All our trust is in you, O holy Providence of the Lord, because you love us much more than we love ourselves! No, with divine help, I no longer wish to investigate you; No, I no longer want to tie your hands; No, I no longer want to cripple you; I only want to abandon myself completely into your arms, calm and peaceful. Make me take you as you are, with the simplicity of a child, with that generous Faith that sees no limits! ‘Faith, Faith like that...’ like that of Blessed Cottolengo who found light everywhere, and saw God in all and for all!
Divine Providence! Divine Providence! Give me, your poor servant and cobbler, and those souls who pray and work silently, sacrificing their lives among the poor, and give to our dear benefactors that largeness of heart and of charity, that does not measure good by the metre, nor by human calculation: that charity which is sweet and gentle, which does everything for everyone: which places its happiness in doing every good to others in silence: that charity which builds up and unites in Jesus Christ, with simplicity and candour.
O Holy Divine Providence! The inspirer and mother of that charity which is the motto of Christ and of His disciples: animate, comfort and fully reward in Heaven and on earth those who, in the name of God, act as father, mother, brother or sister to the unhappy ones.
Our weakness does not dismay us: we look on it as a trophy of the goodness and glory of Jesus Christ. Nothing is dearer to the Lord than trust in Him! And we would like to have such great Faith, courage and confidence, as great as that of the Heart of Jesus which is its foundation.
The Little Cottolengo stands in the Lord, in Faith; it lives in the Lord, from Divine Providence and from your generosity; it is governed in the Lord, that is to say, with the charity of Christ: everything and only through love, up to the offering of our life, with divine help.
And no employees! No bureaucratic formula which often cause worry, even if they do not make the good humiliating: nothing which resembles administration: none of that.
Everything depends on Divine Providence: it is Divine Providence that does everything, and the charity of merciful hearts, shown by their desire to do good, just as the Gospel teaches, to those most in need.
Perhaps you think we have funds and private incomes. No, my friends, we have less than nothing of the kind. The Little Cottolengo has no private incomes, and will never have incomes of any kind: it goes on, day by day: ‘panem nostrum quotidianum’ [our daily bread].
That God who is the great Father of all, who thinks of the birds of the air, and clothes the lilies of the field, sends our daily bread from His bounteous hands, that is to say, whatever is needed day by day.
Our bank is Divine Providence, and our bag is in your pockets and in your kind hearts.
The Little Cottolengo is built on Faith and lives on the fruits of inextinguishable charity. In the Little Cottolengo we live happily: we pray, we work, to the best of our ability: we love God, we love each other and we serve the poor. We see and serve Christ in holy joy, in the abandoned ones. Who could be happier than us?
And our dear, poor people live in contentment: they are not guests, not inmates, but are the masters, and it is we who are their servants; and that is how we serve the Lord! How lovely life is at the Little Cottolengo! It is a symphony of prayer for benefactors, of work, of joy, of singing and of charity.
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