In wartime Trent, with everything crumbling around them, some young Catholic women looked at the ruins of their lives and their dreams and asked, “Is there anything that does not pass away?” And from within came the answer: “Yes . . . it is God. God endures forever.” In that moment, in those perilous times, they chose God as their “Ideal” and began, moment by moment, living the gospel.
Although they never set out to establish a movement, their commitment to live in this way led to their Ideal spreading throughout Italy, throughout Europe, and throughout the world. Non-believers were converted to God, religious orders were transformed, the laity recognized their call to holiness. And God did not stop there. The Ideal spread to other Christian Churches, and to the Orthodox Churches as well.
