Aunt Settimia, the wife of his uncle Luigi, is like a mother to the young La Pira.
In a letter to her, sent from Florence in 1931, La Pira writes clearly about the “project” of his life with three sentences that express it fully:
(…) I would like the fire that burns in my soul to burn in the souls of others: so that Heaven and joy inhabit their souls.
(…) My current mood is expressed in one word: I am a free apostle of the Lord, happy to love and proclaim his ineffable beauty and mercy.
(…) There is no doubt that the Lord has filled my soul with the desire for priestly grace: only, however, that he wants me to stay in my lay clothing to work more productively in the secular world away from Him. But the purpose of my life is clearly marked: to be a missionary of the Lord in the world: and this apostolate work must be carried out by me in the conditions and environment in which the Lord has placed me
Clicking here you will reach the following letters