coordinates is lacking, then the Holy Spirit will also be absent.
"If this is lacking, the Holy Spirit is lacking, and if the Holy Spirit is lacking, we are a beautiful organization, humanitarian, doing good things, good, good… even an ecclesial party, let's put it that way. But it is not the Church," he said.
"It is for this reason that the Church does not grow with these things: it does not grow through proselytism, as any other company, it grows by attraction. And who provokes attraction? The Holy Spirit."
"Let us never forget Benedict XVI's words: 'The Church does not grow through proselytizing, she grows by attraction.' If the Holy Spirit is lacking, who is the one who attracts [people] to Jesus, the Church is not there. There might be a beautiful friendship club, good, with good intentions, but not the Church, not synodality."
Pope Francis noted that in the Acts of the Apostles, prayer gatherings were a "powerful driving force of evangelization."
He said: "The members of the first community -- although this always applies, even to us today -- sensed that the narrative of the encounter with Jesus did not stop at the moment of the Ascension, but continued in their life. In recounting what the Lord said and did -- listening to the Word -- in praying to enter into communion with Him, everything became alive."
Like the first Christians, believers today can also be inspired by the Holy Spirit in prayer, the pope added.
"And every Christian who is not afraid to devote time to prayer can make his or her own the words of the Apostle Paul, who says this: 'the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me' (Galatians 2:20)."
"Prayer makes you aware of this. Only in the silence of adoration do we experience the whole truth of these words. And we must recapture this sense of adoration. To adore, to adore God, to adore Jesus, to adore the Spirit. The Father, the Son and the Spirit: to adore. In silence."
"The prayer of adoration is that prayer that makes us recognize God as the beginning and the end of all of History. And this prayer is the living flame of the Spirit that gives strength to witness and to mission."
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