The scent of a lily

fr. Antonio Ramina

Saint Anthony speaks to us of the lily, the flower that is associated to him. He often speaks of it making allusions to the Bible. He describes this flower as the symbol of “a double grace: the beauty of holy life and the scent of “good reputation”. Beauty and perfume. Holy life and good reputation. Almost as to tell us that each one of us is called on to bloom as a beautiful and fragrant lily and to grow these “graces”. We know that each grace is a gift and a responsibility at the same time. The first gift to grow is “the holy life” described as a source of beauty. For St. Anthony holiness is beauty! It is the beauty that emerges from simplicity and that is not aimed to “produce”. What does this mean? That to be a saint does not imply the absence of sin or the purpose to earn a place in Paradise: Christian holiness is beauty, it is the possibility to live a beautiful life and to spread the beauty around us!

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