Gaudete Et Exsultate

How can we know what it is to be holy? What difference can holiness make in our lives? Far from being a matter for only the ‘Holy Joes’ among us, holiness is the concern of all Christians, and is intimately connected to a life of Christian Joy. In How to be Holy, Fr Alan Hilliard takes us on a journey through Pope Francis’ latest Apostolic Exhortation. Chapter by chapter he explains the significance of Pope Francis’ remarks in an illuminating, and accessible way. Included are extracts from Gaudete et Exsultate, personal introductions to each chapter, and sets of questions to encourage you on your own spiritual journey. Pope Francis wants to help tune us in to God, and in How to be Holy Fr Alan Hilliard wants to help us tune in to Pope Francis! Rejoice and be glad!

Pope Francis' Apostolic Exhoration " Gaudete et Exsultate" (Rejoice and be glad) involves the call to holiness in the modern world, a topic that has been at the heart of the pontificate of Francis since the beginning. At its outset, Francis makes clear that this magisterial text does not seek "to be a treatise on holiness" but to "re-propose the call to holiness in a practical way for our own time, with all its risks, challenges and opportunities." The pontiff launches a plain, essential message, indicating that what counts, what is the essence of Christian life is to "seek and find God in all things. "It means letting Christ work in our actions. That His thoughts may be our thoughts, His feelings our feelings, His choices our choices. This is holiness, doing as Christ did is Christian holiness." And in this sense he hopes that his "pages will prove helpful by enabling the whole Church to devote herself anew to promoting the desire for holiness." This universal call to holiness is a key teaching from the Second Vatican Council.

In his third apostolic exhortation, Pope Francis presents the universal call to live holy lives with a new, fresh approach. We are encouraged to strive for and achieve holiness in our everyday lives. As we actively live out holiness day by day, we not only draw closer to the Lord ourselves, but become participants in bringing others to Christ.

How can we know what it is to be holy? What difference can holiness make in our lives? Far from being a matter for only the ‘Holy Joes’ among us, holiness is the concern of all Christians, and is intimately connected to a life of Christian Joy. In How to be Holy, Fr Alan Hilliard takes us on a journey through Pope Francis’ latest Apostolic Exhortation. Chapter by chapter he explains the significance of Pope Francis’ remarks in an illuminating, and accessible way. Included are extracts from Gaudete et Exsultate, personal introductions to each chapter, and sets of questions to encourage you on your own spiritual journey. Pope Francis wants to help tune us in to God, and in How to be Holy Fr Alan Hilliard wants to help us tune in to Pope Francis! Rejoice and be glad!

In this papal exhortation, Pope Francis looks at the call to holiness in today?s world, which is something to which we all can aspire. No matter who we are, young or old, and no matter what our vocation, it is in the very act of living?with humility, kindness, and mercy?that we can become holy.

'Holiness is a gift that is offered to everyone, no one is excluded; it constitutes the distinctive character of every Christian'Pope Francis wants the whole Church to promote anew the desire for holiness - in a practical way, for our own time. After analysing and forcefully dismissing two subtle enemies to holiness - contemporary gnosticism and pelagianism - as 'aberrations and obstacles' to holiness, Francis appeals in detail to the Beatitudes of Matthew and Luke. Here lies the path to our happiness, or, indeed our holiness, by living out the demands and joys of the Gospel. More deeply yet, the Holy Father identifies those harmful ideologies which today strike at the heart of the Gospel, where faith is divorced from deeds, where mercy is lost. Our striving for holiness must be grounded in prayer and discernment so that our lives are transformed in the light of mercy and grace. This entails action and building the Kingdom through social action and care for the marginalised. Pope Francis offers five great expressions of love of God and of neighbour as signs of true holiness for today's culture. Finally, he sets out the landscape in which today's spiritual combat is fought against the great enemy, the devil. This calls for vigilance and discernment. Thus, the joyful holiness of the Gospel is revealed to the world in the everyday lives of ordinary people.