Today's advice 2 September 2020 from the Venerable Madeleine Delbrêl

Venerable Madeleine Delbrêl (1904-1964)
lay missionary of the urban suburbs

The desert of crowds

Loneliness, my God,
it's not that we're alone,
is that you are there,
since before you everything becomes death
or everything becomes you. (...)

We are children enough to think all these people
it's big enough,
quite important,
quite alive
to cover the horizon when we look towards you.

To be alone,
it is not having surpassed men, or having left them;
to be alone, is to know that you are great, oh my God,
that only you are great,
and there is not much difference between the infinity of grains of sand and the infinity of human lives.

The difference does not disturb loneliness,
as what makes human lives more visible
in the eyes of the soul, more present,
is the communication they have of you,
their prodigious resemblance
to the only that it is.
It's like a fringe of you and this fringe
does not hurt loneliness. (...)

We do not blame the world,
we do not blame life
to veil the face of God for us.
This face, let's find it, is the one that will veil, absorb everything. (...)

What does our place in the world matter,
What does it matter if it's populated or depopulated,
wherever we are "God with us",
wherever we are Emmanuel.