During 1999, the third year of preparation for the Millennium, we are encouraged to consider the work of God the Father. As God is Love, we are urged to renew our commitment to the theological virtue of love and to consider the treasure of reconciliation, especially in the sacrament of penance.A major part of the life of love is the Church's preferential option for the poor.

The coming of the Third Millennium prompts the Christian community to lift its eyes of faith to embrace new horizons in proclaiming the Kingdom of God. It is imperative therefore at this special time to return more faithfully than ever to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, which shed new light upon the missionary task of the Church in view of the demands of evangelization today. At the Council, the Church became more deeply conscious both of the mystery which she herself is and of the apostolic mission entrusted to her by the Lord. This awareness commits the community of believers to live in the world knowing that they must be "the leaven and, as it were, the soul of human society, destined to be renewed in Christ and transformed into the family of God"...The imminent approach of the Jubilee offers a powerful stimulus in this direction.