“We all need a warm heart, and we know that inner warmth – the one that can fill one’s life and coat any deed with eternity – is not given by success, by popularity, by the following one can achieve, but by being humble in God’s will: in peace! This is the only secret of our life as priests and celibates”. This was pointed out this morning by cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, archbishop of Genoa and president of CEI (Italian Bishops Conference), in the sermon for Mass celebrated in the Vatican basilica – as part of the 69th general assembly – as he celebrated the 50th anniversary of his ordination to priesthood. “Thank you, dead brethren – the cardinal began – because you accepted me as the officiator of this Eucharist on the fiftieth anniversary of my Ordination to Priesthood. For me, this is a grace that I would never have thought I would have: being able to celebrate this anniversary with you. In mine I would also like to gather all your anniversaries, even if they had already gone or had yet to come”. All together, Bagnasco went on, “it is nice to go back to the sacramental beginnings of our ordination and let the warm wave of memories flow for a little while”. And “the question that comes natural is: have we responded to such grace? It is the Lord that takes stock of things, it is for us to confide in mercy with the duty of praise, of never-ending amazement for the gift, the excess of the task. It is for us the increasing wish never to debase the grace received, either with our limits or with our sins, either with reduced passion or with the habit of the years. May the simplicity of our work – at the altar, at home, on the streets – always be the fruit of our prayer, of worshipping God’s greatness in our weakness, thankful that God loves us in poverty”.