In the city in the morning hours

What happens in the city in the early hours of the morning, when the day begins?

Everything happens. Many get up, hurry to get ready to leave for work, wake up the others at home, prepare breakfast, in a hurry. It is already time to catch the train. Many do not get up, they are elderly, they are sick, perhaps they are waiting for someone to help them to start a miserable day. Many continue to sleep because they have nothing to do during the day. Some come home in the early hours of the morning and go to sleep after working through the night. Some under the porches move to collect blankets and cardboard boxes and clear the porch where soon men in suits arrive and it looks like a different humanity.

What happens in the city in the early hours of the morning?

It also happens that men and women gather and practise the wise man’s advice: raise your voice and sing together, bless the Lord for all his works. Magnify his name and proclaim his praise. Here it happens that men and women from morning onwards invoke the blessing of God for the whole city: let those who know and those who do not know be blessed by God, let those in suits and ties and those dressed in dirt be blessed by God; let those who rush to work and school, those who go nowhere, be blessed by God.

In this city and in every part of it there are men and women who take it upon themselves every morning to bless the Lord for all his works and invoke every blessing for all the children of men. Ask not whether they are many or few, whether they are young or old, whether they were born in this land or come from distant countries. I know that there are men and women who have taken it upon themselves to bless the Lord every morning.

Then they also go running to the work that awaits them, and in going they are blessed by God.

In the city in the evening hours.

What happens in the city in the evening hours, when the day ends?

Many return late: they are tired, they have worked, travelled, been satisfied or angry, humiliated or bored. Some continue to study late into the night. Some continue to get drunk on poison and nastiness. Many stay there where they have been all day in an empty house because they are alone, in a sick bed. Some make themselves a sheltered place on the porch. Many return home and are glad to have a home and a family. Some return home and begin to fight. In the prisons of the city, prisoners fall asleep in their desolation. The end of the day is like a sign of destiny: everything ends.

In this city there are men and women who live the evening and the night as an invocation: I have certainly not reached the goal, I have not arrived at perfection, but I strive to conquer it, because I too have been conquered by Christ Jesus. They experience the night as expectation: come, Lord Jesus! Here I am, Lord Jesus! Men and women who sum up the day lived in the sigh of reaching the desired meeting. Their life is an invocation of the kingdom of God. There are men and women who give voice to the expectation of those who wait and those who wait for nothing and no one, those who hope and those who are desperate, those who ask and those who ask for nothing. But in the city, there are these voices of invocation and hope.

Ask not whether they are many or few, young or old, born here or coming from other countries. I know that there are men and women who are the voice of invocation and hope.

In the city, in the hours of the day.

What happens in the city during daylight hours?

Many are caught up in work that takes up all their resources and energy, they have great responsibilities, they care for the sick, teach in schools, run city services, discuss and plan with people from all over the world, in all languages, and wonder how much they earn. Some are forced to stay put, to stay in their homes and solitude, and wonder if they have enough money to make ends meet. Some make dirty money and accumulate unhappiness for others and for themselves and wonder how much they earn. Some are imprisoned in illness, depression, prison, and wonder if they have enough courage to go on living.

In this city there are men and women who have chosen not to think about money, to accumulate their treasure elsewhere. Men and women who have received from the Father the grace to be citizens of the Kingdom. They are free and poor to recognise God's works, to be allies of God's love.

Do not keep asking whether they are many or few, young or old, born here or coming from other countries. Know that there are men and women who do not ask themselves how much they earn, but how much they love.

This is how consecrated men and women live: men and women charged with being the voice of all the people who inhabit this earth to bless God, to practise hope, to wonder how great love is.

See, In città le prime ore del mattino