On Pilgrimage with Saint Benedict (Part 3) – Red Letter Christians

On Pilgrimage with Saint Benedict (Part 3) – Red Letter Christians: It’s tempting to think that the gospel life might be easier—that it’s somehow easier to trust—when surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses. They do inspire and empower, it seems. In the 10th century, when Giovanni Gualberto, a Florentine nobleman, met the man who’d killed his brother on the street in Florence, he drew his sword to kill him. But it was Good Friday, and the sight of his enemy lifting his arms in surrender reminded him of the cross. Together they climbed the hill that St. Minas had climbed before them and knelt below a crucifix here. Their eyes stayed on Jesus, the two men watched their Lord bow his head. Gualberto took it as a sign that reconciliation was, indeed, the way of the cross. Somehow this sort of miracle feels natural here.