miniZibaldone

[T]oday I would like to reflect with you on the enemies of hope, because hope has its enemies, as every good in this world has its enemies. See why it’s important to guard one’s heart, opposing temptations to unhappiness, which certainly don’t come from God. We can repeat that simple prayer, of which we also find traces in the Gospels and which has become the foundation of so many Christian spiritual traditions: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner!” – a beautiful prayer. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner!” It’s not true that “so long as there is life there is hope,” as is usually said. If anything, it’s the contrary: it’s hope that keeps life upright, that protects it, guards it and makes it grow. If men had not cultivated hope, if they were not supported by this virtue, they would never have comes out of the caves, and would have left no trace in the history of the world. It’s the most divine that can ex...

“A man had two sons…” begins the parable of the Prodigal Son. As Peguy wrote, this parable speaks so powerfully to believers and unbelievers alike because it touches the human heart at the very point where the mystery behind our existence is encountered, “a unique point, a secret point, a mysterious point, ‘a’ point of correspondence” that recognizes in the parable the fulfillment of its most daring desires, a “point of sorrow, a point of desolation, a point of hope, a point of pain, a point of restlessness, a scarred point.” The message of this parable grasps us in the heart like the teeth marks of an old faithful dog that will never go away no matter how badly we treat it. No other word of God reaches farther than this parable, so that it accompanies us the farthest we can stray from goodness, staying with us no matter how far we wander, no matter how shamelessly we behave. This parable does not know what shame is. It will never leave us in peace, and for this we are secretly grat...

Faith is a church, a cathedral rooted in the soil         of France . Charity is a hospital, a refuge taking in all the           wretchednesses of the world. But without Hope all of this would be but a               cemetery. Little hope walks between her two bigger sisters [faith and charity] and is not even noticed.  Since she is almost invisible, the ‘little’ sister seems to be led by her two bigger sisters’ hand, but with her childlike heart, she sees what the other sisters do not. And with her fresh, innocent joy, she brings along faith and love on Easter morning. It is she, the little one, who sets along everything.