In the month of October, in addition to the recitation of the Holy Rosary, it seems that the liturgy has the task of reminding us of the copious and tasty fruits of holiness, offered by the example of the saints remembered in the liturgical calendar in this month. The month of October commemorates the feminine genius with two holy "doctors", experts in doctrine and sanctity: Saint Teresa of Lisieux, on October 1st, and Saint Teresa of Avila, on October 15th. Both saints lived a spirituality greatly inspired by the example of Saint Joseph. The first, who desired "to be like the heart for the Church", in the flowerbed of holiness, is a delicate, fragile and gentle flower. Due to her wise journey into holiness, during the XII Youth Day in 1997 in Paris, John Paul II proposed her to young people as a model of possible holiness. On October 18, the Church will also canonize the father and mother of Saint Therese. The second, Saint Teresa of Avila, both in character and spirit of enterprise, completes the characteristics of Saint Therese's holiness.
The first sweet and delicate, the second concrete, practical, decisive, imperative woman. The saint of Avila has been compared to a fire burning in Castile. It was truly a fire that brought a dormant and resigned spirituality out of hibernation in Spain. If the image of Saint Francis needed restoration on October 4, it found it in the Pope's latest encyclical "Laudato si'". Even if it is socially projected, we must not forget that praise breathes with both lungs. The breath of the cosmos to be healed and the breath of God, the Creator of the universe. The praise is addressed to the "Almighty, almighty, good Lord", the soul of all praise and gratitude to God.
This song of praise can be considered an exemplary theological treatise, because it is written in praise of the Creator and in praise of man who among creatures is the sum, the most loved, the one made "in His image and likeness", who still remains a creature, sister of all the others. Saint Francis is perhaps the best known saint even outside the Catholic Church. He lived the universal principles of the gospel of Jesus with transparency. With his kindness and simplicity, without ever imposing anything on anyone, he had an extraordinary influence on the entire world. In addition to the guardian angels, who we celebrate on October 2, this month also remembers two apostles and one of the four evangelists: Saint Luke.
All evangelists are important because they wrote the revealed Word of God. For some of its characteristics, among the evangelical writings, perhaps the most attractive is that of Saint Luke. He makes us feel like Jesus is next to us. Luke makes clear God's merciful love towards the poor, sinners, the "rejected" of society. There is poor Lazarus, there are those who beg for bread, clothes, health, sight. Luca delves into people's hearts and announces a new type of society founded on brotherly love up to the sharing of material goods. God's love does not discriminate and Luke points out the feminine genius and the equality between men and women.
The two apostles Simon and Judas, nicknamed Thaddeus, are celebrated together on October 28th. Tradition holds that Simon, after the killing of Saint James, the elder, took over the reign of the church in Jerusalem. The Gospel of John reports that to a question from Judas Thaddeus, Jesus replies: "If anyone loves me and keeps my word, my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him". The believing Christian is guaranteed the dignity of being a temple of the Holy Trinity. We cannot leave in silence a saint who cultivated by faith and with such trust the virtue destined to last for all eternity: love. San Lugi Guanella, the servant of Charity, is celebrated on October 24th.
This year he celebrates the centenary of his entry into Paradise. The scent of his charity towards the poorest gives the fragrance of joy to all the Christian virtues practiced by people of good will.