Scalabrinian Spirituality

It is only in this way that we can understand the spirituality of Bishop Scalabrini. He did nothing else but live the ideal he was proposing to all Christians:

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"God loves his Son and loves him in essence. It is impossible that he may find his delight in anyone else but in him because God’s love is infinite and it can only have an object of infinite value: Hic est Filius meus dilectus in quo mihi bene complacui—This is my own dear Son, with whom I am well pleased. (Mt 17,5). But this beloved Son of his, became man. Therefore, he loves man in him. With one joy and one love he embraces all, body, flesh, and soul. Now, we are that flesh, those bones; we are that nature, we are one body with Christ and in him and through him we are made children of God, in fact, the very Son of God who is in us. Therefore, in him we, too, are embraced and included by the Father in one act of love. As the sonship of God by which Christ is the Son of God widens and extends in us and on us, so also the love of the Father widens and extends to us. In this way, we too are made pleasing to God and favored by him in Christ who is, by nature, pleasing to and favored by him: gratificavit nos in dilecto Filio Suo—He made us pleasing to him in his Beloved Son. (Pastoral Letter, Lent 1878. Piacenza, 1878. pp.16-17).

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Source: THE SPIRITUALITY OF BISHOP SCALABRINI of Mario Francesconi, cs Translated from Italian by Martin Bortolazzo, cs and Ezio Marchetto, cs​