(read the first part of the answer published the previous day)

Since I met Him, I love Him so much that I would like to run away with Him, far from the pleasures of the world, from corruption and sin. I hear the call of His words: whoever has left homes, brothers and sisters, father, mother, son, fields for His Name will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.

Answer

Dear Bryan,

1. In this second email, I will focus on what you write next: ‘Since I met him, I love him so much that I would like to run away with him, far from the pleasures of the world, from corruption and sin. I hear the call of his words: whoever has left houses, brothers and sisters, father, mother, son, fields for my name’s sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.’

You desire a monastic life devoted to contemplation and prayer.

2.Contemplation is what Jesus called the best part that will never be taken away.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, contemplation is fixing our gaze on Jesus, listening to his word, silent love, union with prayer and with the life of Jesus.

There are five passages, each one more beautiful than the last.

St Thomas, who was so contemplative that he was always united and absorbed in God, says that contemplation is a foretaste of eternal bliss.

He did not speak from hearsay, but from his own personal experience.

And it was so true that others, seeing him always joyful, had the impression that he was always filled with the Holy Spirit.

3.I understand why you would want to run away with Him, far from the pleasures of the world, far from corruption and sin.

Those who begin to enjoy the Lord’s company would never want to leave it, and feel that the enemies of this communion are precisely the pleasures of the world, the corruption of lust, and sin.

4.At the same time, you would also like to go everywhere to do good, to devote yourself to others, to alleviate the suffering of the least among us for the love of God, that is, to love God with deeds and to be able to give others the greatest good, which is God.

5.In other words, this calling is what is commonly referred to as a vocation.

For me, responding to you, what you have described is the charism of Dominican life. Everyone said of St Dominic that he “spoke with God or about God and commanded his friars to do the same”.

This is what St Thomas, whom some have described as the most beautiful flower and fruit of the Order of St Dominic, summed up with the well-known expression: contemplari et contemplata aliis tradere. That is: to contemplate, to be in communion with God and to communicate to others the divine gifts that one is receiving.

This is what St Catherine of Siena, described as the primary daughter of the Order of St Dominic, expressed in these words: ‘If you are what you ought to be, you will set all Italy on fire’.

6.You also say quite sincerely that this would involve a great sacrifice for you, that of not being able to enjoy fatherhood, of having children who are flesh of your flesh and bone of your bones.

That is true.

But it is also true that there is another fatherhood, not only biological, which is even more similar to the one from which all fatherhood takes its name.

It is the fatherhood that St Paul spoke of when he said: “Even if you should have countless guides to Christ, yet you do not have many fathers, for I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” (1 Cor 4,15).

It is that fatherhood, or rather motherhood, for which St Paul, addressing the Galatians, said: ‘My children, for whom I am again in labor until Christ be formed in you!?’ (Gal 4,19).

7.When one begins to experience this fatherhood and motherhood, one no longer feels the renunciation of biological parenthood.

While rejoicing for those who are fathers and mothers within a family, one is happy to be the father and mother of the souls of all of them. Happy to be able to generate in the hearts of all of them the One for whom it is worth living, loving, generating, having children, working, suffering and even dying!

If you respond to the vocation that the Lord has given you, you will feel how real, true and concrete Jesus’ promises are: ‘Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.’ (Mk 10, 29-30).

With the hope that the Lord will increasingly capture your heart, make you wholly His, an apostle of light and love, I bless you and assure you of my prayers, convinced that many visitors will do for you what I do in secret.

I bless you,

Father Angelo

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