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Good morning Father Angelo,

I am writing to ask you to shed light on some doubts of mine concerning the way a Christian is supposed to live his/ her life.

Let me explain myself better: nowadays, due to a certain widespread wealth (I acknowledge this is not something I deserve, but it is given to us by God, who is benevolent towards me and my family), we have many interests, diversions, pleasures. This being the case, my question is: to what extent can a Catholic Christian have diversions? 

Let me give an example: I have always been very keen on traveling; is it a sin to wish to see the world? Am I supposed to be more concentrated on prayer? 

Another example: my mother gave me an expensive handbag as a birthday present (I would like to make a preliminary remark: I am not a fashion-victim, but sometimes I like to buy something for myself). Should I have used that money for a more useful thing? But if nobody bought unnecessary things, how would all the people who work in that business make a living? 

I try to be a modest person (probably with poor results), I donate to charity, I pray, whenever I can I read the Bible or do edifying readings about faith, I make sacrifices, I go out seldom, and most of the time with my family so as to seize the opportunity to spend time with them, I do not go to the movies, to nightclubs and the like… I am not telling you these things to receive compliments, quite the opposite! I know that I am required to behave like this, and that I have not been doing anything extraordinary. Exactly for this reason the worm of doubt troubles me, because I keep wondering whether what I have been doing is enough or not, whether I am equal to the task I have been charged with.

I hope for a few words from you to enlighten me and to show me the right path.


The priest’s answer

Dear friend,

  1. For sure, it is wrong to spend money on useless things in order to pursue magnificence and to draw attention. But accepting presents, as the one you received from your mother, can be an act of charity. It means to welcome a sign of affection that does honor to your mother in your eyes and in those of other people. 
  2. If you had purchased that handbag in order to spend money extravagantly or to strut around, obviously that would have been questionable, especially for a Christian person. What the Holy Spirit said through Saint Peter regarding exterior adornaments applies to girls and women of all times: “Your adornment should not be an external one: braiding the hair, wearing gold jewelry, or dressing in fine clothes, but rather the hidden character of the heart, expressed in the imperishable beauty of a gentle and calm disposition, which is precious in the sight of God” [1Pt 3:3-5]
  3. But, according to what you write, I think you are in line with the Sacred Scripture. Doing good readings, practicing charity by giving up various things and staying with your parents you try to reach the union with the Lord and to allow Him to transform you.
  4. On the other hand, I understand the feeling of incompleteness you have been experiencing. If you go further in spiritual life you will probably feel it even more dramatically. How can you try to satisfy it? Well, this is not about adding some other thing, also because sometimes you understand well that materially you cannot go any further and have to put on the brakes. Nevertheless, this break is providential, because it reminds us that, given that we cannot take on more practices, we are supposed to do them with more intensity, namely with more love. 
  5. At this point, to avoid keeping things vague, we can be well directed by learning from the Virgin Mary, especially from her “yes” pronounced at the moment of the Incarnation. She pronounced that “yes”, as Saint Thomas says, loco totius Ecclesiae (in the place of the whole Church). Do the same: in your prayer practices and in your charity works keep enlarging your intentions: do everything loco totius Ecclesiae, in the place of the whole Church.
  6. Sometimes you can specify further: for the conversion of sinners, for the moribunds, for youngsters, for consecrated people, for spouses… And do not be alone when you do this: call the Virgin Mary to your assistance, in order for her to give you Her Heart that is able to raise your acts of love to the greatest possible intensity. The Lord on the Cross gave Her to us as our Mother exactly to teach us to love with Her Heart. 

Go ahead like this, doing everything with the Virgin Mary.

I remember you to the Lord and I bless you.

Father Angelo


Translated by Alessandra N