DIVO BARSOTTI
Have faith. I have no fear of Death; I have already experienced a foretaste of communion with Him through those I have loved. Have faith. God will not fail you.
When Father Divo Barsotti moved to Florence from the diocese of San Miniato in 1945, he was received by Cardinal Elia Dalla Costa (1872-1961) at the request of the politician and future Mayor of Florence, Servant of God Giorgio La Pira (1904-1977). He stayed in a convent near the Porta Romana. Four laywomen, already strongly united in faith, asked Don Divo to be their spiritual director. He devised a rule of life for them, which included praying the Liturgy of the Hours, keeping the Presence of God constantly in mind, and studying and meditating on the Holy Bible and the great works of Christian Tradition from the churches of both East and West. He specified contemplative prayer as a vital part of the baptismal call in every walk of life. The ladies called him “The Father”. They met as a group weekly, and made a retreat every month. Don Divo’s name for the new religious family was “The Community of the Sons and Daughters of God”. The name describes the Church herself. The Community grew in the 1950s with groups forming in Viareggio, Venice, Palermo, Modena and Naples. As the structure of the Community took shape, monastic houses for monks and nuns developed along traditional conventual lines, making it a “religious family” of various states of life –men and women, young and old, celibate and married. Today the Community of the Sons and Daughters of God is in Australia, Benin, Colombia, Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom. The spirituality of the CFD is monastic. Especially in Eastern Christianity, the state of monastic life is understood as the full development of the grace of Baptism. To be a monk means to tend towards an ever fuller development of one’s baptismal vocation, a vocation that is common to all. On this basis, Fr Divo Barsotti, drawing from Eastern Christian spirituality, especially Russian spirituality, held that it is possible to propose the monastic ideal to persons living in the world, in the form of “monasticism of the heart” or “internalised monasticism.” For this reason, the means the Community offers for one to respond to this specific vocation are precisely those of the great monastic tradition: sacramental and liturgical life, prayer and listening to the Word of God, fraternal life. According to an established programme, members of the Community meditate EVERY MONTH A BOOK OF THE BIBLE in such a way that the whole Bible is read in a period of six years. Members live a SACRAMENTAL AND LITURGICAL LIFE as far as possible. Members recite daily at least some hours of the LITURGY OF THE HOURS. Every week consecrated members meet in small GROUPS. In these meetings, members pray together, receive biblical formation, absorb the spirituality of the Founder, share with each other and help each other to go deeper into the heart of the spiritual life. Every month there is a larger meeting between all the groups of the area (GATHERING) and a half-day RETREAT in which the religious dimension of silence is emphasized. Finally, during the year several COURSES OF SPIRITUAL EXERCISES lasting five days are given in different regions of Italy and a pilgrimage is conducted to get to know better certain sacred places that are particularly significant to our spirituality.
inundado por um mistério de luz que é Deus e N´Ele vi e ouvi -A ponta da lança como chama que se desprende, toca o eixo da terra, – Ela estremece: montanhas, cidades, vilas e aldeias com os seus moradores são sepultados. - O mar, os rios e as nuvens saem dos seus limites, transbordam, inundam e arrastam consigo num redemoinho, moradias e gente em número que não se pode contar , é a purificação do mundo pelo pecado em que se mergulha. - O ódio, a ambição provocam a guerra destruidora! - Depois senti no palpitar acelerado do coração e no meu espírito o eco duma voz suave que dizia: – No tempo, uma só Fé, um só Batismo, uma só Igreja, Santa, Católica, Apostólica: - Na eternidade, o Céu! 
