Ratio purgata: Self-denial Teaches Wisdom --Ratzinger

"...[T]he future of the Church, once again as always, will be re-shaped by the saints, by men, that is, whose minds probe deeper than the slogans of the day, who see more than others see, because their lives embrace a wider reality. Unselfishness, which makes men free, is attained only through the patience of small daily acts of self-denial. By this daily passion, which alone reveals to a man in how many ways he is enslaved by his own ego, by this daily passion and by it alone a man's eyes are slowly opened. He sees only to the extent that he has lived and suffered..." 101-102

"...[T]he future of the Church can and will issue from those whose roots are deep and who live from the pure fullness of their faith. It will not issue from

1) those who accommodate themselves merely to the passing moment or from

2) those who merely criticize others, and assume that they themselves are infallible measuring rods; nor will it issue from

3) those who take the easier road, who sidestep the passion of faith, declaring false and obsolete, tyrannous and legalistic, all that makes demands upon men, that hurts them and compels them to sacrifice themselves..." 101

"Only he who gives himself creates the future. The man who simply tries to instruct, who wants to change others, remains unfruitful." 99

Joseph Ratzinger, Faith and the Future, Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1971.