Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Health Vailankanni

The Church, to which we are all called in Christ Jesus, and in which we acquire sanctity through the grace of God, will attain its full perfection only in the glory of heaven, when there will come “the time of the restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21). At that time the human race as well as the entire world, which is intimately related to man and attains to its end through him, will be perfectly reestablished in Christ (…) This promised restoration which we are awaiting has already begun in Christ, is carried forward in the mission of the Holy Spirit and through Him continues in the Church in which we learn the meaning of our terrestrial life through our faith, while we perform with hope in the future the work committed to us in this world by the Father, and thus work out our salvation (Phil 2:12). Already the final age of the world has come upon us (1 Cor 10:11) and the renovation of the world is irrevocably decreed and is already anticipated in some kind of a real way; for the Church already on this earth is signed with a sanctity which is real although imperfect. However, until there shall be “new heavens and a new earth in which justice dwells”(2 Pt 3:13) the pilgrim Church in her sacraments and institutions, which pertain to this present time, has the appearance of this world which is passing and she herself dwells among creatures who “groan and travail in labor pains” until now and “await the revelation of the sons of God” (Rm 8:19f.).

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"As you go, make this proclamation: 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' "

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