Reflection on Blessed Antonio Rosmini, Founder of the Institute of Charity by Fr. Rick

Blessed Rosmini, the Fr. Founder of the Institute of Charity, looked at the 4 Gospels and wrote a small work called the Maxims of Christian Perfection. Over the following weeks, I would like to reflect with you on the First Maxim of Christian Perfection – “To desire only and without limit to please God, that is, to be just.” From the beginning, Blessed Antonio Rosmini goes to the heart of our calling to be saints. Let me give you a little road map through this First Maxim. This road map to please God includes Desire, Holiness/Justice, God’s Will, and Prayer. Today, I will share the first leg of this road map Desire. This first principle is of super eminent importance to Rosmini-to desire only without limit to please God, that is, to be just. “Justice” for Rosmini means – “To give someone their due. What is their due?” Am I giving the members of my family and my parish what is their due? We see why “Desire” is so important. Desire is beautiful because it carries something we long for, want, and can almost taste. Desiring something good and doing all we can to make it happen fills us with passion. When we realize that God created and saved us out of love, sacrificing Himself, we want to give God back something to show our appreciation. It becomes something personal between us and God. But we realize that He has everything in himself that is good. There’s nothing we can add to his goodness. So Blessed Rosmini had a deep appreciation of God’s goodness and his own unworthiness. The most he realized he could do, and any of us can do, is to desire to please God with every fiber of our being. In my own words, I pray every morning, “All I want is for You to be happy with me, dear Lord. I want to give You my very best, the best I can be-priest, pastor, Knight, friend, citizen.“ When I want to be the best I can be for You, God Himself desires this through me. He alone can make it happen, anytime, any day we desire it. Next week I will share how this desire helps us to become saints.