sussidio 1 2014

From the Word of God

By his divine power, he has lavished on us all the things we need for life and for true devotion, through the knowledge of him who has called us by his own glory and goodness.

Through these, the greatest and priceless promises have been lavished on us, that through them you should share the divine nature and escape the corruption rife in the world through disordered passion.

With this in view, do your utmost to support your faith with goodness, goodness with understanding, understanding with self-control, self-control with perseverance, perseverance with devotion, devotion with kindness to the brothers, and kindness to the brothers with love.

The possession and growth of these qualities will prevent your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ from being ineffectual or unproductive.

But without them, a person is blind or short-sighted, forgetting how the sins of the past were washed away.

Instead of this, brothers, never allow your choice or calling to waver; then there will be no danger of your stumbling.

                                                 (2Pt 1:3-10)

CALLED TO HOLINESS

From the writings of

                         Blessed A. Rosmini

My dear brethren,

I want to write a few lines to you to remind you of your voca­tion to the holiness that goes with charity. I urge you most strongly to go straight ahead along the path to which each of you is called — in other words, to reach true sanctity. This does not consist in any intellectual activity, or in any sort of human prowess or glory, or in the successful accomplishment of external enterprises; but rather in practising those virtues that Jesus Christ, the Saviour and model of our souls, showed forth in his own life, above all as he hung from the cross. They are humility, poverty, self-denial, obedience, mortification, patience, and that ardent charity which comprises them all. It never gets lost in subtleties, but walks in simplicity, not seeking its own interests but those of God and its neighbour. This is the foundation of the Institute you have embraced, which was born on Calvary and came forth from the Crucified One , since he was the source of the virtues that the Institute takes as its aim, because they constitute its end.

Each individual, in the way he behaves, must take as his guide only the one lofty and most simple rule: that is, to follow the will of God in imitation of Christ.

Hence our whole study, my dear brothers, consists in getting to know the divine will, and not in reasoning and disputing among ourselves whether this or that course of action is better accord­ing to our own limited human way of seeing things. Let us be anxious only to discern what are the signs of the will of God, in order to follow them faithfully and in all simplicity, with peace of mind and no opposition from our own intellect.

We also read: ‘The will of God is your sanctifica­tion.’ If then this is so, we can be sure that we are acting accord­ing to this most holy and lovable will when we labour without ceasing to purify ourselves of all imperfections and to acquire the virtues that constitute holiness.”

(The Ascetical Letters, Vol. III, let. 32,

pp. 45-46, To the brethren of the Institute of Charity in the service of God in England, Calvario, 2 October 1837; translated by John Morris I.C.)

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