Serving in Men the Son of Man

      On year before his death, Don Orione summarized his work and belief in a mystical and pastoral writing.

…Let us open up a new divine world to many peoples, let us yield with loving sweetness in understanding the small, the poor and the humble.

May we always want to boil over with faith and charity.

May we always want to be holy, alive to others and dead to ourselves.

Our every word should be a breeze from the open skies: all people should feel the flame that burns in our hearts, and the light of our inner fire; finding there God and Christ.

Our devotion should not leave people cold and bored, for it must be truly and wholly alive and full of Christ.

We must thirst for martyrdom.

Serving in men the Son of man.

In order to conquer for God and to win others over, we need, first, to live are intense life of God within ourselves, to have inside us a dominating faith; a great ideal – the denial of ourselves for others – should be the flame that burns and shines in us, setting our lives on fire in an idea and a sacred love which is stronger.

No one who serves two masters – the senses and the spirit – can ever discover the secret of winning souls.

We must say the words and perform the tasks that will outlive us.

Mortification of ourselves in silence and secret.

We must be saints, but we must be such saints that our saintliness does not limit itself to the faithful, nor remain only within the Church, but transcends and throws such a shining light, such a great life of love of God and man on society, that we are more than saints of the Church; we are saints of the people and saints of social wellbeing.

We must be a very deep vein of mystic spirituality that penetrates every social stratum: meditative and active spirits, ‘servants of Christ and the poor’.

Do not give yourselves over to the vanity of letters, do not let yourselves swell up with worldly things.

Communicate with your brothers only to edify them, communicate with others only to spread the Lord’s goodness.

1. Love Christ in all men.
2. Serve Christ in the poor.
3. Renew Christ in us, and restore Christ in everything.
4. Save, always save all people, save at the cost of every sacrifice, with redeeming passion and a redeeming holocaust.

The great souls, the great and magnanimous hearts, the strong and free Christian consciences, that feel their mission of truth, faith and great hope, of holy love of God and man, walk in the light of a great, great faith, ‘that faith’ in divine providence. They walk without stain, without fear, per ignem et acquam [1], through the filth of so much hypocrisy, so much perversity and dissolution.

Let us carry with us, and indeed inside us, that divine treasury that is God, and though we must go out among peoples, let us keep that heavenly silence in our hearts, a silence no earthly noise can interrupt, and the inviolate cell of the humble perception of ourselves, where the soul speaks to the angels and to Christ the Lord.       

Around us there will be no shortage of scandal and the false shame of the scribes and Pharisees, nor of malevolent insinuations, nor of calumnies and persecution. My sons, we should   not have the time to ‘turn our heads to guide the plough’, for as much as our mission of charity drives and presses us, as much as our love of our neighbor burns within us, so much will the divine, scorching fire of Christ consume us.

We are intoxicated with charity, fools of the Cross and Christ crucified.

Above all, in our humble, holy lives full of good, we must take the small and the poor into our charge, and follow God’s path. We must live in a radiant sphere, intoxicated with light and the divine love of Christ and the poor, and of heavenly dew, like the lark that soars upward, singing in the sun.

Let our table be like the ancient Christian agape[2]. Souls! Souls!

Have great hearts and the divine folly of souls!

 From notes without precise date of January 1939

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[1] Agape denotes Christian love or charity. It was also t was used by the early Christians to refer to the self-sacrificing love of God for humanity. The word agape in its plural form is used in the New Testament to describe a meal or feast eaten by early Christians.

[2] Through fire and water.

A Pause in the Rescue: Confession and Communion.

            The Founder had been seventy hours without eating and resting, because of the rescue after the Calabrian-Sicilian earthquake. He stopped only to feed his soul by confession and communion at the archbishop's palace.

The young priest, a stranger, modest in his demeanor, properly dressed, dark of complexion and with sparkling eyes, was immediately noticed, partly because he seemed drained by tiredness.  No-one spoke to him, however, while in the big room confusion reigned.

He did not display any haste; his expression just seemed to implore a little friendliness.  Canon Vilardi made a sign for him to come near and then asked:

"And you, who are you?"

"I am Don Orione."

"Where do you come from? What do you want here?"

"Father, I wish to make my Confession. Please do me this charity." His wish was granted. Then he asked for Holy Communion and stopped in the chapel for around half an hour, while from time to time more earthquake tremors were noted.

"So, may we know where you come from?"

"I come from Piedmont, Tortona to be precise."

 "To help out with the survivors?"

"Yes, with the help of the Lord."

"Where were you before arriving in Reggio?" Don Orione told him about his short stop at Roccella Ionica. He ended up saying that he had not eaten for over seventy hours; he was overcome by indescribable tiredness and a general dizziness. He was given some food and taken to rest on a mattress belonging to a seminarian”. [1]

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[1] D. Sparpaglione, Il Beato Luigi Orione⁷, Roma, Ed. Paoline, 1980. [Unpublished translation].

Union with God, the Secret of the Apostolate

What is the great secret for succeeding in the works of the apostolate, in order to obtain satisfactory results for our work?

Every art has its secret. You who go to school and have some idea of art, you will know that every school differs from every other school. The school of Raphael had a given way of forming the figures; it had its secret; and so it was with Giotto, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. And you could also say the same about other leaders; each one had his own secret of success, to conquer and reach the summit or break the record...

Well then, what is the secret for success in the apostolate of Christian education, in the field of Christian charity? I will teach you the secret this evening.

This secret is:  union with God, to live with God, in God, united with God, to have the spirit always raised to God. In other words, it is intense prayer, according to the definition of St. Thomas: this is the great secret! St. Thomas defined prayer as ‘elevatio mentis in Deum’: prayer is the raising of our mind to God.

Prayer is the great means of succeeding in all that concerns our religious life; prayer is the great power that conquers all, the great way to succeed concerning ourselves and concerning others, in order to make ourselves perfect and to diffuse good in the souls of others.

The union of our soul, of our spirit with God is the great means of succeeding, of enriching all our actions!  All that is done is, thus, transformed into gold, because everything is done for the glory of God and everything becomes prayer.

Although we have grown up in prayer, I would say, we do not always have the idea and the concept of prayer, of what prayer really is. Prayer is the greatest weapon, the greatest moral force, the greatest way of succeeding in every way of life, whatever it may be.: this great secret is union with God; prayer which is not mechanical, but an elevation, which it should be, a union with God. So that the great man was right who said:  man is as good as his prayer; and you are as good as your prayer!

How much closer we feel to God when, weak as we are, we are attached most firmly to the One Who can do all things; the more we are united to Him, the more we become strong in the Spirit. The more humble we are, the more will our prayer be humble, which is the first condition. It is not for nothing that we have in the Gospel the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican.

We know what was the prayer of the Pharisee, puffed up and full of himself : ‘I thank you Lord .... I am not like these others!’

And we know the other prayer of the Publican: ‘Lord, have pity on me’. The prayer of the Publican is humble and confident!

We must have Faith! We must have Faith!...Not for nothing, Jesus Christ said many times in the Gospel: ‘Your Faith has saved you!’

Prayer must have a soul, and the soul of prayer is Faith: the Faith which can obtain everything and which moves mountains; prayer which is not limited to a certain time, but which must be the constant praise, the prayer which sets no limits, which leaves God free, which does not want to shackle God’s hands... You have been given the concept of the maternal Providence of God Who wants us to pray to Him, even though He knows all our needs and wishes to satisfy them.

We must pray!  Prayer is so valuable!  We grow so much through praying! And if it happens that often things are obtained without prayer, then man is building a tomb for himself. Tasso says :

He does not build who wants to construct

Empires on worldly foundations;

He will cause more ruins

And from them will come oppression

And he will have only built a sepulchre for himself!

 (Tasso, Jerusalem Freed, ch.1, v.25)

These verses of Tasso are the translation of 'Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders of it labour in vain'

Do not consider studying as your first duty, nor is your first duty literature or science, neither is it philosophy or theology, as a science in itself; but make your first duty is in praying, in prayer.

May our prayer rise to God like a cloud of incense - to use an expression of the prophet, David: ‘Lord, direct my prayer to rise like incense in your sight, as I raise my arms in evening sacrifice'. May all the people burn like perfumed incense at the tripods and altars of their divinity. Our prayer must rise to God like the perfume of incense.

Buona Notte [Good Night] of 26-9-1937.Parola VII, 56-59

Souls! Souls!

Souls of little ones,

Souls of the poor,

Souls of sinners,

Souls of the just,

Souls of those led astray,

Souls of penitents,

Souls of those who rebel against the will of God,

Souls of those who rebel against Christ’s Holy Church,

Souls of degenerate children,

Souls of wicked and unfaithful priests,

Souls submissive to suffering,

Souls white as doves,

Souls of virgins, simple yet angelic,

Souls who have fallen into the darkness of the senses

and base bestiality of the flesh,

Souls proud of evil,

Souls greedy for power and wealth,

Souls full of themselves, who see only themselves,

Souls who are confused and seeking a path,

Souls who are sorrowful and who are looking for refuge or a word of pity,

Souls who shriek in the despair of the condemned, or

Souls intoxicated in the elation of a living truth:

All are loved by Christ, and Christ died for all of them,

And Christ wants to save them all in His arms and in His pierced Heart.

Our life and all our Congregation must be a whole hymn and a universal  holocaust of fraternity in Christ.

To see and hear Christ in man. We must have in us the deepest music of charity. The central point of the universe for us is Christ’s Church, and the fulcrum of the Christian drama, the soul.

I hear only an infinite, divine symphony of spirits, throbbing around the Cross, and the Cross dripping for us, drop by drop, down the centuries the sacred blood, shed for each human soul.

From the Cross Christ cries out “I thirst”. A terrible cry of drought, which is not of the flesh, but is a cry of thirst for souls, and it is for this thirst for our souls that Christ died.

I see only a Heaven; a truly divine Heaven, because it is the Heaven of Salvation and true peace: I see only a kingdom of God, a kingdom of charity and of pardon, where the whole multitude of people is heir of Christ and of Christ’s kingdom.

Perfect happiness can only be found in perfect dedication of ourselves to God and to men, to all men, to the most wretched as well as to those most physically or morally deformed, to those furthest away, to those most guilty and to those most loathsome.

O Lord, place me at the mouth of Hell so that, by Your mercy, I might shut it.

May my secret martyrdom for the salvation of souls, of all souls, be my paradise and my greatest blessing.

Love for souls, souls, souls!  I will write my life with blood and tears.

May men’s injustice not weaken in us complete trust in God’s goodness!

I am fed and led by the spirit of undying and renewed hope.

Our charity is the sweetest and foolish love of God and men which is not of this earth.

The charity of Christ is so gentle and inexpressible that the heart cannot imagine it, nor tell of it, nor can the eye see it, nor the ear hear it.

Ever fervent words.

To suffer, to be silent, to pray, to love, to crucify ourselves and adore.

Light and peace of heart.

I will go up to my Calvary, as meekly as a lamb.

Apostolate and martyrdom, martyrdom and apostolate.

Our souls and our words must be white, chaste, almost childlike and must bring to all a breathe of Faith, goodness and consolation which raises them to Heaven.

Let us keep eyes and hearts firm in divine goodness.

To build up Christ!  Always build up! “indeed, the corner-stone is Christ!”

From notes of 25-2-1939