The book and the truth
will get us free

Vânia Mugnato de Vasconcelos, our interviewee in this issue, has made some timely concepts in her interview.

"Born Catholic, the religious question was always intense in me. At age 12 my family visited a spirit neighbor and although all the children were interested in playing, I was mesmerized by the bookshelf, because reading was always a pleasure. There I found the work Beautiful Cases of Chico Xavier, by Ramiro Gama, and the more I read, the more I was sure that it all made total sense." (Vânia Mugnato)

The book - vehicle of the knowledge of God. After the Protestant Reformation, the sacred book of Christianity was popularized, becoming accessible to all people, who were now encouraged to "free examination," although a large part of the population was illiterate and did not know Latin. Because the Bible could not be read except by the priests. Many suffered at the hands of the Holy Office simply because they had a copy of the Bible. The Church knew that knowledge of the gospel content would destroy much of the structure it had created. But fortunately, the holy book became the center of Christianity. And it was also through the book that spirited doctrine emerged a few years later.

"I like talking about doctrinal content by applying it to everyday life, telling stories, showing videos, remembering facts. They are focused lectures for any type of audience. I understand that the human being is better motivated to act when he realizes that what he has learned can and should be applied in the life of relationship." (Vânia Mugnato)

There are speakers who do not seem to want to be understood. They like to display titles and embellish their verb with incomprehensible ideas and erudite palaver, out of the reach of most of the assistants. However, the Master goes in the opposite direction. It is concise, it uses colloquial language, at the intellectual level of the bystanders, which is, it wants to be understood. Francis of Assisi recommended to his brothers in the apostolate: be brief, for the Lord was brief, as the Gospels tell us. Why speak for an hour, when the essence of the word can be summed up in ten minutes?

"Reincarnation [is the most extraordinary point of Spiritism]. How much would it change in human conduct, in God's conviction, in values, if whole humanity were reincarnationist and alias this knowledge to the law of cause and effect!" (Vânia Mugnato)

The word "reincarnation" was not coined by Allan Kardec, as many still believe. It was created in Latin scholar between the 17th and 18th centuries AD. But it became the most important element of the Spiritist doctrine, being recognized by the laity as the essence of Spiritism, because only through its knowledge it can one understand the other key points of Spiritist Philosophy and of Christian Morals. Only with the knowledge of reincarnation God's justice, the law of cause and effect, and the law of progress can be explained.

"[One of the important points of] The Gospel according to Spiritism, [is] the passage on the 'Good Man'. Questioning the conscience at the end of each day makes us more ready to recognize the limitations of the soul, making it easier for us to avoid stumbling on the same point the next day." (Vânia Mugnato)

Truth sets us free from ourselves. Self-knowledge, by making us aware of our actions, thoughts and words, causes us to identify our fragile, difficult to deal with, because they cause pain, turning to these weaknesses with vigilance and regaining strength through prayer. Awareness of what we are has an extraordinary therapeutic effect, and it is almost always critical to the healing of the sickness of the soul.