Focolare Movement
Safe spaces
Media Area
Contacts
Non categorizzato

Hemmerle: Ways to Holiness

Nov 1, 2017

For All Saints Day, Bishop Klaus Hemmerle (1929–1994), theologian and philosopher, proposes a sanctity that begins with sharing all our gifts with the poor and disadvantaged, knowing how to be at their level.

585399_1280-aGreat saints have always begun by moving toward God and toward the poor and underprivileged in an unconventional way. They left where they were from and went out towards the poor – not to give alms, but to share life, to take others’ lives in, in such a way that their own radically changed. The radical choice of God is really, in most cases in the history of salvation, a choice of the poor, a choice of the young in society, a choice of the most vulnerable. It is a choice that is not only about making the situation better, not just increase a bit of donations, or even living a small and temporary part of their lives and then go back to their own situation. It always comes from metanoia – a deep change in mentality, sensibility and being. I belong to them, I am like them, exactly like them before God, and I am not any better than them. No, I am at their level and, in fact, the Most Holy One came down to that level. From a homily on January 11, 1993. Klaus Hemmerle, The Light Within all Things, Rome: Citta’ Nuova, 1998, p. 340.

___

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to Newsletter

Thought of the day

Related post

10 years after Laudato Si’ the ‘Amazonia project

10 years after Laudato Si’ the ‘Amazonia project

May 24, 2025

24 May marks 10 years since the publication of Pope Francis’ Encyclical “Laudato Si”. A moment of celebration, verification of what has been done and to take it up again and make it known to those who are still unaware of its content. Aware that ‘there can be no renewal of our relationship with nature without a renewal of humanity itself’ (LS, 118) we present the ‘Amazonia Project’, as told by two young Brazilians during the Genfest 2024 held in Aparecida, Brazil.

Brussels: 75 years since the Schuman Declaration

Brussels: 75 years since the Schuman Declaration

May 23, 2025

Accompanying Europe to realise its vocation – 75 years since the Schuman Declaration, in the European Parliament building in Brussels, a panel of experts, representatives of various Christian Movements and young activists gave voice to the vision of European unity as an instrument of peace. A meeting promoted by Together for Europe and MEPs.