Cultivating the inner life

Dear friends,

Today, the 16^th of April, is the feast of an 18th century saint who has the distinction of being a “square peg” ... which I always found to my liking! His name was Benedict-Joseph Labre. So out of the box was he, that he could not stay in any monastery, community or other, so he chose to become a pilgrim-beggar. He travelled more than 30,000 kms across Europe, his footsteps rhythmed by singing songs to Mary! He loved St Francis of Assisi and his motto was:  "To love God takes three hearts all in one: a heart of fire towards God; a heart of flesh towards thy neighbour; a heart of bronze towards oneself." He died at the age of 35, at the back of a butcher’s shop in Rome. The butcher had found him passed out on the church of Santa Maria dei Monti’s steps as Benedict-Joseph Labre liked to go to every Roman church where the Holy Sacrament was displayed. 

Closer to us, Father Marco, a pure Italian, who came to us for several retreats with seminarians from Padua, has recently been spending time with patients afflicted with Covid-19, as chaplain of the southern hospitals for the Padua region. Padua diocesan bulletin dedicated a beautiful testimony of his humaneness, both with the sick and with the nursing auxiliaries. (https://www.difesapopolo.it/Diocesi/Ho-incontrato-Gesu.-La-testimonianza-di-don-Marco-Galante-tra-i-malati-di-Covid-19) 

To reiterate a thought that caught my attention: "The common factor is nudity: you are alone with your body and the inner life that you have cultivated; face to face with illness, there are no clothes, no ornaments, no honorary titles or social positions!"

I did like how this priest spoke of the importance of "cultivated inner life" as I recall him sharing and emphasizing during Roger's retreats the goodness he felt from hearing the preaching to enter the depth of the Gospel.

It is worth noting that when it comes to news about the economy, the only book that remains opened is the one from banks, and that it is much more carefully examined than the Biblical verses... In the so-called "religious" world, the fashionable word of the day and quite timely ... is: "Christ has risen!" repeated over and over... If it does not emanate from the heart of hearts - which does not take anything away from its joy - it makes me feel as sick as when I hear everywhere and anywhere "my brother, my sister" ...

Which reminds me of a story Roger told when he was close to a dying man. Another priest said to her, "The Good God will save you," and she immediately replied:  "Saved?... From what? ..."  This is what happens when there is not a cultured inner life, the special place where the soul’s “breathing” is prayer, the Encounter!...

Inner or outer culture, it's the same thing... The gardens around the St Michel building, like a big part of the property, look good as one passes by. And yet, this afternoon, looking calmly and carefully at some trees and shrubs, I filled almost a truck with dead branches, whether they came from a Judean tree, a catalpa or even a forsythia... So is the vigilance for the culture of the inner garden which is the place of the Source from which can spring "a heart of fire towards God; a heart of flesh towards the neighbour; a heart of bronze (no complacency and a lot of tenderness)   towards oneself!"

Here was what I wanted to share with you today, finding you in your daily life.

Jean-Luc Koeppel

French to English translation by Debbie Garrick and Cécile Simon