by Concetta Desando

Love. Under the barely overcast sky of a Rome full of celebrating pilgrims, above all we breathed love. At 10.30 on Sunday 23 October the faithful joyfully welcomed the new saint Don Luigi Guanella, who rose to the honors of the altar together with Guido Maria Conforti and Bonifacia Rodriguez De Castro.
And it is no coincidence that the new saints were proclaimed on World Mission Day: no one like them has lived fidelity to the word of God, aware that charity does not only come through catechesis, but in being together with the least and sharing life of the simple.

Don Guanella stood out for his zeal and charity. His whole life was a constant and joyful announcement of the fatherhood of God. The emotion was great among the pilgrims in St. Peter's Square when William Glisson, the young American whose inexplicable healing allowed the successful conclusion of the canonization process of Blessed Louis Guanella, brings the relic (part of a finger) of the new saint to the altar. Originally from Springfield, a suburb of Philadelphia, the boy was seriously injured in an accident on March 15, 2002 while he was skating. A trauma to the head caused a fracture that immediately appeared hopeless to the doctors. A relic delivered by a doctor led, however, to total and immediate recovery.
But it's not just miracles. Don Guanella was a "labourer" of God, a giant of virtue whose life is an example for us still pilgrims in history. Praying to him and turning to him like Saint Luigi Guanella means asking that he teach us to put more love in our lives and help us to follow Christ in the poor, in the little ones, in the dying. And the best way to love is to give. But do not give the superfluous, boasting of a stingy alms that only serves to ease the conscience. The true way to love is to give yourself to others, letting your heart, intelligence and thoughts be filled by the infinite mercy of God.
“In caritate Christi” said Don Guanella. Because the gift of oneself to another is not a renunciation or a loss but everything that is given is found in fullness, in a joy that is endless. In this, Don Guanella is a master: in his life, he allowed himself to be transformed by divine charity, living the Gospel of Christ with courage and determination and becoming a companion and teacher, a comfort and relief to the poor and weak. Today more than ever his holiness is a reminder to bring God into the concreteness of daily life. Benedict XVI defines him as “prophet and apostle of charity” during the homily. Because in a testimony so full of humanity we recognize the presence of God who defends the orphan, the widow and the poor. An example of a fruitful and profound synthesis between contemplation and action, may the saint of charity help us grow in friendship with the Lord to promote life in every condition and situation and ensure that society is increasingly the family of God's children.