What is meant by practicing the faith? Practicing the faith is not only praying and participating in the sacraments. It also encompasses love of God and love of neighbor, worshipping God and serving others with charity and justice.

In one of his sermons, St. Augustine exhorts: "Blessed are we if we bring to internship what we hear (in church)...For when we listen it is as if we sow a seed, and when we put on internship what we have heard it is as if this seed bears fruit" (Sermon 23A). And he adds that the Christian life, like that of Jesus, is based on two attitudes: humility and thanksgiving.

Humility leads, in fact, to dying to oneself in order to give life to others. And thanksgiving (which means the Eucharist) is offered to God the Father as worship, while at the same time it translates into service for the good of all: we give thanks to God who has saved us and we show our gratitude by showing our concern for others through deeds.

Let us live worthily," concludes St. Augustine, "aided by the grace we have received, and let us not do injury to the greatness of the gift that has been given to us.

In final, to practice the faith is that "to live worthily, helped by grace". Therefore, those who do not live the sacraments do not practice, and those who do not care for the material and spiritual needs of others do not practice.

To "practice the faith" is to love God above all things, dying to selfishness and sin (the pursuit of well-being or power at all costs; putting oneself at the center, taking the place of God). And at the same time - with and like Christ - translating this love into love of neighbor. And this, concretely, beginning with those around us, in the environment of work, in the family, in social and cultural relationships.

In this way, "the internship of faith" is, quite simply, the Christian life well "lived", as it can and should be exercised by the majority of people, in the middle of the street. Faith leads to prayer and the sacraments, and "bears fruit" in work for the material and spiritual good of all, especially those most in need.

This is the only way to prove that faith is light - which also assumes reason - and the strength that sustains the Christian, both in the most common and in the most difficult and extraordinary situations of his life.

An example of this can be seen in the film "test de fuego" (Fireproof, A. Kendrick, 2008). It is clear that prayer and sacrifice united to Christ are effective in the face of crises. This is especially true when life revolves around the Eucharist.

Faith is not a set of theories, nor is it a bundle of feelings or a code of rules, but a Life and a love, which God has given us in Christ through the grace of the Holy Spirit, so that we may give ourselves for the good of others. According to the apostle James, faith without works is a "dead faith". To practice the faith is to "live the faith" and to "live by faith". According to Benedict XVI, faith leads to placing oneself at the service of the world, with love and truth (Encyclical Caritas in veritate, n. 11).

It is good to remember what St. John says in his first letter: "This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith" (1 Jn 5:4). And to understand it well, it is important what Benedict XVI points out in his Letter of Convocation for the workshop World Youth Day (Madrid 2011), "the victory that is born of faith is the victory of love". And he adds, as if thinking aloud: "How many Christians have been and are a living witness to the power of faith expressed in charity. They have been peacemakers, promoters of justice, animators of a more humane world, a world according to God; they have committed themselves in different areas of social life, with skill and professionalism, contributing effectively to the good of all. The charity that springs from faith has led them to give a very concrete witness, in word and deed. Christ is not a good only for ourselves, but is the most precious good we have to share with others".

Thus, faith is to be practiced, that is, to be lived. Therefore, the witness of faith is at the same time a witness of love. And it is the guarantee of a more human world, precisely because it is a world according to God.