” ” ” “"The preacher’s personal testimony and the level of exemplariness of the Christian community affect the effectiveness of the preaching", and in this respect "the reality of lived life" is important, commented Benedict XVI with reference to Ambrose, the bishop. More that his "sermons, although beautiful", he specified, "what moved the heart" of the young Augustine, back then "sceptic and desperate", to conversion "was rather the testimony of the Milanese Church, which sang and prayed, gathered together as into one body. A Church which was able to resist the overbearing manners of the emperor and his mother, who in the first few days of 386 had come back to claim the requisition of a place of worship for the ceremonies of the Arians". From Ambrose’s example, specified the Pope, "Augustine learnt to preach". Then, Benedict XVI recalled a sermon of the African, mentioned in the Dei Verbum about the necessary "contact with the Scriptures" of those who "take care of the ministry of the Word", "so that he will not become here is the quotation from Augustine a vain preacher of the Word he who does not listen to it from the inside". (continued)” “
