O Brother

The Shepherd

It is in daily life, in the small necessities, in the face of the small and large flaws of others, in moments of emergency, that I see if I am acting out of fundamental charity, therefore as both shepherd and sheep, as an offered victim and not as a mercenary.

This is the message I would like to leave you with today: to constantly have, in the small details of daily life, a concern for the universal, while attending to every little thing around us and being an offering. May not only our language be measured, but may our hearts and thoughts be consistent so that each of our actions is done according to Christ.

We must be able to lead not a "Christian life" but a "Christic life," a life of Christ. This does not mean walking around in long white robes, with pontificating airs like in the movies; it means that in our private lives the desire to go all the way, every day, in the offering of ourselves for the love of Christ and for all suffering humanity, must dominate.

(Fr. Theodossios Maria of the Cross)

O brother, all the visible things will pass,

and the man and his works

and his knowledge

and the earth and the firmament.

But above the movements, the distances,

the largest and the smallest numbers

and any radiation,

there is a life of peace without end

in the infinite love of God.

Mary, the Queen of Heaven and earth,

may lead you

to the kingdom of Christ.

Father Theodossios-Maria of the Cross (Theodossios Sgourdelis, 1909-1989), was born in Greece and lived in Paris where he carried out an intense activity in the field of the culture and the art. Later on he converted to Catholicism, he became priest and founded the Fraternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, first in Athens, then in Rome. At present the main seat of the Fraternity is in Bagnoregio (Italy), native land of Saint Bonaventure, Doctor of the Church, where the Founder died and is buried in the church of the SS. Annunziata.