How praying the Breviary feels if you are a Saint

...or a Blessed, at least. And even the rest of us can regularly experieince something approaching this, so long as we pay attention to the psalms and their allegorical and moral meanings.   That, plus reminding yourself that you are praying the psalms, even when alone at home, as one voice united with the body of Christ in this world and the next. «....I close my eyes, and while my lips murmur the words of the Breviary which I know by heart, I leave behind their literal meaning, and feel that I am in that endless land where the Church, militant and pilgrim, passes, walking towards the promised fatherland. I breathe with the Church in the same light by day, the same darkness by night; I see on every side of me the forces of evil that beset and assail Her; I find myself in the midst of Her battles and victories, Her prayers of anguish and Her songs of triumph, in the midst of the oppression of prisoners, the groans of the dying, the rejoicing of the armies and captains victorious. I find myself in their midst, but not as a passive spectator; nay rather, as one whose vigilance, whose skill, whose strength and courage can bear a decisive weight on the destiny of the struggle between good and evil, and upon the eternal destinies of individual men and of the multitude.»  Blessed Card. Ildefonso Schuster (Archbishop of Milan 19289-54) and here he is.  (wikimedia commons) Thanks for this quote to Gregory DiPippo, managing editor  at the New Liturgical Movement blog.  and posted this on a Divine Office discussion page on Facebook today. I'll add that Mr. DiPippo translated this from the Italian original.  Now I want to learn more about Bl. Cardinal Schuster, who writes with such exquisite beauty.