If the priest comes to the modern world equipped with every conceivable talent but lacks the direct, personal experience of God, the world will simply refuse to take his God-talk seriously and will have little use for him as priest, much as it may value him as an educator or philosopher or scientist.
What the modern world, and in particular the younger generation, is saying to us today — "Don't just talk, show me" — is what India has been saying to us for centuries. I remember good Father Abhishiktananda telling me, some years ago, of a holy Hindu he met in the South of India, who said to him, "You missionaries will never have any impact on us unless you come to us as gurus." The guru is a man who doesn't merely talk about what he has read in a book. He talks from the assurance of his own religious experience.
— Anthony de Mello, Contact With God