In Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis speaks of both prayer and work as constitutive elements of new evangelization. According to him, “Spirit-filled evangelizers are evangelizers who pray and work” (#262).

In the early history of the Church there was a kind of rift between ‘contemplation and action.’ It was St Benedict who emphasized the need to balance prayer and work by combining contemplation with action, in monastic settings. The ingenuity of Pope Francis is to apply the same phrase to the context of new evangelization. So he says: “Mystical notions without a solid social and missionary outreach are of no help to evangelization. Nor are dissertations or social or pastoral practices which lack a spirituality which can change hearts.” The reason is that these unilateral and incomplete proposals reach only a few groups, and that they curtail the Gospel and so prove incapable of radiating beyond those groups. “What is needed is the ability to cultivate an interior space which can give a Christian meaning to commitment and activity.”

EG elaborates the idea further thus: “Without prolonged moments of adoration, of prayerful encounter with the word, of sincere conversation with the Lord, our work easily becomes meaningless; we lose energy as a result of weariness and difficulties, and our fervour dies out” (# 262). But that does not mean that one can be satisfied with prayer alone. For, there is “always the risk that some moments of prayer can become an excuse for not offering one’s life in mission; a privatized lifestyle can lead Christians to take refuge in some false forms of spirituality.” Citing from John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, Pope Francis concludes that “we must reject the temptation to offer a privatized and individualistic spirituality which ill accords with the demands of charity, to say nothing of the implications of the incarnation” (#262).

In a word, then, for the new evangelization to be really ‘spirited evangelization’ it needs to be a remarkable blend of prayer and work. It is quite interesting to know that the same expectations by our Holy Father were fulfilled in our Father of the nation.

Many of us may not even know that Gandhi was involved in ‘liberation-mission’ all through his public life. In South Africa it was a prolonged struggle to free our indentured labourers from the racist bondage of the Whites. On his return to India, first the socio-economic liberation of farmers in Champaran, next the industrial labourers’ suppression in Ahmedabad, the agrarian problems of Kheda and Bardoli, social oppression of Untouchability, and political slavery of the whole nation. In all these missions, we could see a profound blend of prayer and work. In all these missions, we could see a profound blend of prayer and work.

As regards the inevitability of a proper balance between the two, Gandhi says: “In my opinion God’s name and God’s work go hand in hand. There is no question of preference because the two are indivisible. A parrot like repetition of the name is worse than useless, and service or action without the consciousness that it is done in God’s name and for God’s sake is also valueless, and if we sometimes pass our time in merely repeating the name of the deity as we have to, it is simply a course of preparation for self-dedication, that is, service for the sake of and in the name of God, and when we are thoroughly attuned, continued service in that spirit is itself equal to the repletion of the name of the deity. In the vast majority of cases, however, the setting apart a part of our time for prayer is a vital necessity” (Prayer, 76). He does agree with the statement that “Devotion to duty is itself prayer.” But then he insists that ‘We go and pray in order to be qualified for doing actual service’ and that ‘when one is engaged in actual practise of duty, prayer is merged with the execution of duty.’ If someone who is engaged in deep prayer, hears the cry of another who is stung by a scorpion, she is bound to leave the prayer and run to help him. Prayer finds fulfilment in the service of the distressed” (Prayer, 76).

With such a criterion to distinguish between the real voice of God and merely self-voice, it is always beneficial to pay heed to EG’s call to get involved in prayer and work and thereby carry out the new evangelization programme as really Spirited evangelization.