We Will Understand Life’s Design of Love

We are part of the pilgrim Church, of the people of the Exodus, a people walking in the desert, camping around the Tabernacle, a presence that radiates light; a people who, having rolled up the tent, resume the journey. Then there is the Church in a state of purification, made up of the brothers and sisters who are being purified in Love and, finally, the Church of the blessed, of the Saints.

We are in constant communication with both: every liturgical celebration is a participation in and a reflection of the celestial liturgy taking place around the Lamb, whose symbolic image is present in the Book of Revelation (cf. the 24 elders and the myriad of angels).

I remember the testimony of a friend who visited the Russian monastery on Mount Athos, where Silouan had lived. In 1922, Lenin forbade the entry of Russian novices into convents and, consequently, the monks were all very elderly. At the time of the divine liturgy, he saw a procession of frail monks heading toward the choir.
He expected a bleak celebration; instead, the elders, seated in their stalls, began to sing and seemed to stand tall and radiant with light... They looked exactly like the 24 elders of Revelation intent on singing the praises of the Lamb: a moving vision.
Every liturgical celebration, therefore also the Liturgy of the Hours, is a participation in the liturgy of the heavenly Jerusalem.

All the sacraments introduce us into Paradise, but the sacrament that encompasses all its richness is the Eucharist. Some texts in this regard: the antiphon to the Magnificat in the Second Vespers of Corpus Christi, «He has given us a pledge of eternal glory»; the Adoro Te Devote, «That I may contemplate You face to face and that my vision may be blessed by Your glory...»; the famous letter-testament of Ignatius of Antioch, «The Eucharist, medicine of immortality and antidote against death».

And also the verse of a Brazilian Easter song: «And when the eternal day of full vision dawns, we shall rise for having believed in the life hidden in this bread».

Fr. Mario Airoldi
NP December 2025