Theology becomes popular philosophy in Piero Martinetti’s spiritual Breviary
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A popular philosophy that can appeal to most men. It is a practical introduction to religious experience, which takes into consideration the institutes and rites linked to individual peoples, but detaches itself from the “visible churches” in search of the “invisible union of all sincere souls”, because “all religions lead at the bottom of a single religion “. This is the heart of the Spiritual breviary (most recent edition Utet, 2006) by Piero Martinetti written in 1923.
«Religion – writes Martinetti – is wisdom, but considered under its traditional and practical aspect. It is therefore understood that it makes use of stories, images, representations which cannot always satisfy reason and which have their origin in tradition and in the depths of the popular soul. So every people has its own religion, if by religion we mean religious imaginations, but all religions are basically reduced to a single religion, the aspiration towards invisible reality.
Precisely because of its practical character, religion is concretized in institutes, in rites, in a complex system of life that has great moral and social importance. The individual can never completely abstract from it: even when he thinks he is fighting the religious tradition in which he was born, he still suffers its influence and, by denying it, he denies the spiritual source of his life. If any advice can give us moral wisdom, this is the advice not to delude ourselves that we can find a sure foundation for our spiritual life outside of tradition, and at the same time not to stop at this traditional content, to transform it into a true inner experience, in a personal life. This participation must of course not be a servile adhesion that destroys in us the interior life and the sense of spiritual freedom. Let us therefore leave their intolerance and intransigence to fanatics and sectarians: no dogma, no profession of faith can separate those who sincerely aspire and strive in different ways to the perfection of the spirit. In all times, but especially in ages like ours, the true Church does not reside in any of the visible churches that offer us the sad spectacle of their dissensions, but in the invisible union of all sincere souls who have purified themselves from selfishness. natural and in the cult of charity and justice they had the revelation of truth and the promise of eternal life ”.
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