by Gabriele Cantaluppi

Don Guanella in his external behavior as witnessed by the brothers close to him and in his writings, constituted a joyful and grateful hymn to the great Mystery of the altar.
Don Guanella also sees in the Eucharist the face of that fatherhood of God, which constitutes the backbone of his spirituality. Just as the mother, in the act of embracing her child, holds him tenderly to her heart and almost seems to want to form one thing with him, so God the Father "to unite himself heart to heart with you, hid himself within the sacramental species of bread and wine." When you love you cannot stay away from the person you love, so God wanted to leave his Son among us in the Eucharistic sacrament: "A father cannot stay away from his beloved son... Jesus who is the most tender and omnipotent Father, having to ascend high he established his home on earth in the Blessed Sacrament and at the same time came to stand at the right hand of the Eternal Father." It therefore seems that Don Guanella creates a confusion between Jesus and the Father and an attempt has been made to find an explanation in the prevalence of affectivity over theological rigor in him; instead his thought is clear: "since Jesus has regenerated us to the life of children of God with his blood, he is our Father".
The Eucharist continues the loving action of Jesus the Father in the history of man, with the work of intercession and mediation: “Through the Most Holy Eucharist, Jesus is perpetually with his children. And He, like a pitiful Pelican but always alive and glorious, feeds on him with his own blood. He then holds out his right hand to his children and invites them saying: Come, I will accompany you to the Father, and I will pray and satisfy you".
The paternity of God is manifested, for Don Guanella, above all in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which he defined as a "Vesuvius of flames", which thus becomes a "Eucharistic Heart" that invites a relationship of osmosis between his life and ours .
When he wrote that "the Blessed Sacrament and the related practices of adoration must be well understood to occupy the first and essential place in the mind and heart of everyone", Don Guanella shows once again that the intuitions of the Saints often anticipate the formulations of the same Magisterium, which, from the Second Vatican Council onwards, will express more than once the centrality of the Eucharist in the life and public and personal worship of the Christian community.
Mind and heart indicate the entire human person oriented towards knowledge and love of the Mystery, to transform itself into "Eucharistic charity". The union of man with his God in Eucharistic Communion cannot but nourish in him that charity that Jesus said he came to bring to earth. The faithful who want to put active charity at the forefront of their testimony must first welcome it as a gift infused by God, through the Holy Mass and practices of Eucharistic devotion, such as the visit to the Blessed Sacrament and Eucharistic adoration.
At Don Bosco's school, Don Guanella had also included among the educational pillars of the Saint the propagation of devotion to the Eucharistic Sacrament, also seen in the preventive dimension of evil. He wrote in the bulletin 'Divine Providence', presenting the decree of Saint Pius
Inviting his Priests to give "Bread and Lord" in abundance to their clients, he manifested his awareness of the great educational power that emanates from the Eucharist received frequently and with devotion, not only as relief from one's own corporal and spiritual miseries, but also as cooperation to the salvation and redemption of the world. Offering reasons for living to those who suffer is just as important as the gift of physical health, and Don Guanella saw this in his daily meetings with his guests most affected by pain. In this light of the Eucharist the entire Guanellian family, religious, guests, and members of the Guanellian Lay Movement, see in Christ, good Samaritan and good shepherd, the bending of God the Father over us, his children, loved and saved who invites each one, in his own condition of life, to make fruitful the talents that have been given to him to build communion through service: koinonìa in diakonìa, communion in service.
Don Gabriele Cantaluppi