“In you the Church of Christ is alive and free. In her, we move and live through Christ, Who is her Head, and have full freedom, because we learn the Truth and the Truth makes us free. You are in Christ’s Church whenever you uplift someone bent down in sorrow, when you help someone elderly walk more easily, or when you give alms to the poor and visit the sick.

“You are in Christ’s Church when you cry out, ‘Lord, help me.’ You are in Christ’s Church when you are patient and good, when you refuse to get angry with your brother, even if he has wounded your feelings. You are in Christ’s Church when you pray, ‘Lord, forgive him.’ When you work honestly at your job, returning home weary in the evenings but with a smile upon your lips, bringing with you a warm and kind light; when you repay evil with love—you are in Christ’s Church.

“Do you not see, therefore, my friend, how close the Church of Christ is? You are Peter and God is building His Church upon you. You are the rock of His Church against which no one and nothing can prevail, because you are a liberated rock—a soul that is fulfilled within His Church… Let us build churches, my friend. Let us build churches from the depths of our hearts ablaze with the light of the Sun of Righteousness, Who is Christ Himself, Who has told us that by faith we are free from sin. Let us build the churches of our faith which no human power can pull down, because the ultimate power of the Church is Christ Himself.”

+Father George Calciu, confessor of the Romanian Church; from Interviews, Homilies, and Talks