Man is a creature of habits – he is able to act thanks to the habits he has acquired. This is the reason why we must be concerned with the acquisition of good habits in order to live virtuously, because we know, by daily experience, how difficult it is to acquire virtue and how easy it is, under empty pretexts, to fall into vice.
Modernity is characterized by a rupture between morals and life. The reason is simple: modern morality is a morality of obligation that is not based upon reality. It is a simple practical result - and although it is of Protestant origin, it has now spread to the four corners of the world.
We must approach nobility with respect and defend it against all the caricatures which try to ridicule it, leading souls into a disastrous illusion. As it happens with all higher truths, nobility is subjected to a campaign of denigration so that, making of it a universal object of contempt, nobody would be encouraged to make the effort of abandoning his own turpitude and trying to rise to the heights where this truth invites him to be. Moreover, as this vile attempt is not enough and, in spite of everything, the truth still stands, the satanic cunning consists in creating an illusion so close to reality that it deceives the intelligence. Let us repeat it: there is nothing more harmful than an illusion. This mockery deeply vitiates the intelligence, making it believe that it is nourished by the truth. In fact, these illusions do nothing but inoculate a deadly poison, because error is never as frightening as when it disguises itself under the appearances of truth.
God, Holy Mother Church and our Country – let us keep in our souls these high affections as the leading lights that will guide us in life, allowing us to be faithful to Christian nobility, which constitutes the most sacred part of our heritage.
Words are not enough; rather, we should be wary of their bewitching and numbing charm. It is not enough to talk. It is still necessary to do, to incarnate our words into actions. To be satisfied with talking is tantamount to being content with being an upstart, to belong to a strange caste of people, an ill-assorted mixture of men who pretend to be above their station and of men who have degraded themselves without knowing it. To nourish ourselves with words and to be thus satisfied, isn’t this to praise ourselves for what we have while forgetting who we really are, to prefer the vanity of having to the richness of being?
This letter, written in mid-March, will be the only one that you will receive from us for these months of March and April. It should reach you while we are plunged into the unutterable mystery of Holy Week, when the liturgy invites us to penetrate again into the indescribable mystery of the Love of Christ for His Father. A mystery stressed by Christ when, moments before being arrested by the henchmen led by Judas, He clearly reiterated to His apostles His will to procure, by means of His death and resurrection, the glory of His Father and the salvation of souls. Death and Resurrection which, far from being contradictory as we unconsciously perceive them to be because of the weakness of our intelligence, are both the manifestation of the one and same mystery of Charity.
Do we, Catholic souls, know where our true happiness lies? Don't we doubt it from time to time? Aren't we too negligent when compared with the love of God for us, this ocean of divine love?
We wish you a holy and happy new year, in spite of the general worries. Indeed, behind a pretended unconcern, modern man does not manage to hide the anguish that pervades his soul. The Gospel, however, answers this hidden anxiety by relating the words of Our Lord to us: “You will hear about wars and rumors of wars, but it will not be the end (…) Raise your heads, because your deliverance is at hand.”
This month we would like to share with you some reflections on education, prompted by an apparently insignificant question which was asked by young parents - "Should we give a pacifier to our baby to calm him and, incidentally ("incidentally"? are you sure?), be ourselves at peace?"
Theotokos! Our Lady, Thou art the Mother of God. Thou hast given Thyself totally to the will of God, Thy life was one of unfailing loyalty, a perpetual praise of adoration. In Thee, everything flowed from the love of God, and even Thy repose was worth more in the eyes of God than the merits of the saints.