Page 29 - Emailing SANTITA FAMIGLIE_ENG

28

After discovering the seriousness of her illness, Zélie came to
say: «If the Good Lord wants to cure me, I will be very happy, because
I want to live; it costs me to leave my husband and daughters. But
at the same time I say to myself: if I am not be healed, it is perhaps
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because it will be more useful for them if I leave» .

«We must put ourselves in the position of generously accepting
CONCRETE INSTRUMENTS OF HOLINESS
God’s will, whatever it may be, because it will always be what is best
for us» .
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After announcing her decision to enter the Carmel, referring to
her father, Pauline wrote: «In the afternoon I met him as he was going
up the stairs and he looked a little sad and said to me: ‘Don’t believe,
my Pauline, that if I am happy to give you to the good God, I will
not suffer to separate myself from you’. And he embraced me with a
moving tenderness» .
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After the sisters, Celine also confided her desire to enter the
convent and her father Louis’ response was moving: «Come, let’s
go together in front of the Holy Sacrament to thank the Lord for the
graces He grants to our family and for the honor He gives me in
choosing brides in my home» .
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ideas For reFlection

• Let us reflect on how, in our life as a couple and as a family,
the “horizontal dimension” (everyday life) is lived together with the
“vertical dimension” (referring everything to God).
• Let’s review the last few days: in what situation have we
struggled alone, forgetting the help that comes from the living presence
of Jesus in our home?

28 Zélie’s letter to her sister-in-law, 20 February 1877.
29 S.G. Piat, Storia di una famiglia, op. cit., p. 226.
30 Laura Mattioli, Il cammino di santità , op. cit., p. 74.
31 Ivi, p. 89.