Blessed Antonio Rosmini (1797 – 1855)
The Church will celebrate the great event of the Beatification of Antonio Rosmini at Novara, Northern Italy, on 18th November 2007, before a large presence of bishops, priests, sisters, and ordinary faithful, rejoicing at the public recognition of the holiness and spiritual greatness of this obedient prophet.
Rosmini was the great lover of the Church, dedicating to her all his extraordinary talents and working with great energy to increase holiness and charity in the “immaculate Bride of Jesus”. Obedient to the call of Pius VII, Leo XII, and especially Pius VIII and Gregory XVI to serve the Church by “writing books in order to take people by means of reason and by this means to lead them to religion”, he wrote over 100 large volumes of philosophy and theology, that constitutes a most formidable system of Christian philosophy and theology not inferior to the great systems produced by St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, both revered by him as his teachers and guides.
With the encouragement of Pius VIII and Gregory XVI, he founded the Institute of Charity and the Sisters of Providence, with the purpose of serving the Church by means of the personal holiness of the members, dedicated entirely to the “perfection of love”, in works of temporal, intellectual, and spiritual charity.
His life was a paradigm of “universal” charity: he used his considerable wealth to help the poor that came to him, to support the work of great saints like St. John Bosco, and St. Joseph Cottolengo; he dedicated himself to intellectual charity by producing a most vigorous Christian philosophy and theology; and he was consumed by spiritual charity, pursuing the holiness of souls by means of the Sacraments, of spiritual direction, of the teaching of a spirituality that, beginning from self purification and the acquisition of virtues, leads to perfect union with and love of God.
Fr. Rosmini was born at Rovereto, a small town in Trentino, on March 24th 1797, and was baptised the following morning, on the feast day of the Annunciation. He enjoyed a happy childhood open to warm and lasting affections. He manifested an immense love for learning, spending hours in the family library reading ancient and modern classics, with a keen eye for the great works of philosophy and theology, and acquiring an immense erudition. It was his closest friend Manzoni, the greatest Italian writer at the time and himself a voracious reader, who said, “There seems to be no book that Rosmini has not read!”
In 1813, when he was 16, Rosmini wrote in his diary, “This year was for me a year of grace. God opened my eyes over many things and I knew that there was no true wisdom but in God”. It was the year of his decision to become priest, shattering the dreams of his aristocratic parents who had made other plans for him.
His extraordinary intellect had led him naturally to discover in the love of God and neighbour the highest fulfilment of one’s life. He dedicated himself passionately to what he called “the perfection of love”, consuming himself in the contemplation of the majesty of God, doing His Will in order to be dear to Him, and engaging with all his strength to loving his neighbour.
Rosmini was ordained priest in 1821. He wrote in his diary, “From this hour I must be a new man, live in heaven with heart and mind, converse always with Christ, despise and flee from the things of earth. I must return from the altar a saint, an apostle, a man of God”. St. John Bosco said of him, “I have never seen a priest say Mass with more devotion than Fr. Rosmini”.
It was St. Magdalene of Canossa who indicated to Rosmini his vocation as Founder of a religious Order. He followed all providential signs, and finally on 20th February 1828 he withdrew to Sacro Monte Calvario to begin his mission in the harsh conditions of a dilapidated building, in prayer and fasting. The following year he went to Rome to seek confirmation from the Pope, Pius VIII:
“I still remember – wrote Rosmini - his loving and authoritative words: “It is the will of God that you write books, this is your vocation. The Church has a great need of writers, I mean, solid writers so extremely few in number. In order to influence people usefully there is no other means today but to take them by means of reason, and by this means to lead them to religion”. And with regard to the Institute of Charity, the Pope reassured him: “Start in a simple way and let the Lord do the work. It is necessary to start with humility and prudence. You are on the right track, continue what you are doing”.
Rosmini never wavered in his total commitment to the tasks imposed on him by Providence through the Holy Father. However, he soon became the target of a small but very influential section within the Church that opposed by all means, including slanderous accusations and secret circulation of libel books against him, his openness to dialogue with the culture of the time, his willingness to step out of stereotyped, arid, mechanical formulas in order to present Christian philosophy and theology in a language that made sense to the modern world.
Instead of the traditional way of starting from God to arrive at man, he decided that it would be more beneficial to all honest seekers to meet them at their level, starting from man to lead them progressively to God, in line with the “Itinerarium mentis in Deum” of St. Bonaventure (the journey of the mind to God), or St. Augustine’s prayer, “Lord, you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it finds rest in you”.
In 1848, Pope Pius IX welcomed Rosmini in Rome with the words, “You did not want to come to Rome to be near the Pope. Now that God has sent you here we shall keep you in prison and never let you go”. The “prison” the Pope had in mind for Rosmini was the position of Cardinal, and towards the end of August Rosmini was asked officially to prepare to be made a Cardinal in December. There were reliable rumours that on that occasion he would also be appointed Secretary of State.
Within a very short period of time, however, things began to change dramatically. There was an insurrection in Rome which caused the hurried escape of the Pope to the kingdom of Naples. Rosmini was asked by the Pope to follow him in exile, finding his advice and his presence very reassuring. Rosmini’s opponents, however, took advantage of the confused situation to launch fierce attacks on Rosmini, concentrating on his book, “The Five Wounds of the Church”, which was eventually condemned and placed in the Index of forbidden books. No reason was ever given, but Rosmini submitted humbly and fully, leaving no one in doubt about his immense love for the Church and for the Holy See, which he called the “essential” rock on which Christ had built His Church. This is what he wrote to a friend during those dramatic days:
“Thank you for sharing in the strange and almost incredible events through which I am being led by Providence whose unchanging design never fails. Meditating on Providence, I wonder at it; wondering at it, I love it; loving it, I celebrate it; celebrating it, I thank it, and thanking it, I am filled with joy. Could it be otherwise? I know through reason and through faith, and feel in the depths of my spirit, that everything done, or wished or permitted by God, is done by eternal, infinite, essential Love. And who could be sad before love?”
Pope John Paul II, in recent times, has acknowledged the “extraordinary trials” that afflicted Fr. Rosmini, adding, “It was through such trials that his holiness was made perfect and he became a witness of how to love the Church, work for the Church, and suffer for the good of the Church” .
For most of his life Rosmini had been weak in health, and the stress of the years when his orthodoxy was under suspicion undermined his frail constitution. From the beginning of May 1855 his condition deteriorated considerably and was forced to bed. As the news of his grave illness spread, there was a continuous flux of friends who came to pay homage and to hear once more his wise words. He welcomed everyone with a smile and words of comfort, raising their mind immediately to the goodness and love of God. He left to Manzoni his spiritual will, “Adore, Be Silent, Rejoice”.
Strengthened by the last Sacraments and the special blessing of Pope Pius IX Antonio Rosmini died in the early hours of 1st July, the feast of the Precious Blood which was his favourite devotion. His body is buried in the chapel of the College at Stresa, and over his tomb is inscribed the eulogy that Pope Gregory XVI addressed to the whole Church in the Apostolic Letters approving the Institute in 1839: “Our beloved son, the priest Antonio Rosmini, founder of the Institute, is a man of eminent intellect, adorned with noble qualities of soul, exceedingly famous for his knowledge of things human and divine, outstanding for his remarkable piety, religion, virtue, probity, prudence and integrity, conspicuous for his wonderful love and loyalty to the Catholic religion and to this Apostolic See”.
The beatification of Fr. Rosmini dispels once and for all the dark clouds that have kept for so long “under the bushel” a bright and warm light of purest holiness and of splendid philosophical and theological discoveries, of extreme relevance in today’s world. The Church today is putting on its stand the lamp that is Blessed Rosmini, so that he may give light to everyone in the Church and the world. We thank God for the holiness of his life and the splendour of his teaching, and we too rejoice in his light.
A Belsito
Blessed Antonio Rosmini (1797-1855)
“Adore, Be Silent, Rejoice”, were the words the dying Fr. Rosmini left as his spiritual testament. For the greater Rosminian Family world-wide, this is the time for “rejoicing” after long years of adoration and silence. For, on 18th November 2007, the Church will celebrate the great event of the beatification of Fr. Rosmini at Novara, in northern Italy, presided by Cardinal Martins, proclaiming his heroic virtues and presenting him as a model worthy of imitation and veneration.
The beatification of Fr. Rosmini dispels once and for all the dark clouds that have kept for so long “under the bushel” a bright and warm light of purest holiness and of splendid philosophical and theological discoveries, of extreme relevance in today’s world.
It was Pope Gregory XVI who first recognised, in the official document of the Church, In Sublimi, 1839, the greatness of the holy and humble priest from Rovereto, on the occasion of the solemn approval of the Constitutions that are the foundation document of both the Institute of Charity and the Sisters of Providence:
“Our beloved son, Antonio Rosmini, is a man of eminent intellect, adorned with noble qualities of soul, exceedingly famous for his knowledge of things human and divine, outstanding for his remarkable piety, religion, virtue, probity, prudence and integrity, conspicuous for his wonderful love and loyalty to the Catholic religion and to this Apostolic See.”
Fr. Rosmini was born at Rovereto, a small town in Trentino, on March 24th 1797, and was baptised the following morning, on the feast day of the Annunciation. He enjoyed a happy childhood open to warm and lasting affections. He manifested an immense love for learning, spending hours in the family library reading ancient and modern classics, with a keen eye for the great works of philosophy and theology, and acquiring an immense erudition. It was his closest friend, Manzoni, the greatest Italian writer at the time and himself a voracious reader, who said, “There seems to be no book that Rosmini has not read!”
In 1813, when he was 16, Rosmini wrote in his diary, “This year was for me a year of grace. God opened my eyes over many things and I knew that there was no true wisdom but in God”. It was the year of his decision to become priest, shattering the dreams of his aristocratic parents who had made other plans for him.
His extraordinary intellect had led him naturally to discover in the love of God and neighbour the highest fulfilment of one’s life. He dedicated himself passionately to what he called “the perfection of love”, consuming himself in the contemplation of the majesty of God, doing His Will in order to be dear to Him, and engaging with all his strength to loving his neighbour.
Ordained a priest in 1821, Fr. Rosmini discovered a more profound meaning of “perfection of love”. He chose to withdraw from the many projects he had started over the previous years, fearing that they may have originated not from the Will of God but from his nature and vision of things. He chose the “contemplative” life, working quietly on the “great business of saving one’s soul”, by means of eradicating all vices and evil tendencies from his heart, of acquiring, in obedience to the Spirit, the Christian virtues, and of uniting himself more and more closely to God.
This “passivity”, which, in reality was a busy workshop of holiness, demanded at the same time a most attentive listening to God, ready to move out of solitude and engage in whatever work of charity Divine Providence would indicate to him. Thus was born his special “charism” of universal love, in imitation of the love of the Son who came not to do His will but the Will of the Father, sacrificing Himself for love till death on the Cross.
The Constitutions of the Institute of Charity and of the Sisters of Providence have as their foundation the quest for holiness through “universal” charity and hence through “universal” obedience. The religious begins in contemplation in the patient work of self purification, but is open to the Will of God expressed by obedience, remaining perfectly “indifferent” to “any” work of charity, temporal, intellectual, spiritual.
It was St. Magdalene of Canossa who indicated to Rosmini his vocation as Founder of a religious Order. He followed all providential signs and finally, on 20th February 1828, he withdrew to Sacro Monte Calvario to begin his mission in the harsh conditions of a dilapidated building, in prayer and fasting. The following year he went to Rome to seek confirmation from the Pope, Pius VIII:
“I still remember – wrote Rosmini - his loving and authoritative words: “It is the will of God that you write books, this is your vocation. The Church has a great need of writers, I mean, solid writers so extremely few in number. In order to influence people usefully there is no other means today but to take them by means of reason, and by this means to lead them to religion”. And with regard to the Institute of Charity, the Pope reassured him: “Start in a simple way and let the Lord do the work. It is necessary to start with humility and prudence. You are on the right track, continue what you are doing”.
Rosmini never wavered in his total commitment to the tasks imposed on him by Providence through the Holy Father. What perhaps even Pius VIII had not anticipated was the great number of books that Rosmini produced. He wrote over 100 volumes on philosophy and theology covering all major aspects of particular sciences, epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, philosophy of right, philosophy of education, politics, anthropology, psychology, theodicy, supernatural anthropology, theosophy, and many others.
His “system of truth”, characterised by “unity” and “totality”, constitutes a most formidable system of Christian philosophy and theology comparable to the great systems produced by St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, both revered by him as his teachers and guides, with the additional advantage of a most profound critical knowledge of all modern philosophers, from Locke and Hume to Descartes, from Kant and Fichte to Leibniz and Hegel.
Rosmini is known as the philosopher of the “idea of being”, and it is no exaggeration to say that the whole of his powerful system of truth is founded on this prodigious idea, the source of unity in the multiplicity of knowledge. The idea of being solves the problem of epistemology, it distinguishes man from any other being in the universe, is the principle of Morality, Right, Education, is the “divine in nature”, linking man to God and opening the way to natural theology. Moreover, the idea of being is the ever present truth shining before the human mind.
Rosmini’s philosophy is for every person, believer, atheist, or simply agnostic; he does not start from God to arrive at man, but from man to God, in line with the “Itinerarium mentis in Deum” of St. Bonaventure (the journey of the mind to God). He founds his philosophy on scientific observation of facts, and engages contemporary people in a dialogue based initially at least on pure reason.
The innate idea of being, pure objectivity and truth, the light that makes human beings intelligent, cannot be generated by any subjective source and hence it logically demands that it comes from outside the person, thus creating in us the intellectual curiosity, the longing to know its origins, to behold the Mind that thinks it from eternity, in line with St. Augustine’s words, “Lord, you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it finds rest in you”.
Today’s fundamental crisis is about truth. The search for truth is deemed “pure folly”, and, following Wittgenstein, the common answer in philosophy is that “the spade turns up” whenever we search for truth. There is truth, it is said, but only “relative” or “subjective”; many forms of truth but “constructed” by culture, society, religions. There is no “universal”, “objective” truth: hence knowledge, morality, education are relative or subjective, passing fashions of particular times and places.
The idea of being, objective, universal, innate, is the same for every human being. Its divine characteristics point to God as to its only possible source hence it is the “divine in nature”. It is this openness to pure intelligibility, to infinity, to God that makes every human being infinitely different from and superior to any other created thing in the universe; it is this divine element that is the foundation of the infinite dignity of each human person. Moreover, far from being a most puzzling and mysterious element of human experience, truth is with us from conception, enlightening our mind: “God has bound men to truth by their bowels”, said Rosmini, hence the restlessness, the pain of living in error, of ignoring and neglecting truth.
But philosophy, for Rosmini, necessarily calls on theology and faith for a fuller understanding. The words of Pius VIII, “to take people by means of reason to religion”, expressed for Rosmini a most profound personal conviction. The light of reason comes from God and should lead people back to God; true philosophy cannot stop at a purely humanistic approach without failing to fulfil its infinite potential, which is to acknowledge its source and ultimate end, God. Reason and faith become, therefore, the two wings that lift up the person to “full knowledge”, which is ultimately the Wisdom of God. In the light of truth, there cannot be any conflict between science and religion, nature and super-nature, philosophy and theology, reason and faith: they are ascending steps towards the full reality of Absolute Being, God in the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity.
Love for the Church and obedience was for Rosmini the essential mark of a person who is seriously engaged in pursuing holiness and the Will of God:
“ The Christian can never err when he sets before him the whole Church as the object of his affections, his thoughts, his desires, and his actions; he knows with certainty that God wishes the Church to be the great means by which His holy name is to be fully glorified. ”
Both his writings and the founding of the Institute of Charity and of the Sisters of Providence originated from his total commitment to the “immaculate Bride of JESUS”, the Church. His love for the Church was refined through great suffering which he bore in perfect obedience and with absolute trust in God. Pope John Paul II acknowledged the “extraordinary trials” that afflicted Fr. Rosmini, adding, “It was through such trials that his holiness was made perfect and he became a witness of how to love the Church, work for the Church, and suffer for the good of the Church” .
The Church today is putting on its stand the lamp that is Blessed Rosmini, so that he may give light to everyone in the Church and the world. We thank God for the holiness of his life and the splendour of his teaching, and we too rejoice in his light.
A Belsito
Homily of Cardinal Josè Saraiva Martins
Sports Centre, Novara
Sunday, November 18th, 2007
“As you, Father, are in me and I in you, so may they also be one in us, so that the world may believe that it was you who sent me.
1. With hearts full of spiritual joy, we contemplate the Church, in all the splendour of her beauty which in this Eucharistic celebration is manifested in today’s liturgical Feast of the local Churches that is celebrated in [the Region of] Piedmont and during which I have the great joy of presiding, as the Holy Father’s representative, at the rite of Beatification of Antonio Rosmini. The joy of the Church of Trent, which gave him birth, and of the Church of Novara, where he worked and where he gave up his soul to God, expands well beyond their already wide diocesan boundaries.
What a great truth is revealed, yet how much is hidden, in the strong affirmation, just heard in the Gospel of St John, that the Son of God uses in his final prayer to the Father. “I pray not only for these, but also for those who through their words will believe in me. – for us! - May they all be one. Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you. .. I in them and you in me…”! As you in me and I in you, so they likewise in us. The Church lives not in the “light of” but “in” the Trinity, and is loved with the same love with which the Father, the Son and the Spirit love each other. It is the consideration of such an inexpressible reality that leads the Apostle Peter, in today’s second reading, to describe the baptised as: “living stones making a spiritual house, … a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people set apart to sing the praises of God who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light”
2. Today’s solemn celebration conveys the sense of that unbreakable link that exists between the Church and sanctity. Our Church, in fact, is the “Church of the saints” –as J Bernanos says – not a kind of spiritual policemen”. “Sanctity is “an adventure, indeed the only possible adventure”.
It is precisely for having had the strength to undertake this marvellous adventure of sanctity, in a sublime way, that the Church today is inscribing the abbot Rosmini in the register of the blessed. His is a sanctity not just proclaimed but lived in all its fullness.
Thus Rosmini writes at the beginning of the second of his renowned “Maxims of Perfection”, rightly considered the heart of his evangelical spirituality: “The first desire to arise in the Christian's heart from the supreme desire of justice[sanctity] is a longing for the increase and the glory of the Church of Jesus Christ”.
If the aim of the life of all Christians is the sole and infinite desire to please God, within that desire lies the choice of orientating all our thoughts and actions to the in increase and the glory of the Church of Jesus Christ. This fixed and indissoluble gaze at Christ and at his Church demands an extremely strong vision of the latter, something that Rosmini had in the wake of many other Christian thinkers. The first of these was St Augustine who wrote: “Let us rejoice, let us give thanks to God, not just because he has made us become Christians, but because he has made us become Christ himself. Are you aware, brothers, of which grace God has given us in giving Christ as the Head? Exult, rejoice, we have become Christ. If he is the Head, we are the members; we are one person, he and we. ..The fullness of Christ: the Head and the members.. Which is the Head, and which are the members? Christ and the Church”.
Rosmini founded the Institute of Charity (Rosminians) and the Sisters of Providence Rosminian for the exclusive service of this Church, which with Christ forms the “total Christ”. The sole end which Rosmini gave to these two Institutes is that which is the primary purpose of religious life itself: the tireless striving for one’s salvation and sanctity. Totally for the Church. This is an aspect that cost Rosmini dearly and which shines out in a highly significant and exemplary manner in his life; precisely his unshakeable and tenacious love for the Church.
In his Constitutions, he is very clear on this point: “Let us always think therefore of the Church of Christ, not of this Society, recalling in the joy of our heart the promises concerning the kingdom of Christ and the unchangeableness of the divine plan handed down to us as our inheritance”. (no. 468); “.... As long as it [our religious family] is useful to the Church, the heavenly Father will keep and protect it... If it begins to be useless or harmful, he will rightly cut down and burn the sterile tree”. (no.465). His religious sons and daughters, in their journey towards the sole aim of sanctity, should be open to whatever work of charity the Lord, acting mainly through the Pastors of the Church and the circumstances of times and places, would indicate to them:
3. If Blessed Antonio Rosmini, aside from guiding the two religious families that he had founded, dedicated his many energies to cultural tasks, particularly in the field of philosophy, of pedagogy and of theology, it was in response to the calls of the Popes of his time. These had seen in the intellectual gifts of the Roveretan priest the clear indication that he would have to serve the Church and mankind in elaborating a system of thought that would serve as a foundation for the faith. This entailed, as he himself put it, bringing man back to God by the same path of reason by which he had distanced himself by a bad use of same.
This immense task, which cost him fatigue and painful misunderstandings, has recently received the authoritative stamp of the Church, especially in the “Fides et Ratio” [Faith and Reason] encyclical of John Paul 11. In this, which opens with the lovely comparison (“Faith and reason are akin to two wings with which the human spirit raises itself towards the contemplation of the truth”), the late Pope, after having affirmed that the separation between faith and reason is a drama, cites St Augustine: “..It will help lead believers to a stronger conviction that faith grows deeper and more authentic when it is wedded to thought and does not reject it. It is again the Fathers who teach us this: “To believe is nothing other than to think with assent... Believers are also thinkers: in believing, they think and in thinking, they believe... If faith does not think, it is nothing”. And again: “If there is no assent, there is no faith, for without assent one does not really believe”. (Fides et Ratio, n. 79). In this same encyclical, the name of Rosmini is inserted among the modern exponents of this line of dialogue. “ We see the same fruitful relationship between philosophy and the word of God in the courageous research pursued by more recent thinkers, among whom I gladly mention, in a Western context, figures such as John Henry Newman, Antonio Rosmini, Jacques Maritain, Étienne Gilson and Edith Stein ..(Fides et Ratio 74)
The voice of Rosmini is a modern echo of that of the great Fathers of the Church at whose side he can confidently stand by reason of the acuteness and the vastness of his speculative interests, allied in turn with the evangelical ardour of the pastor of souls. Various and many definitions can be, and have been, given of him that describe only a part of the multiple facets of the prism of his extraordinary make-up. In Antonio Rosmini, one finds the philosopher, the pedagogue, the political theorist, the apostle of faith, the prophet, the giant of culture. Nevertheless, whilst all this enriches his significance and confirms his relevance, the key to today’s ceremony is that of the sanctity of Rosmini which, certainly, will help to re-establish the friendship between reason and faith, between religion, ethical behaviour and the public service of Christians.
4. The Church today proclaims Blessed this priest because it has recognised in his industrious existence the signs of virtue which he practised to a heroic degree. As a young priest, he had drawn up for himself a “Rule of conduct” based on the Gospels and which consisted of two principles: “1) To attend seriously to the task of correcting my enormous vices and of purifying my soul of the iniquity that had weighed upon it from my birth, without going in search of other occupations or undertakings for the benefit of my neighbour, because utterly powerless by myself to achieve anything whatsoever for others;” 2) “Acceptance of any works of charity in favour of my neighbour when Divine Providence should offer and present them to me, for God has the power to use anyone and even myself for His works. In such cases, I would maintain a perfect indifference in regard to all works of charity, doing the one proposed to me with the same enthusiasm as I would any other, at least as far as my free will was concerned”.
All those who knew Rosmini, the great personages of his era with whom he was often in contact as well as the most humble faithful, testified that he lived in conformity with this Rule of his, which finds its echo in the words of Jesus, “..without me, you can do nothing” (Jn 15,5) and in those of St Paul to the Philippians, “I can do all things in Him who enables me” (4, 13).
In the newly Blessed, one confirms a constant unifying thread between his thoughts, his belief and his daily life. This results in a testimony of life indicating that unity which is asceticism, mysticism, sanctity. The abbot Rosmini lived a theological life in which in which faith implies hope and charity and with such a dialogue of confident trust in Providence as not to undertake anything, be it big or small, “unless pulled there, as it were, by Providence itself”.
Elevating him to the honours of the altar, the Church indicates this priest as an intercessor and model for persons also of today, for us. The life and the teachings of the Founder of the Institute of Charity exhort us to resolutely put God at the centre of our existence, and to serve Him in man who is His sacrament and in whatever field that the Lord calls us to. Thus we will be glad to be inserted in Christ like branches in the Vine, and in attitude of dialogue, not one of opposition, with the many and at times deceitful currents of modern thought.
Let a hymn of gratitude arise from this Sacred Assembly to the Lord who leads all things with his admirable Providence. Our Blessed will offer us the words which in 1849, in a time of grave trial for him, he wrote to a confrere: “When I meditate on these things I wonder at them; and as I wonder, I love; loving them, I celebrate them; celebrating them I give thanks; and thanking God, I am full of happiness. And how else could I act, since I know both by reason and by faith, and feel deep within my spirit, that everything God does, or wishes, or allows, is done by an eternal, an infinite, an essential love? And who could be grieved by love?”[Ascetical Letters. Morris. Vol 6 n.113]. Amen.
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