It is Easter!

Easter 1936, St. Luigi Orione sent a circular letter to his confreres, friends, benefactors and beneficiaries. He invited them to hope by remembering that Christ is risen.

Buenos Aires, April 1936

Dearly beloved in the Lord,

Peace be with you!

I am writing to give you my Easter wishes.  May they bring to each and everyone of you the joy and the happiness of the Resurrection.

Christ, "our Paschal Victim," has been sacrificed.  The Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, is dead, and by His death has destroyed death itself.  But He is the resurrection and the life and today He is gloriously risen, and by His resurrection He has renewed life.

 This is Easter!  Easter signifies the passover.  The word comes from the Hebrew, the Passover - of fallen man, from the state of slavery of sin and death, to the freedom of the sons of God and to the possession of a complete new life of grace.  The Christian Easter is our rehabilitation in the sight of Heaven, it is the moral and spiritual resurrection of humanity.

It is Easter: let us sing Hosanna to the One who rose again: Alleluia!  Alleluia!  This is the day that the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad in it, with actions of purity and of truth.

Alleluia!  Let us praise and glorify our God.  This is the Resurrection and the victory of Christ over the darkness.  He is the Victorious King who comes out of the tomb after defeating death, and ascends to open the doors of Heaven for us once more.  Already the deacon, in his white dalmatic, has announced this indescribable joy to the believers.

Easter is "the Feast of feasts," the "Solemnity of solemnities," as the Resurrection of the Lord is the greatest of miracles, it is the seal of our faith in the divinity of Christ.

This is Easter, dearly beloved: Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Peace be with you, peace with you all!  It is the time of gentle and holy joys, the time of the utmost spiritual consolation.  Christ is risen: Alleluia!

It is Easter!  Let us open our eyes to the new light, let us free ourselves from all weakness and moral evil, let us rise up, my dear people, from the anxious cares of this miserable life to the joys of the blessed life.  Lift up your hearts, brothers, raise them high! 

 

Christ is risen!  Oh, may Christ rise also in us if we have ever failed along the way.  May He live in us with His grace, and let us live in Him and of Him, as outside of Him there is no life or any consolation of any value.  Live Christ and make the whole world live of Christ!

May the victory of the Lord be our victory too, and may death, for us also, be a passage into a new life, one day making this body radiant, this body which the tomb will enclose only for a while.

Christ is risen!  But He is still among us, He is always with us in order to dry every tear and to transform all suffering into love.

Let us look up with the look of faith, my brothers.  Here comes Christ, alive with the living, giving us life with His life, in the abundant outpouring of redemption.  He goes forward in radiance, clothed in the great cloak of mercy, lovable and powerful, "crowned with the sign of victory."

He approaches at the anguished cry of the nations.  Christ comes, bearing the Church in His heart and, in His hand, the tears and the blood of the poor: the cause of the afflicted, of the oppressed, of the widows, of the orphans, of the humble, of the unwanted.

And behind Christ new heavens open: it is like the dawn of the triumph of God!  They are new peoples, new conquests, it is all a triumph, never before seen, of great universal charity, since the one who finally wins is He, Christ, and Christ conquers in charity and in mercy.

The future belongs to Him, to Christ, the unconquerable King; the Divine Word that brings new life; the Way of all moral greatness; the life and living spring of love, of progress, of liberty and of peace.

 

May the light of Christ light up our path, and render our whole life joyful and holy!  May this Holy Easter work a marvellous spiritual renewal in us, transfiguring us in Christ.  May the blessing of the Lord come generously down on you and on your loved ones and may it be a great, great, great blessing, as great as the heart of God!

Alleluia!  Alleluia!  Alleluia!  A happy and holy Easter to everyone!

Yours most affectionately in Jesus Christ and in Our Blessed Lady.

                            Fr. Orione

                            of Divine Providence

The Visit of St. Joseph

 Difficult times came for Santa Chiara School in 1897 and the years following.  Don Albera had been transferred to Mornico.  The suppliers pressed for payment, but the money did not get scarce... it dried up completely.

The novena to St. Joseph had begun.  In order to obtain the grace that he earnestly desired, Don Orione spent several nights in Eucharistic vigils.  In the mornings he would be found asleep on the altar steps.

Meanwhile Forneris the baker was refusing to supply bread; other creditors came, raised their voices and vented their anger, but they had to leave unsatisfied.  To avoid the torment of this mortifying harassment, Don Orione gave orders to the doorkeeper not to let anyone else in.

A stranger arrived and asked to go up to the superior's office because he wanted to speak with Don Orione urgently.  The doorkeeper, faithful to his mission, pointed out that he had orders not to let anyone in.  The stranger insisted and the doorkeeper, shrugging his shoulders, set off to announce him.

"By the way," he said, "whose name will I say?"

"My name is not necessary; there's no need."

The doorkeeper went up to Don Orione's room and reported.

"But did he not tell you who he was?" asked the superior.

"He did not want to tell me."

"Okay, we'll see."

A minute later the stranger was in front of Don Orione, asking about him and about his work.  When Don Orione had satisfied all his questions he drew an envelope from his inside pocket and handed it to him saying:  "This is for you."

He then made as if to go.

Don Orione looked and was struck by the cheerful expression on that face enclosed in a white beard and lit up by two most gentle deep-blue eyes.

"Would you be so kind as to give me your name so that I may..."

The unknown benefactor responded with a good-natured smile:  "There is no need."  After making a bow went out.

Don Orione opened the envelope and saw that it contained a thousand lire.  Never had he seen such a sum, such Providence.

He slipped out between the chair and the little table, opened the door to get to that generous person, but did not make it in time to see him.  Then, going down the stairs, he ordered the doorkeeper to follow the stranger and call him back, or at least find out where he was going.  The doorkeeper knew nothing about him; no-one had gone out that way.

Nevertheless he went out on to the street, looking right and left, but there was no means of recognising him.

Relating this episode to Mgr. Novelli, his confessor, Don Orione was told that it could have been St. Joseph coming to bring him a gift from Providence and he protested that he seemed too young.  Monsignor Novelli, however, rejoined that even St. Joseph... was young.

There is no need to add that the thousand lire were immediately handed over to the bursar, Don Risi.  By that evening he had barely two hundred left, having paid off the more concerned creditors with the rest of it.

The Pope, My Sweetest and Greatest Love

            In a Christmas letter, written in 1922, St. Luigi Orione invites us to be faithful to the Pope, “the sweet Christ on earth”, and to consume our lives serving the Church.

I now embrace you spiritually, each and everyone, with a holy kiss, and I encourage you to practice virtue, my sons, who are my soul. I urge you always to have the greatest confidence in Divine Providence, my sons, and to love one another, to love one another together, to love one another very much, and to love souls… Souls! Always seek the humble and the abandoned.

 

This is the desire upon which my soul is set. But even before that, my sweet and great love is the Pope, that is, Christ. For you and for me, the Pope is Jesus Christ himself: “the sweet Christ on earth”, –as Catherine of Siena used to call him. Loving the Pope is loving Jesus Christ. Therefore, we must be able, through a particularly heavenly grace, to use, consume, and offer our lives humbly and faithfully at the feet of the Church, for the holy Church, for the bishops and for the Pope.

In this way,

–faithful to the internal and mysterious action of the Spirit,

–obedient to that eternal Truth which is the source of our freedom,

–guided by the authentic and infallible Magisterium

–living in the Church alone, in a spirit of love and of gentle, sacred and fraternal communion,

may the Sons of Divine Providence, with the help of God, believe, hope, struggle, suffer and love!

May they walk confidently the right path of the Lord, with “their loins girt” and “their lamps lit” in their hands, with their faces and their hearts uplifted to the celestial Virgin. May they grow in all things to arrive at the one who is our Master, Jesus Christ. For the Church and for the Pope, let us ascend to Christ!