To these basic questions about the meaning and purpose of human life the Church responds with the proclamation of the Gospel of Christ, which liberates the dignity of the human person from changing opinions and ensures the freedom of men and women as no human law can do. The Second Vatican Council indicated that the mission of the Church in the contemporary world consists in helping every human being to discover in God the ultimate meaning of his existence. The Church knows well that “God alone, whom she serves, can satisfy the deepest cravings of the human heart, for the world and what it has to offer can never fully satisfy it”[1208]. Only God, who created man in his image and redeemed him from sin, can offer a fully adequate answer through the Revelation wrought in his Son made man. The Gospel, in fact, “announces and proclaims the freedom of the sons of God, it rejects all bondage resulting from sin; it scrupulously respects the dignity of conscience and its freedom of choice; it never ceases to encourage the employment of human talents in the service of God and of man, and finally, it commends everyone to the charitable love of all”. – Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, #576

Biography:

Something Other Than God: How I Passionately Sought Happiness and Accidentally Found It by Jennifer Fulwiler (Read Excerpt – opens a PDF file)

Further Reading/Study:

Catholicism (DVD Series by Bishop Robert Barron) – Watch Trailer

Chosen: This is Your Catholic Faith (Video Series from Ascension Press) – Watch Trailer

Does Jesus Know Us? Do We Know Him? by Hans Urs Von Balthasar

The Catechism of the Catholic Church

Online:

Francis Shows Us Where We Have to Fix Our Gaze

The Pope’s first gesture arrived before his face: he had chosen the name Francis,
demonstrating from the very beginning where he wants to fix his gaze. Like the poor
man of Assisi, the Pontiff declares that he has no other wealth but Christ and that he
knows no modality of communicating this if not the simple witness of his life. And
when he appeared before the faithful, with the cameras of half the world focused on
him, the Pope showed, in action, what is the factor that lies at the origin of the Church:
he invited the crowd to gather in prayer to God the Father, through Jesus Christ. In that
moment, the Church happened before all of us. Like his predecessor, the impetuous
Peter, Francis confessed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” As He did
with the first Bishop of Rome, Christ also entrusts to this man, in front of his flock, the
keys of the Church.