Evangelization is a word that Catholics sometimes have trouble wrapping their minds around and putting into practice. But several times during his visit to Portugal May 11-14, Pope Benedict XVI prodded Catholics in plain language about the need to share their love for Christ.

Here is some of what he said, compiled from Catholic News Service reports. Watch for coverage of the trip in the May 30 issue of The Catholic Post.

“Bear witness to all of the joy that (Christ’s) strong yet gentle presence evokes, starting with your contemporaries. Tell them that it is beautiful to be a friend of Jesus and that it is well worth following him.”

“A vast effort at every level is required if every Christian is to be transformed into a witness capable of rendering account to all and at all times of the hope that inspires him.”

“Simply proclaiming the message does not penetrate to the depths of people’s hearts, it does not touch their freedom, it does not change their lives. What attracts is, above all, the encounter with believing persons who, through their faith, draw others to the grace of Christ by bearing witness to him.”

The church’s absolute priority today is “to make God visible in the world and to open for humanity a way to God.”

“We need to overcome the temptation to limit ourselves to what we already have, or think we have, that is safely our own: that would be a slow death for the church as a presence in the world.”