In December 1922, Saint Luigi Orione
sends his Christmas greetings to his religious, asking them to be one in the
heart of Jesus.
… I have come to
offer you my most affectionate greetings, and to make the holiest vows in the
joy of the coming Christmas feasts. In my soul, I make these vows and wishes
every day, in this soul which for the great part lives your life, your joys and
your griefs, in this soul which prays at the Lord's altar every day, but which
will supplicate for you more fervidly on the most happy Christmas night.
Oh how I should
like to have been able to write to each of you individually on this propitious
occasion; but you yourselves will understand that this would have been
impossible for me. Therefore, embracing you all spiritually, it is for me the
sweetest grace to write to you together, with the sweet affection of a brother
and a father in Christ, which God alone knows.
I must say that
it seems to me more beautiful to have you all here in front of me in my heart,
all on the altar united together, this sweet Christmas, around the Jesus child,
and to say the same words of charity to you all, words which so softly unite
us; this charity has such all-embracing arms that it is impossible to see
either mountains or seas, or boundaries and barriers of nationality; this
charity that unites us, as Scripture puts it, which is what happened in the
hearts of Jonah and David—and that makes us One
heart and one soul in life, in death and hereafter, because in charity we
live in God and man lives for ever!
In these
Christmas days, in which Christian souls feel all the chaste joys of the faith
and of the love of Jesus, and the mystic poetry which breathes from the crib,
where the poor and the simple go in pilgrimage, and over which the angels fly
and make feast in the light and the hymn of glory proclaiming God's peace to
men of good will; in these joyous solemnities, I send to each and every one of
you, my brothers, my sons, my crown, not only my wishes for all that is good,
for all celestial consolation, but, as I make for you each more fervent vow, I
lay at God's feet a great prayer, which is love and charity.
It is the same
prayer that Christ our Lord made for his disciples and apostles before he left
them: oh Lord, make us one with you, that we may be with you always in your
heart so worthy of adoration! Grant us, oh Jesus child, oh Jesus love, your
sweet blessing! Amen.
Letter
to the Sons of Divine Provindece. Tortona, 8th December 1922. Feast
of the Immaculate Conception. A priceless
treasure, Volume One, pp. 257 – 259. 266
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