12. Though it is true that this mission demands

great generosity on our part, it would be wrong

to see it as a heroic individual undertaking, for it

is first and foremost the Lord’s work, surpassing

anything which we can see and understand. Jesus

is “the first and greatest evangelizer”.9 In every

activity of evangelization, the primacy always

belongs to God, who has called us to cooperate

with him and who leads us on by by the power

of his Spirit. The real newness is the newness

which God himself mysteriously brings about

and inspires, provokes, guides and accompanies

in a thousand ways. The life of the Church

should always reveal clearly that God takes the

initiative, that “he has loved us first” (1 Jn 4:19)

and that he alone “gives the growth” (1 Cor 3:7).

This conviction enables us to maintain a spirit of

joy in the midst of a task so demanding and challenging

that it engages our entire life. God asks

everything of us, yet at the same time he offers

everything to us.

(Evangelii Gaudium11)