Luigi Giussani: Quotes I Liked From The Article

A commenter of this blog, Fred, who posts at 'la nouvelle theologie' linked me this article which I've just read: http://www.clonline.us/readings/Open%20Christianity.pdf

These are some quotations I liked:

"If we have fared forward, reached the end of our mission, it is for another reason, not because we have succeeded but because God has been good and merciful to us.
How can I help a young person of roughly twenty years of age to set the wheels of
generosity in motion within? By paralyzing him in self-analytical observations[?]" -on confession and self-examination

"If to clean a course of water full of debris we decide to isolate the debris piece by piece, extracting one twig at a time, we will get a stiff neck and a good case of lumbago and will never manage to get the job done. We should instead allow the river to flow to its mouth. If we aim for the mouth, the debris will gradually be deposited along the banks. The apostles followed Christ for who he was: they were attracted to Him. They did not rid themselves of their faults before following him. They went after him just as they were and as they did so, their debris gradually settled along the banks."

"He, Jesus, is the prominent figure, not I with my faults. His face is at stage centre and not the features of my poverty. Gazing upon Him I will realize that He alone can resolve all problems, all of my problems and those of others."

"Here lies the difference between Christianity and other religions. Unrevealed religions, and thus their respective cultures and civilizations are a human effort: Christianity, on the other hand, and thus its culture and civilization, is a path traced by God, it is gift, grace.Of course, God has given us the grace also to reveal to us, to communicate to us the experience of that reality that explains all, and that reality is a living reality, a Person."

"The young people were dumbfounded to hear that God should have made us rich
because he loved us. To make us rich he came to share our poverty. He could have
descended to earth and changed us completely, given us wealth in a flash and then gone away again. Instead he did not, he descended to earth and became poor like us. Charity is to share."

"Charity is a law without limits, universal: Catholic. According to this law, to measure and define would be to put an end to the law itself: to place a limit on it is not to limit it but rather to annul it."

"We choke our young people if we claim that they should be enthused about limited things."

- Msgr. Luigi Giussani