Gianfranco Ravasi

"With respect to clothing, in addition to the material aspect, there is a moral aspect, since clothes have the purpose of defending, concealing and protecting the mystery of sexuality and life. And there is a metaphorical aspect, which I myself witness by wearing the cardinal's red, since the garment refers to the investiture, that is, to the social function of who wears it and to the symbolic representation that follows. [...] Even the simplest vestments can testify to an excess of luxury, to the futility and uselessness of luxury. But just as the sacredness of the liturgical function appears in the ecclesiastical vestments, so in luxury haute couture a symbolic function appears that transcends the mere function of covering oneself."

"It is evident that freemasonry has acquired some Christian even liturgical models. We must not forget, in fact, that in the seventeenth century, many English lodges recruited some members and masters among the Anglican clergy, so much so that one of the first and fundamental masonic “constitution” was compiled by the Presbyterian pastor James Anderson, who died in 1739. It stated, among other, that an adept “will not be a stupid atheist nor an unreligious libertine”, also if the proposed credo, in the end, was the most undefined, “the one of a religion all men agree with”."

"Prayer is also an art, an exercise of beauty, of song, of inner liberation. It is ascesis and ascent, it is a rigorous effort, but also a gentle and free flight of the soul toward God."

"The soul that reduces prayer to the minimum remains asphyxiated; if it excludes all invocation, it is slowly strangled."

"Faith, like love, does not take up only a few hours of existence, but is its soul, its constant breathing."