One of the things I want to do this Lent is to return to making the Letters of St. Gaspar del Bufalo available on the internet for study and research. I am more than half finished and there are other documents and letters that can be uploaded after that.
Since St. Gaspar wrote many letters of Spiritual Direction there are many gems among the letters. Of course many of the letters are administrative in nature and only interesting from a historical perspective. It can be a bit boring to hear him speaking of sending books here or there, opening missions, sending stipends, or selling this or that. But occasionally there is a gem to be found among the administrative details.
One such gem was found in Letter 2598 written September 20, 1833 to Mother Maria Nazzarena De Castris:
You should remain calm, very, very calm concerning the past as well as your present status. Think no more about something that ought no longer to be remembered. God wishes to have acts of love. So, let us strive to love the one who loves us so very much. May the Heart of Jesus be the center of our lives, our mystical cell, our ark of refuge. If Jesus puts himself out in search of sinners, can you imagine that he would not seek and love the person who is faithful to him?
I find this helpful because I often encounter people in the confessional who are confessing again past sins that they have previously confessed, but about which they are still feeling some guilt.
The new letters uploaded today can be found here:
Letters 2501-2550
Letters 2551-2600
Letters 2601-2650
Letters 2651-2700
Letters 2701-2750
All of the letters can be found here.
