Saturday, November 26, 2011

St. Luigi Orione’s Sense of Humor, Part 2: Dances, Songs and Glandness in the Lord

I Want to be the Saint of Dances, Songs and Gladness in the Lord. 
         In a letter to a Franciscan priest who was to preach their annual retreat, Fr. Orione expressed his desire to serve the Lord with gladness and to be the saint of dances, songs and gladness in the Lord.  

           Let us serve the Lord with gladness: our charism has to be one of joyful charity, our doctrine to be total delight in the Lord, and our life has to be in the Lord, in the Lord, in the Lord, joyfully in the Lord. 
         Dear Father, today I have a great longing to dance: - Will there be dancing in heaven?
         If there is music, there will be dancing too. I want to sing and dance forever. Maybe the Lord will make me a special little corner where I won’t disturb the contemplatives! 
         I'm glad that Heaven will be a continual celebration - and at celebrations there is always joy, singing, dancing and joy in God. I want everyone to be happy, singing and dancing forever; I want to be the saint of dances, songs and delight in the Lord.[1]

I Want to Be Glad and Dance in the Lord, Even During Lent! 
           How can we attract vocations if we are not happy? A question to reflect on seriously. We have to radiate the happiness of God and to be saints of joy.


            Working as we do with the young and with the people – how can we attract them to God if we aren’t cheerful?
Cheerful in the Lord, of course I mean!
            We have seminarians, staff, priests, hermits, - if we are taciturn and always sunk in thought, they will find us heavy going, and we will fail to make them love the Community and the Congregation. We are not Trappists: we find joy in Charity: we are saints of joy.
            Woe betide us if we are always solemn and go around with mournful Lenten faces! Absolutely not! I want to be cheerful and dance in the Lord even during Lent! If we are gloomy, how can we transmit happiness to those around us? We must radiate joy, the joy of God, the happiness of God. We must make them realize that serving and loving God means life, warmth and love, living in constant cheerfulness; and that only as God’s servants will we experience joyful peace, and the good and holy joy of life.
           No doom and gloom either for us or those who are with us! Sing! Play music! Be glad in the Lord! Fill the house with sweet joyfulness! Serve the Lord merrily! “Scruples and melancholy, get away from me!” said St. Philip. I want to dance, to sing and to play music, even when I am dead. [2]


[1] Letter to Fr. Stefano Ignudi, OFMC. Tortona, 11th August 1934.
[2] Letter to Fr. Montagna. Victoria (Buenos Aires) 9th November 1934.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

To Sow and Plough Christ in Society


Friends, let us look up, and then we will work more, we will always work better and more, pro aris et focis; for the Church and for our country.
If we have become sluggish, let us wake up, and Christ will flood us with light! Let us clothe ourselves completely with the armour of God, so that we can courageously resist evil and do good; let us fortify ourselves in the Lord and in His almighty power. Then press ahead in Holy toil! 


Thank God, we feel that we are at the feet of the Church, let us proceed on the way along the right road: work! work! 
Action, my friends, Catholic action, as the Pope and the Bishops desire: love of God, zeal for the Church, prayer, promptness in doing good, for our own Sanctification and the salvation of our brothers.
Are these new times? Away with fears, let us not hesitate: let us move to overcome them by an ardent and intense apostolic spirit of healthy, intelligent modernity. 
Let us throw ourselves into the new forms and new methods of religious and social action, under the guidance of the Bishops, with firm Faith, but with common sense and a generous spirit. 
No sad spirit, no closed mind: always with an open heart, in a spirit of humility, goodness and joy. 
Let us pray, study and move forward. Let us not become fossilised. The people are moving on: looking up to God and to the Church, let us move on too, and not be dragged along. 
All good initiatives are in modern dress, you have only to sow and be able to plough Jesus Christ into society and make it fertile in Christ.



In the hands and at the feet of the Church, we wish to be and must be a leaven, a peaceful force of Christian renewal: trusting in God, we want to restore all in Christ. Work! work! This is the teaching of history, the example of the Saints, the command of the Vicar of Christ, the law given to us by God.
Firm in Faith and one in spirit, in the uncorrupted doctrine of the Church, there will continually flower in us the truth in the sweet and most active charity!
Let us place every one of our activities at the service of Religion and of our country: let us look only and always to the honour of God, the good of the Church and to the well-being of our neighbour. In humility and fervour, let us bring to all the vivid and shining mark of our Faith and of the doctrine of Christ: let us work and work! 
Onwards with God and the Holy Virgin!  And every day like the first day: onwards, always forward with good works! 
With an ever new vigour, with an ever more lively, ardent and greater Faith, let us labour without tiring, dear brothers, to extend the kingdom and charity of Jesus Christ and to save souls, SOULS and SOULS!




  
From an article which appeared in "The Little Work of Divine Providence" Magazine (March 1934).

Saturday, November 19, 2011

We are here to Work!


When we were children, my brother and I used to quarrel about a great white sofa which we had at home. We both wanted to lie on it and watch television. 
One day my father, who is a hard-working man, got angry about our arguments and said something which I remember well: “If Don Orione were here, he would burn the sofa”. Then, he told us a story that he had heard. 

Roberto Mela, Fr. Facundo Mela's father, at his metalworking lathe
 Once, Don Orione had found some seminarians lounging idly on a sofa. Our Founder then took the sofa and placed it in the middle of the yard; calling all the seminarians and members of the community, burned it in front of them. Then he said: We are here to Work!” 
My father spent his life in our parish in Pompeya (Buenos Aires, Argentina) where he met some hard-working religious and priests. My father admires them because they worked very hard and loved it.
In that school of work, my father heard this story, and they taught him that Don Orione did that because he wanted his children to be hard workers, neither like rich kids nor lazy priests. 
Some years later, I joined the congregation and again heard the same story. But to this day his words remain fixed in my memory: We are here to Work!”


 From Don Orione’s writtings:
           When did anyone ever see Don Bosco lounging on a sofa?  
If only you had understood the real significance of burning the sofa in the middle of the yard last year! 
It was not just about the spirit of poverty, it had a much deeper meaning! One day you will come to a true understanding!” 
(Tortona, August 3, 1920)


Fr. Facundo Mela, FDP
Payatas (Philippines)