Are the faithful united in love, in the charity of Christ? Then this is certainly a living parish. Here is the true Church, for here the divine and human phenomenon that prolongs the presence of Christ among us is thriving …
How wonderful it would be if our parishes could show in a convincing way what Christian society should be like! What I mean is that people who at first do not know one another, being different in customs, in upbringing, origin, age and so on, meet in church and turn out to be and feel themselves to be, nuclei of brothers and sisters.
They become friends, they help one another, they never speak badly of others. On the contrary, they seek out the sick in order to care for them, they seek out the unemployed to help them. In a word, wherever there is some good to be done for the benefit of a neighbour, they have a ready heart and a commitment to say: this is Christ calling me.
Remember the solemn words of Christ. They will know that you are my disciples…if you love one another; if there is warmth of affection and feelings; if there is sympathy, created by us, that drives us to do more than we can, with total spontaneity and hearts wide open, and the ability to generate Christ in our midst, which is a result of feeling united in Him and for Him
Pope Paul VI
To the Parish of S. Maria Consolatrice
Insegnamenti/2, Città del Vaticano 1964, pp. 1072-1073