Faith, hope and charity go together.
Hope is practised through the virtue of patience,
which continues to do good
even in the face of apparent failure,
and through the virtue of humility,
which accepts God's mystery
and trusts him even at times of darkness.
Faith tells us that God has given his Son for our sakes
and gives us the victorious certainty
that it is really true: God is love!
It thus transforms our impatience and our doubts
into the sure hope
that God holds the world in his hands
and that...in spite of all darkness
he ultimately triumphs in glory.
Faith, which sees the love of God revealed
in the pierced heart of Jesus on the Cross,
gives rise to love.
Love is the light
—and in the end, the only light—
that can always illuminate a world grown dim
and give us the courage needed
to keep living and working.
Love is possible,
and we are able to practise it
because we are created in the image of God.
[We are able] to experience love and in this way
to cause the light of God to enter into the world.
Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est 39
