A third part of Bryan’s email: “And I would like to teach my children the joy of loving, not as the world loves, but as Christ presented us with the model of perfect charitable love: the cross.

I have always felt a passion in my heart that made my heart burn, catch fire. And it catches fire so immensely when I think of the world, because I hate the world but I love the people who belong to the world dispassionately.

When I recite the Rosary, I feel that the Virgin Mary is with me and it is almost as if my eyes and hers become one and I see how much pain she feels at the suffering of each of her children.

And I feel so bad when I think about souls falling into hell.

My grandmother is not baptised and does not believe, so there can never be salvation for her, right?

Excuse me, I am digressing, but would I be sinning if I baptised her in secret, simply asking her, ‘Grandmother, do you want to come with me to heaven? And after she says yes, I would pour water on her forehead, make the sign of the cross and recite the baptismal formula. Is that a sin, Father?

And to see the new generations without God claiming freedom from human depravity, unique perversions passed off as freedom, oh how it pains me, Father. 

(read the first part) – (read the second part)

The priest’s answer

Dear Bryan,

1.now I will comment on the third expression in your passionate email, in which you speak of the fire you carry in your heart.

You would like to communicate to everyone the perfect charitable love that is expressed in renouncing oneself and making others happy.

In this regard, I return to what I wrote to you in my first email, quoting the words of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus: “I felt charity entering my heart, with the need to forget myself in order to please others, and from then on I was happy!” (Story of a Soul, 134).

2.This is the exact translation of Jesus’ words: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life?”

(Mt 16, 24-26).

There is no true love without self-denial, because love compels us to empty ourselves in order to make those we love happy.

3.In particular, you feel this love burning within you when you pray the Holy Rosary and join your eyes with those of Mary. And then you think of the souls who are lost and fall into hell.

Prayer, if it unites us with God, cannot fail to make us thirst for the salvation of souls and feel sadness for the path that many have taken with sin.

This sadness, which we can call sadness according to God, generates feelings of mercy, so that we want to give everything to everyone in order to save someone.

4.St Thomas says that “if through charity man becomes like God in affection, through mercy he becomes like God in action” (Summa Theologica, II-II, 30, 4 ad 3).

If there is no sorrow for sinners, there is no love for the Lord.

5.This sadness cannot remain at the level of sighs, but feels the need to express itself in deeds.

For this reason, I urge you to seize every opportunity to deny yourself and express true love for the salvation of souls.

The Lord has taught us that the way to salvation passes through the cross.

In this regard, I would like to recount an episode from the life of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus.In her autobiography, she writes: ‘One Sunday, looking at an image of Our Lord on the Cross, I was struck by the blood falling from his divine hand. I felt great pain thinking that that blood was falling to the ground without anyone bothering to collect it, and I resolved to keep myself in spirit at the foot of the Cross to receive the divine dew, understanding that I would then have to spread it on souls… Jesus’ cry on the Cross echoed continuously in my heart: “I thirst!”. These words ignited in me an unknown and very lively ardour… I wanted to give my Beloved something to drink, and I felt myself consumed by the thirst of souls. It was not yet the souls of priests that attracted me, but those of great sinners. I burned with the desire to snatch them from the eternal flames…” (Story of a Soul, 134).

6.This is why I like to refer to what the Eternal Father said to Saint Catherine of Siena about Saint Dominic: ‘On what table does he feed his children with the light of knowledge? At the table of the cross; on the cross is placed the table of holy desire, where souls are nourished for love of me.

He does not want his children to attend to anything else but to remain at this table with the light of knowledge, seeking only the glory and praise of my name and the salvation of souls” (Dialogue of Divine Providence, 158).

7.Try doing the same with your grandmother. Your desire for her to be baptised and live eternally in heaven with you and your loved ones should spur you to seek out those invincible weapons that touch hearts far more than words, as St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus wrote: ‘Ah, prayer and sacrifice are my whole strength; they are the invincible weapons that Jesus has given me; they touch souls much more than words; I have often experienced this’ (Story of a Soul, 315).

Your desire for her to be baptised can only come from heaven. But what you have thought of doing is not right.

Instead, take the path I have shown you.

If you also follow the vocation that the Lord is stirring up in you, she herself will ask you to baptise her in the most beautiful and solemn way.

I accompany this wish of mine with prayer and also with the rest, as indicated by St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus.

I bless you,

Father Angelo.

Questo articolo è disponibile anche in: Italian Portuguese