We will propose in these days some extracts from writings about our founders and some testimonials about the man someone called "the Gangster for Christ".
From the Pope's homily at the Beatification Mass (on October
26th 1980)
"Don Orione appears to us as a marvellous and creative
expression of Christian charity. It is impossible to summarise in a few
sentences the adventurous and sometimes dramatic life of one how called
himself, humbly, but shrewdly: "God's porter". But we can state that
he was doubtlessly one of the most outstanding personalities of this century,
because of his openly professed Christian faith.
He was a joyful and complete Priest of Christ, going all
over Italy and Latin America, consecrating his own life to those who suffer
because of calamities, poverty and human misconduct. It is enough to recall his
selfless work among the victims of the Messina and Marsica's earthquakes.
Poor among the poor, fired by love for Christ and for the more
needy brothers, he founded the Little Work of Divine Providence, the Little
Missionary Sisters of Charity and, later on, the Blind Sacramentine Sisters and
the Hermits of Saint Albert. He also opened houses in Poland (1923), United
States (1934) and England (1936), with a true ecumenical spirit. He wished to
make his love for Mary real, by building the magnificent Shrine of Our Lady of
Safe-Keeping, at Tortona.
Something I find very moving, is the particular affection
that Don Orione had for Poland: he suffered greatly when my dear homeland was
overrun and torn apart in September 1939. I know that the white-red Polish
flag, that in those tragic days he triumphally carried in procession to the
Shrine of Our Lady, is still hanging on the wall of his very poor room in
Tortona: he wanted it there himself! And, in the last farewell talk he gave on
the evening of March 8th, before going to Sanremo, where he was to die 4 days
later, he said again: "I have loved the Polish people very much. I have
loved them since I was a young boy, I have always loved them…. You must always
love these brothers of yours".
Out of his very intense and dynamic life, there stand out
the secret and the genius of Don Orione: he always and only let himself be
guided by the tight logic of love! Boundless and total love for God, for
Christ, for Mary, for the Church, for the Pope and equally absolute love for
man, the whole man, soul and body, for all people, small and great, rich and
poor, humble and wise, saints and sinners, with a particular benevolence and
tenderness for the suffering, the outcast and the hopeless. This was his
programme of action: "Our political programme is the great and divine
charity that helps everyone. Our political philosophy is that of the Our
Father. We look at nothing else but souls to save. Souls and souls! There is
our whole life: this is our battle cry and our programme, our whole spirit and
our whole heart". He would exclaim as if in a poem: "Christ is
coming, carrying on his heart the Church and in his hands the tears and blood
of the poor: the rights of the afflicted, oppressed, widows, orphans, humble
and outcast. Behind Christ, new heavens open: it is like the dawn of God's
triumph!".
He had the character and the heart of the
Apostle Paul, kind-hearted and compassionate to he point of tears, tireless and
courageous to the point of daring, bold and dynamic to the point of heroism,
facing dangers of every kind, at ease with people in high positions of politics
and culture, giving light to men without faith, converting sinners and always
absorbed in continuous and trusting prayer, sometimes accompanied by harsh acts
of penance. One year before dying he summed up the essential plan of his life:
"To suffer, to be quiet, pray, love, be crucified and to adore". God is
great in his Saints, and Don Orione remains as bright and comforting example of
faith for all ".
(Extract from the Homely of Pope
John Paul II)
No comments:
Post a Comment