A priest with fire in his soul (8)
Passing by the Arco della Pace, in Milan, one freezing autumn morning in 1908, Don Guanella heard a coachman who, taking it out on his horse, uttered a barrage of horrendous curses.
Don Luigi approached him and, even though he didn't really need the carriage, he said to him:
- Friend, would you please take me to via Cagnola at number 11?
It didn't seem true to the driver: he made him get on and, with a crack of the whip, started the horse. Don Guanella took a good look at that poorly dressed man, with a worn coat and an old hat: his face clearly said that he must have been fasting for a long time; the carriage was dilapidated and the horse as hungry as its master; an old caparison full of holes and patches protected the poor animal from the cold, which was barely getting by.
As they reached their destination, Don Guanella got out of the carriage and said to the driver:
- Do you want to take the opportunity to get some refreshment? With this cold and humidity there is a real need... And your horse might also like a nice warm drink. Pass.
The driver, embarrassed as he was, was unable to say no and Don Guanella rang the bell next to the door. A nun appeared who was embarrassed to find in front of her that undernourished horse, that mustachioed driver and the smiling face of Don Guanella who said to her:
to refresh yourself a little. We should immediately prepare him a nice hot soup, some bread with cheese and a bottle of wine.
He then called Andreìn Trombetta, a guest of the house who had the donkey in custody, and said to him:
- There's this friend of mine here who could use some refreshment. We should immediately prepare him a nice hot soup, some bread with cheese and a bottle of wine.
He then called Andreìn Trombetta, a guest of the house who was looking after the donkey and told him:
- Andrein; let's prepare a nice bucket of hot drink for that poor horse who is very hungry.
The nun and Andrein were surprised but, without replying, they went to do what they had been told, while the driver and Don Guanella stood around the fire talking. Shortly afterwards the horse had his refreshment and the owner was made to sit at the table in front of a nice soup, a wheel of cheese and a wheel of bread. He had no shortage of appetite and he quickly devoured the soup while the bread and cheese were given a severe lesson. The bottle was given a slow death while the cabman took more and more pleasure in the conversation and the smile returned to his face.
When the snack was over, Don Guanella wrapped up the leftovers and gave them to the coachman who had risen to thank him, in a very different mood from the one he was in when he met his client.
- Dear friend, Don Guanella told him, I realize that hunger is a bad advisor and that it was precisely the one who told you just now to light all those candles, but be careful, otherwise together with your patience and health you will also lose your 'soul.
- You're right, replied the cabman, you're absolutely right and, believe me, I'm not the scoundrel I may have seemed to you. This life has made me pick up a bad habit and I really think I should do everything I can to break it. I promise you and thank you very much for everything.
Don Guanella accompanied him to the door and greeted him.
Having climbed onto the box and taken the road again, the driver met a woman and stopped to ask her:
- But who is that priest who lives in that door? - But don't you know? It is our Don Luigi Guanella, a saint of the Lord!
- Truly, said the cabman, there really is a saint of the Lord there.
When it was certain that the funds for the financing of Don Guanella's first Work were guaranteed, the bishop of Como, Monsignor. Valfré was happy to give his consent and blessing to him at the beginning of the undertaking, even if he had not previously shown himself enthusiastic about it. However, knowing his man, it was recommended that, for the moment, there should be no further opening of new Houses of Charity.
A certain prudence and certain patience were not characteristics of Don Guanella, so, not much time had passed, he presented himself to the bishop telling him candidly:
- Excellency, forgive me if I did not heed your recommendation, but there was a truly providential opportunity and I could not let it slip away... So I bought a large building, called "La Binda", which Your Excellency certainly knows, and now I have a debt of 40.000 lire... But there is no need to worry because Providence will certainly help us... I'm sure.
The bishop didn't swallow it: he smiled bitterly, stammered something and, shaking his head, went on to say goodbye, dismissing his priest rather abruptly.
Some time later Don Guanella presented himself again to the bishop who imagined that he was coming to bring him his troubles, resulting from the imprudence committed and he prepared himself for a full-blown outburst.
Don Guanella with great naturalness said instead:
- Your Excellency, Providence has thought of it: I was given a villa on a hill above Menaggio, mirroring the center of Lake Como, with a beautiful Swiss chalet and more than 50.000 lire in cash...
The bishop looked at him for a few moments with his mouth open, helpless and helpless, with his eyes widening with wonder and he could only say resignedly:
- Go ahead calmly, Don Luigi, and do what you have to do because I see that Providence is on your side. All I have to do is bless you! The ways of God do not always pass alongside those traced by men.
Like "flowers" with the colors of sanctity
by Carlo Lapucci
The fragments, the different testimonies filtered by heterogeneous sensibilities, have become in this publication of Parables of a Good Samaritan different stones of a mosaic in which this image of extraordinary and intense humanity appears, such as to almost naturally offer the connection of the human dimension with the divine, of time with eternity.
The facts never force the hand of the miracle: they are human events that narrate things of the time seen however in another dimension: they say that man can overcome his limits of selfishness and narrow-mindedness, he can break the shell of the logic of individualism and indifference and, like a germ coming out of the earth, rising into the dimension of love, of charity in the light of Christ.
In his moral writings, Don Guanella has repeatedly insisted on the good orientation of the Christian day, especially wanting to recommend referring every action to God. That is, it concerns the internal ordering of all our activities; but this presupposes a certain regularity and accuracy of external actions.
The external regularity of daily programs is attested by a memory of Don Guanella himself for the years spent in Pianello and by the memories of a priest nephew who, during his time in the seminary, used to spend part of his summer holidays with his uncle in Savogno.
This second document is more interesting than the first, not only because it is more meticulous in detail, but because it demonstrates that, for Don Guanella, the daily timetable was not just a forgotten plan or writing, but a habitual fact, albeit with not rare exceptions imposed by his ministry:
«In the morning after long church duties, having returned home and sipped some coffee, he opened one or two doors that faced each other, thus creating an ambulatory, and walked along it, with long strides, while reciting the breviary.
Once the prayer is over, a visit to the chicken coop, to the rabbits, to the bee hive, to the always very careful and profitable vegetable garden, happy with avenues with polychrome edges for various, abundant flowers, which gradually come to decorate and perfume the chapels of the Church , embellished with numerous fruiting plants and shady cloisters; then to the study table; then to the hasty midday lunch; taking the excuse of a walk, he stopped to converse with a man, to greet an old woman, to visit a sick person, to comfort the poor, until, having reached one of the chapels he had built, he recited a short prayer and took a short break. to rest, he retraced his steps and thus returned to his pen and books, to prayer and to the church."
by Piero Pellegrini
Prosto, a small town at the foot of very high mountains with a beautiful name like Pizzo del Grillo or a dark and threatening name like Monte Gruf, just outside Chiavenna, on the road to Saint Moritz, welcomed Don Guanella, a new priest who came to celebrate his first Mass on May 31, 1866.
The parish priest Don Del Curto had made him a place in his parish house which had been renovated with a coat of whitewash (he had spent 3 lire and 75 cents, as he had recorded towards the end of April in an old account book, for this job); he had put out the most beautiful things of the Church of him who collected valuable works from ancient Piuro buried by a landslide, and had prepared his people materially and spiritually to receive the new priest.
by Angelo Sceppacerca
A nursery school teacher had taken her class to visit a church with figures of saints in the bright stained glass windows. Returning from the visit, the parish priest asked the children: Do you know who the saints are? A child replied: Yes, they are the ones who let the light pass through! The saints let the light of God pass through and continue to illuminate the earth. Now we are here to celebrate a new saint, Luigi Guanella. If saints could be measured in square metres, Don Guanella would be a great window of light, but we cannot forget that all Christians have been united with Christ through baptism: in this sense everyone is already saints, that is, consecrated. On the other hand, the gift received must be welcomed, lived and made to bear fruit.
by Angelo Forti
"The saint is he who adheres to God in faith and love, living a just existence." It is a definition in which every holy person feels described, since the saint is a reflection of the divine light in his person, an energy that moves the will and gives evangelical substance to his actions.
In the prayer of the "Our Father", when we ask God to sanctify His name we ask God to reveal the mystery of His luminous presence in people's lives through His will as a guaranteed path to well-being. The apostle Peter in his first letter writes to the people of God: "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people God has purchased for himself." The seal of sanctity is imprinted as a guarantee of an existence grafted onto divine life itself.
Luigi Guanella was born in Fraciscio di Campodolcino, in Valle Spluga, on 19 December 1842. He became a priest of the diocese of Como in 1866, in politically difficult and economically dramatic moments for the social life of our country. After some experiments, which failed due to the misunderstanding of his contemporaries, in 1886 Don Luigi Guanella began his first great work at the service of the poor in Como. He chose to serve the most miserable and abandoned, deprived of any assistance. He favored the categories of the old, the handicapped and abandoned children. Slowly from that first work other institutions rose in various Italian regions, in Switzerland and then in the USA.
Don Guanella also founded two religious congregations: the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence and the Servants of Charity, who continue to offer solidarity and help those who suffer in every part of the world. Don Guanella was a man who did charity, but it can also be said that God's charity made him and made him the father of the disinherited. He managed to be with them with a spirit of true evangelical poverty.