Not every Christian is called to be an apostle, prophet or evangelist, Pope Francis said, but all Christians can cultivate the fruits of the Holy Spirit by becoming “charitable, patient, humble, peacemakers.”
Continuing his series of audience talks on the Holy Spirit, the pope explained that the fruits of the Spirit are different from charisms, which are given spontaneously by the Spirit for the good of the church.
Instead, the fruits of the Spirit represent a “collaboration between grace and freedom,” he said. “These fruits always express the creativity of the person, in whom faith works through charity, sometimes in surprising and joyful ways,” he told visitors gathered for his general audience 27 November in St Peter’s Square.
In his main talk on the fruits of the Spirit, the pope singled out joy as central to the Christian life.
Spiritual joy, like other forms of joy, includes “a certain feeling of fullness and fulfilment, which makes one wish it would last forever,” he said.
The joy of the Gospel “can be renewed each day and become contagious,” he said.
Quoting his 2013 exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium” (“The Joy of the Gospel”), the pope said that it is an encounter with God that saves people from isolation and which is the “source of evangelising action.”