miniZibaldone

From the General Audience It’s good to stress that we confess, be it to God or to brothers, that we are sinners: this helps us to understand the dimension of sin that, while it separates us from God, also divides us from our brethren and vice versa . The words we say with the mouth are accompanied by the gesture of beating our breast, acknowledging that I have sinned by my own fault, and not that of others. It often happens in fact that, out of fear and shame, we point the finger to accuse others. It costs to admit that we are culpable, but it does us good to confess it sincerely, to confess our sins. I remember a story, which an old missionary told, of a woman who went to confession and began to tell the errors of her husband; then she went on to tell the errors of her mother-in-law and then the sins of neighbors.  At a certain point, the confessor said to her: “But, lady, tell me, have you finished?  — Very good: you have finished with others’ sins. Now begin to...

From the Solemnity of Mary, Theotokos homily Devotion to Mary is not spiritual etiquette; it is a requirement of the Christian life.  If our faith is not to be reduced merely to an idea or a doctrine, all of us need a mother’s heart . Let us now be guided by today’s Gospel.  Only one thing is said about the Mother of God: “Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19).  She kept them.  She simply kept; Mary does not speak.  The Gospel does not report a single word of hers in the entire account of Christmas.  Here too, the Mother is one with her Son: Jesus is an “infant”, a child “unable to speak”.  The Word of God, who “long ago spoke in many and various ways” (Heb 1:1), now, in the “fullness of time” (Gal 4:4), is silent.  The God before whom all fall silent is himself a speechless child.  His Majesty is without words; his mystery of love is revealed in lowliness. This silence and lowliness is the language of...