Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Health Vailankanni

O my God, solitude is not so that we might be alone but that you should be present, for before your presence either all becomes dead or becomes you. (…) Are we sufficiently childish as to think that all those people joined together are great enough, important enough, vital enough to block the horizon when we look towards you. To be alone is not to have overtaken people or left them behind; being alone is knowing that you are great, O my God, that you alone are God, and that there is not much difference between the dimensions of a grain of sand and the dimensions of human lives gathered together. The difference, it does not spoil the solitude, for what makes these human lives more visible, more present to the eyes of our soul is that communication they have with you. It is their prodigious resemblance to the only one who is. It is like a fringe of you, and that fringe does not wound the solitude. (…) Let us not blame the world, let us not blame life for veiling the face of God for us. Let us find that face, it is that which will veil, which will absorb all things. (…) What does our place in the world matter, what does it matter whether it is populated or depopulated, wherever we are "God is with us", we are Emmanuel everywhere.

Other Thoughts

First

Last

The desert of the crowds

Shrine Counselling

Contact Shrine