The apostolate of reason is always a necessity: there is always need of those who can explain and defend the faith; state it in terms which can be understood by the contemporary mind; indeed it may be that now more than ever before this necessity weighs upon us.  And yet perhaps it is not the supreme task of today. The world gets very tired of argument.  It would be more accurate to say that the labors of reason alone are not the supreme task. The world gets very tired of argument which spring only from the head.  You need to have a very firm and very clear grasp of the truth, and you need to be able to state it clearly; but if you want people not only to listen politely but to keep your words in their hearts and be changed by them, then you must become, through the power of the Holy Spirit, the sort of person who draws people—disturbs and uproots them without their knowing why.  He is what he is.  The supreme task of today is a question of being: because it is a question of bringing back to the world the direct experience of the power of love in the world; it is a question of bringing the world face to face with the immensity of the Paraclete, the Strengthener, filling and shining through the bodies of men.  When you have been shaken to the roots of your being by the mere presence of someone who stands for a truth, then you are impelled to examine the truth he stands for, and predisposed to apprehend it.  “Kindle within them the fire of Thy love”: then “they shall be re-created, and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth”.  –Father Gerald Vann ‘The Divine Pity’

Father Gerald Vann