A new year, a new life!

To the Religious of the Little Work of Divine Providence.

Buenos Aires, Epiphany 1935

Now we have started the new year:

we thank God for the many benefits received,

and we begin today truly to love

and serve Jesus Christ

and the Holy Roman Church, our Mother,

in a great fire of charity,

with the whole of our poor lives. 

Prostrate before God

we humbly ask pardon from Him,

our heavenly Father,

for all the ingratitude of our past life,

and everyone should say from his heart:

Now I begin in the Name of Jesus

Now I begin to be of Christ and of the Church.

A new year, a new life:

a holy and sanctifying life! 

A new year, a whole life in Jesus,

of Jesus, for Jesus! 

Let us live of Jesus! 

Like children in His arms

and in His heart,

holy and faultless in His sight;

engulfed in love

for Jesus and for souls,

in faithfulness and obedience

without limit towards Him and His Church! 

Let us live for Jesus! 

All and everything for Jesus;

nothing outside of Jesus,

nothing that is not Jesus,

that does not lead to Jesus,

that does not breathe Jesus! 

In a manner worthy of the vocation

that we have received,

modelled on His Cross,

on His sacrifice,

on His obedience unto death,

as a sacrifice and total holocaust of ourselves,

giving forth a sweet odour.

The Emblem of Christ and His Church

From the Christmas Present in 1934.

Out of His Crib Jesus cries out to the world: “Charity! Charity! Charity!” Live your lives in charity. The word of God, the Gospel, is with us; the life, the flaming Heart of Jesus is in our midst. He is everywhere among us; and God is charity. Upon charity God has established the foundation of our holy religion: it is the noblest, the most splendiferous of all virtues; it is the beginning and the source of all our spiritual merits. Charity infused in our hearts by the Holy Spirit is the virtue whereby we love God for His own sake and our neighbor for the love of God.

Charity! Charity! Charity! Nothing is dearer to Jesus Christ, nothing more precious than fraternal charity, for it is in this spirit alone that man is edified united, and unified in Christ. All misgivings, even if raised supposedly for the love of truth and in zeal for the glory of God, should be discarded should they, in the slightest way, embitter our hearts and weaken the spirit of charity in us.

The Charity of Christ is so vast that it embraces heaven and earth. It is militant to the point of audacity, but sweet-tempered; it is all powerful and over- comes all obstacles. Charity prefers the simplicity of the cooing dove to the hissing mistrust of the serpent, for what the serpent represents is indifference. Charity is open to all goodness, wherever it is found; it is understanding and, in humility, is willing to Lenten from everybody, always confiding in the Lord, and content with how much or how little it finds in the hearts even of those who are remote from it. Its zeal does not stifle, nor does it intrude; it is discreet and wise because it knows and understands the limitation of human frailty - it knows how difficult it is to and persons without shortcomings and thus, it is extremely tolerant.

Charity does nothing unseemly: it is never agitated, it does not mind the wrongs which are done to it, it overcomes evil with good. It takes no pleasure in injustice, but it is happy whenever it can rejoice in truth. It seeks to justify everything, it hopes for the best in all things, it, endures every ill. It prays and it suffers in silence for the sake of Jesus and for the sake of man.

Charity is never subject to whims, never harsh; it finds its happiness in spreading and irradiating itself. It operates in kindness, meekness and gentleness. One thing it cries for is to sacrifice itself in order to save and make others happy for the glory of God.

Every human science is dull if charity does not season it with the love of God, and neighbor: without it, science swells with egotistical pride.

First enters charity, and then follows science; for the latter can be annihilated while the former never perishes but abides forever. It is charity and charity alone which will save the world.

Blessed are those who walk in the sunshine of grace radiating from the celestial charity of Jesus.

Ever Higher

When he saw that a conjurer was drawing people away from the Church by his conjuring tricks, little John Bosco - who from his boyhood saw, felt and understood by means of a sublime light from heaven, the mission that God was giving him: this meant that he was not to close himself up or to envelop himself tightly in a life that one could call one of "himself alone", but rather that he should fight the world with modern weapons, i.e. those of this age, using the printed word to fight the printed word, schools to combat schools, good propaganda to counter evil propaganda - Don Bosco, as I was saying, although still a boy, tackled the conjurer.  He did not go into the church to pray that the conjurer would stop (although he certainly did pray), but confronted him with great self-confidence.  

 He decided to do tricks himself, and with such daring... The conjurer suggested leaping up on to the highest part of a tree, and the boy John Bosco accepted the challenge. The first to climb up was the conjurer: he went right to the top, causing the tree to sway.  It looked as if it was about to break, but the conjurer was fearless, decisive and undaunted... The audience applauded and thought that there was no way anyone could go any higher.  But John Bosco, full of courage, climbed right to the point that the conjurer had reached, and then held on tightly to the tree, flinging his legs and feet upwards, towards the sky, thus going higher than the top of the tree itself.

There you are.  Ever higher, always towards God, even with our feet, always; even with our shoes, ever higher...  That is Don Bosco...!  That is how he fed us: always towards God, always towards heaven, even in games and amusements...

From a Don Orione's anecdotes

Fr. Gil Barcelon and Aspirant Arrue Peiro, two Orionine Martyrs

Servant of God Father Ricardo Gil Barcelon (1873-1936)

From Manzanera (Teruel - Spain), killed by the revolutionaries in hatred of the faith at Valencia (Spain) in 1936, at 62 years of age, 24 of profession and 31 of priesthood. 

Just turned 12, he joined the Seminary. At 20 he was a soldier in the Philippines. Back in Spain, he was ordained priest in 1904. His life was somewhat adventurous, both by choice and because of the way things turned out. He was a soldier, a musician, a very learned man, and an extremely lively and restless personality. 

 In 1909 he met Don Orione in Rome and became a faithful disciple, unshakeable and staunch in trusting Divine Providence. Since spending time in the Philippines, he always carried in his heart the desire to be a missionary. And he was a missionary in Italy and in his own country, Spain, where he opened the doors to the Congregation. Don Orione described him as of "most chaste life, exemplary among young people and people in general, ever ready to obey and preferring to stay in the house even more than necessary; a man of penance, given to fasting and wearing a hair-shirt, most ardent in prayer, reliable and unassuming".

Father Ricardo Gil carried heavy crosses, such as slander, in Calabria (Southern Italy), and religious persecution, in the years of social unrest in Spain, 1931-1936. 

He was arrested in Valencia and urged to renounce his faith in exchange for his life; he died crying: "Long live Christ the King!"

Servant of God Aspirant Antonio Arrue Peiro

From Calatayud (Saragozza, Spain), killed in hatred of the faith at Valencia (Spain) in 1936, at 28 years of age. 

He lost his mother in 1923 and a sister in 1926. And on August 28, 1928, the father too died, suddenly. Antonio, by now an orphan and abandoned by the relatives, around the age of 20 went through a very bad time. He got to Valencia, and in 1931, he met Father Ricardo Gil, who asked him to join him. 

 He was a conscientious young man, pious, given to sacrifice and work, of a few words. Father Gil, knowing his desire and thinking him suitable for the Congregation, wrote about him to Don Orione: "I would like to bring him to Tortona in the future, because he wants to be a member of the Little Work of Divine Providence. I am convinced of his vocation and I hope he will succeed well. He has no father or mother; he is tall and strong, has good memory, a painter and loves religious matters". For 5 years Antonio persevered, as an aspirant, in the life of prayer and dedication to serving others, not sparing himself in the work of charity by assisting the poor who, trustingly, came calling at the house in droves. 

When on 3rd August he met the cart on which the militia men had forced Father Gil to mount, he, without any hesitation whatsoever, run to him and wanted to stay with him. Then, seeing the Father falling down under a barrage of bullets, he jumped near, trying to hold him up; one of the guards smashed his head with the butt of the rifle.