Riccardi

Fiera di Primiero, 1959 Among the many words pronounced by the Father in all of his Creation, one was unique. Not so much an object of thought but more of intuition, not so much the splendor of divine sun but a cool and gentle shade, like a little cloud, fresh and white, that screens and adjusts the sun’s rays so that human eyes can see. It was in the plans of Providence that the Word be made flesh, that a word, the Word, be written on earth in flesh and blood; and this Word needed a background. The heavenly harmonies longed, out of love for us, to transfer their peerless concert within our tents; and for this they needed a silence. The Protagonist of all humanity, who gave meaning to centuries past, enlightened and drew after him centuries to come, had to appear on this world’s stage, but needed a backdrop of white to make him alone stand out. The greatest design that God-Love could invent had to be drawn majestic

Rome – Ergife Hotel, 3 June 1984 Inserted in the programme “Segni dei tempi” on June 10th, 1984 "This morning you said that oftentimes work today is very alienating, provoking frustration and dissatisfaction. Why is this?" Because, as I said, there are many reasons for this, above all for this period that we are going through, given this particular era where each one does their own thing – in this industrialized world – does their own small piece and does not see the end result of their labour, of their intelligence, of  their creativity. Well, according to me, one of the ways to get out of this situation would be this: we would need to be so ‘one’ among us, all the workers among themselves, but also with their bosses, with others, so ‘one’ in every workplace as to be able to experience the fruit of their own work; not only the profit that comes from it, which should be shared, etc., but also that certain creativity from that given factory should

Rome, 1978 In a hospital ward I once saw a man with a plaster cast. His chest and right arm were immobilized.With his left hand he tried to do everything… as best he could. The cast was a torture, but the left arm, although it was more tired than usual by the end of the day, grew stronger by doing twice its normal work. We are members of one another and mutual service is our duty. Jesus did not merely advise us to serve one another, he commanded us to do so. When we help someone out of charity, let us not believe we are saints. If our neighbour is powerless, we must help him and help him as he would help himself if he could. Otherwise, what kind of Christians are we? If, later, our hour has come, and we need our neighbour’s charity, let us not feel humiliated. At the last judgement we shall hear Jesus repeat the words: ‘I was sick and you visited me …’ (Matt. 25:36)