miniZibaldone

(Paul Klee.  At the Core , 1935) Experience itself, in its totality, shows the way to an authentic understanding of the term reason or rationality. Indeed, reason is that singular event of nature in which it – reason – reveals itself as the operative need to explain reality in all of its factors so that we are introduced to the truth about things. In this way, reality emerges within experience and  rationality illuminates the factors within it. To say “rational” is to affirm the transparency or intelligibility of human experience, its substance and depth. Rationality is critical transparency of our human experience: “critical” means according to an all-encompassing view. (Luigi Giussani, The Religious Sense , p. 101 )

To you glory and praise forevermore.

From the homily Never give in to “failure”. It is the “perfect terrain for the devil to sow his seeds” and leads to live like professional mourners, amid complaints and dissatisfactions . “The spirit of fatigue takes away our hope...tiredness is selective: it always causes us to see the negative in the moment we are living, and forget the good things we have received”. It also happens to us “When we feel desolated and cannot bear the journey, we seek refuge either in idols or in complaint... (…) This spirit of fatigue leads us Christians to be dissatisfied (…) and everything goes wrong… Jesus himself taught us this when he said we are like children playing games when we are overcome by this spirit of dissatisfaction.”. . . We must reverse the course, especially in this time that is preparing for Easter: “Brothers and sisters, we only remember this phrase: “The people of God could not bear the journey “, Francis concludes. “Christians do not bear hope. Christians do not endure...

Lord God, I take refuge in you.

O blessed are those who fear the Lord.

How great is your name, O Lord our God, through all the earth!

May the Lord rejoice in his works!

From the possibility of doubting everything, it does not follow that it would be good to do that. The necessity of positing the reality of the living is not a theoretical compulsion but is itself a kind of moral evidence. Whoever loves a human, whoever has friends, cannot at the same time doubt the beloved's or the friend's existence. That person must hold the other's being alive as irreducible. And when I say one cannot doubt, I do not mean a physical or logical impossibility, but a moral and,  therefore,  absolute impossibility. Insofar as I doubt his reality, I do not merely bracket somewhat the reality of the friendship; rather, I destroy it. Friendship does not allow for an ontological abstinence, for an epoche . It implies an ontological affirmation. In the case of friendship, this affirmation is not a postulate but a necessary implication. But there, where the relationship to the other does not have the intensity of friendship but is defined by the claim of each to...

The kingdom of God, now as then, “does not come in a way that attracts attention” ( Lk 17:20 ), but rather in littleness, in humility. May each one of us be able to make an interior passage, a Passover of the heart, towards the divine “style” incarnated by Mary . From the homily Instead, in a small village, a simple miracle takes place and brings joy to the wedding of a young and completely anonymous family. At the same time, the water that became wine at the wedding banquet is a great sign, for it reveals to us the spousal face of God, a God who sits at table with us, who dreams and holds communion with us. It tells us that the Lord does not keep his distance, but is near and real . He is in our midst and he takes care of us, without making decisions in our place and without troubling himself with issues of power. He prefers to let himself be contained in little things, unlike ourselves, who always want to possess something greater. To be attracted by power, by grandeur, by ap...

If God favors humility, it is not to humiliate us: rather humility is the necessary condition to be raised by Him, so as to experience the mercy that comes to fill our emptiness. If the prayer of the arrogant does not reach God’s heart, the humility of the miserable one opens it wide. God has a weakness: a weakness for the humble. Before a humble heart, God opens His heart totally. From the audience [T]he parable of the Pharisee and the Publican (cf. Luke 18:9-14). ...  Both the protagonists go to the Temple to pray, but they act in very different ways, obtaining opposite results. The Pharisee “stood” (v. 11) to pray, and used many words. His prayer was one of thanksgiving addressed to God, but in reality it was a display of his merits, with a sense of superiority vis-a-vis “other men,” described as “extortioners, unjust, adulterers,” as, for example — and he points to the other who was there – “this tax collector” (v. 11). But the problem is precisely here: the Pharisee prays...

Amid the grand political promises of candidates for this upcoming general election, it is timely to see what is behind these. In the polemic over federalism, poverty alleviation, vigilante killing, ill-gotten wealth, and even citizenship issues, it is worthy to go back to desire—even in politics—as the motivating factor for engaging reality. We Filipinos desire to be happy; we desire the truth, what is good for life, and what is beautiful. This desire is truly  unshakable . Even in the midst of poverty, corruption, lack of opportunity for personal nourishment (housing, employment, food, water), bitter trials, natural disasters, and limited horizon to judge the events of life, we are still desirous. Observant watchers and foreigners even pointed out that Filipinos are resilient: despite all the hardships and limitations, we still have young faces that smile. In the context of the election time, with this nation’s reality and circumstances side by side our life that longs f...

The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt gratis Jerome Kohn On the God of the Christians by Remi Brague gratis Remi Brague A Generative Thought: Introduction to the Works of Luigi Giussani ed. Elisa Buzzi gratis CL The Radiance of Being by Stratford Caldecott gratis Angelico Press Together on the Road by Massimo Camisasca gratis CL G. K. Chesterton: Collected Works I gratis Ralph Wood G. K. Chesterton: Collected Works II G. K. Chesterton: The Autobiography gratis Ralph Wood At the Service of the Church by Henri de Lubac gratis Joseph Fessio The Mystery of the Supernatural by Henri de Lubac The Splendor of the Church by Henri de Lubac gratis Paul McPartlan Being and Some Philosophers by Etienne Gilson gratis Curtis Hancock, Caitlin Gilson, James Farge At the Origin of the Christian Claim by Luigi Giussani gratis CL Is It Possible to Live This Way: Vol. 1, Faith by Luigi G...