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Conference 1 – Introduction – Overcoming Spiritual Discouragement with Fr. Timothy Gallagher
Conference talk 1 from the Discerning Hearts Seminar/Retreat held online late spring 2020 with Fr. Timothy Gallagher
Letters of Venerable Bruno Lanteri to his spiritual directee, Gabriella Solaro della Margarita
1. My Lady and my Daughter in Jesus Christ,
Your letter just arrived; I was glad to receive it, and it gave me real joy. I am happy to hear that your trip went well, and that your whole family is in good health. I see no reason why you may not entrust your little Louise to your dear sister, the Lady Countess Vidua. She could not be in better hands, and the reasons for doing so are many. In my view, you may do this with total peace of heart.
And it gives me greater happiness still to know that Fr. Ferrero is already there with you. It is important, then, to begin immediately, to arrange with him for receiving Communion, and to do so as often as you can. You must be consistently faithful to meditation and to spiritual reading, if it be only a quarter of an hour of meditation and a single page of spiritual reading, and the same also for the examination of conscience which you can do while you are working. Do not forget to raise your heart frequently, but gently and with peace, to God, and to make acts of mortification, especially interior ones; for you, this means the effort to live each moment with a gentle and joyful spirit. For the love of God, I beg of you to wage continual warfare against negative moods, and never fail to begin again.
Do not wait until you have devotion to begin these things. Begin even without devotion since that will come with time, and this is precisely the means to attain it. Devotion must be the fruit and not the cause of the practices I have recommended. For the rest, you know that true devotion consists in readiness to be faithful to the Lord, and not in sentiment. I hope that soon you will send me consoling news in this regard
I ask you to give my greetings to Father Cesare and to tell him that I would be happy to see him here, and that I always hope to be able one day to visit with him there. For the present, tell Fr. Ferraro that, even though I have not yet had the joy of meeting him, I ask him to give you no rest in committing yourself to practicing all that I have just recommended to you and to call you strictly to account, and I will be grateful to him for this.
I bless you together with all your family, I recommend myself to your prayers, and I am, with the highest esteem and respect,
Your Servant and Father in Jesus Christ, Fr. Lanteri Turin, May 22, 1807
Visit the “Begin Again: The Spiritual Legacy of the Venerable Bruno Lanteri with Fr. Timothy Gallagher Discerning Hearts podcast” for more episodes of this series
Father Timothy M. Gallagher, O.M.V., was ordained in 1979 as a member of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, a religious community dedicated to retreats and spiritual formation according to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Fr. Gallagher is featured on the EWTN series “Living the Discerning Life: The Spiritual Teachings of St. Ignatius of Loyola”.
For books on the life and teachings of Ven. Bruno Lanteri:
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For the other episodes in this series check out
Fr. Timothy Gallagher’s “Discerning Hearts” page
Please visit the site dedicated to Ven. Bruno Lanteri for more information and prayer requests
Prayer to Obtain Graces by the intercession of Ven. Bruno Lanteri
Heavenly Father, you filled the heart of your servant Bruno with a living and active faith. Grant that our lives be guided by that same faith, and, through his intercession, give us the grace of which we have so great need… Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.
Jesus, uncreated Wisdom, through the hope in your merits and in your Cross, infused into the heart of your servant Bruno, and through the zeal he showed in teaching your goodness and mercy, grant us the same ardor and the grace for which we fervently ask… Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.
Holy Spirit, fount of charity, through the love for God and neighbor that you enkindled in the heart of your servant Bruno, grant also to us that, living far from sin, in charity and justice, we may be worthy of the grace we humbly seek and gain the joy of heaven… Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.
And you, Virgin Mother of God and our Mother, obtain from the Lord the beatification of your servant Bruno, who all his life loved you as a loyal son and zealously sought to lead others to you, and obtain for us through his intercession the grace that with great trust we ask of you… Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.
