Vocations are
wanting, therefore... Has Fr. Alberione finished talking or
attracting young people? It is a doubt that has often haunted me in
so many years of commitment in vocation pastoral and in formation.
Except discovering
afterwards, exactly when I was asked to change my service in the
Congregation, that...it’s my fault, and our fault if this happens
because we do little to make known Fr. Alberione to the youth. Worse
still, we barely follow his footsteps, or give witness to the rich
treasure we have received, or live the “lifestyle” that he has
incarnated.
During his
Beatification, I have had manner as superior of Alba Motherhouse to
meet and welcome many pilgrims, among whom very many young people
coming also from various seminaries in Italy who remained in
admiration of this great small man. One of them wrote me: “He’s a
mystic and a genius. Always in action... Above all, a man of God.
They are some of the aspects of Fr. Alberione that I would like to
imitate. I do not have special questions. I only have a sense of
amazement, of stupor that leaves me speechless before what he has
written, has done and has been. And then I love him” (R.C.).
The young people
are fascinated by Fr. Alberione. And by the path he took. What
message therefore does Fr. Alberione offer to the youth in search of
their vocation?
a)
“He felt a light...”
(AD 9)
The question of
his teacher, maestra Cardona, narrated in AD 9, about what the boys
thought of doing in the future becomes a chance that God takes to
enter the life of James, to enlighten him and to point out to him
his plan of love. “I shall be a priest”: James starts a
constant journey with God, one that is almost absolute.
And God with
progressive interventions/illuminations marks the rhythm of growth
of the young James. He guides him from the awareness of “being a
priest” to being “deeply obliged to prepare himself to do
something for the Lord and for the men of the new century with whom
he would have lived” (AD 15), until the full clarity of his
calling: “Towards 1910 he made a definitive step. He saw in
greater light: writers, technicians, propagandists, but
religious” (AD 24). Thanks to his strong journey with God, “the
idea, at first much confusing, became clear and as years passed even
became concrete” (AD 21).
b)
“From
that day...” (AD 10)
In his journey
with God, James does his part. He is faithful. Everything converges,
everything is “guided” from the decision taken by him when he was
nine to be a priest: “The matter offered consequences for him:
his study, his piety, his thoughts, his conduct, even his
recreations pointed in that direction”. And with his look
constantly turned to that call, he finds the energy to overcome
difficult moments. “Such thinking saved him from many dangers”
(AD 9). On the contrary, “from that day everything
strengthened in him that decision” (AD 10).
c)
“Sometimes God has
fatherly forced him...” (AD 28)
God intervenes in
the journey of James, forcing his hand at times: “Sometimes the
Lord has fatherly forced him to accept gifts for which he felt
instinctive repugnance. The same for certain pushes to go ahead”
(AD 28). It is to lead him along a way of purification, filial
abandonment and maturation.
Of
purification, because God always asks from the one he calls a
profound awareness of his poverty and nothingness, of his
limitations and defects (cf AD 15), to open him to an availability
that is free of selfish calculations and plans, to guide him to
filial abandonment: “Man has always many imperfections, defects,
errors, deficiencies and doubts in his doings that he has to put
everything in the hands of Divine Mercy and let himself be guided.
He never forced the hand of Providence; he awaited the sign of God”
(AD 45). And at the same time to lead him to true human
maturation, because only if we are persons of equilibrium, evenly
balanced and aware of our potentialities can we succeed in “dreaming
big” and to be fruitful: “It is necessary to develop the total
human person for his salvation and for a more fruitful apostolate:
mind, heart and will”. (AD 22).
d)
“Providence acted ... strongly
and lovingly” (AD
43)
“God’s manner of
doing” in the journey of James can be described as “strongly and
lovingly”. God aims to “prepare and to let converge his ways
according to his intentions, illumine and offer the needed helps,
make us await his hour in peace, start always from a cradle, act so
naturally that we cannot easily distinguish grace from nature, but
certainly [making use of] both” (AD 43). In fact, the vocation
of James is also fruit of the intervention of so many witnesses,
guides and mediators. Among the many instruments that God has placed
along his journey, some become decisive for James (and for every
youth that accepts the challenge with God).
First of all and
without any doubt, his family and mother. The austere family
environment, deeply believing, hard-working and trusting in God have
made an impression on the formation of the character of James and on
his choices. He himself holds that his vocation “has been the
fruit of the prayers of his mother, who always watched over him in a
special way” (AD 9).
Then his deeply
Christian teacher supported him during his first steps: “She
encouraged him and helped him much” (AD 9) and accompanied him
with her prayers: “that very pious Teacher who always asked the
Lord so that one of her pupils might become a Priest” (AD 10).
A decisive role
was played by his parish priest also, “a very spiritual priest,
of intelligence and intuition”, who “always helped him and
accompanied him up to the altar. He still blessed thereafter the
first projects of the Pauline Family” (AD 12).
Decisive no doubt is his spiritual
guide, the Canon Chiesa, always close to James in the journey
undertaken. Besides being guide, he was also his valued professor,
and first cooperator. And friend.
e)
“Great
benefit... “ (AD 71)
As a lover of
history, (AD 66), avid reader of books also because of his task as
librarian (AD 66; 71), observant of the journey of the Church (AD
48-57) and open to ongoing social ferments through his
participation in conferences and congresses dealing with social
themes (AD 59-61), Alberione has lived as a protagonist the social,
ecclesial and cultural context of his time. Always guided by his
passion for man and his need for God. And from Canon Chiesa he had
learned “to transform everything into an object of
meditation and prayer before the divine Master: to adore, thank,
propitiate and ask” (AD 68). He finds in culture “a great
benefit” to the point of succeeding to pick up those signs that are
necessary for the maturation of his vocation.
f)
“Twofold obedience” (AD 29)
In this vocational
run Alberione was deeply aware of being a poor instrument. In fact,
he confesses that “both the beginning and the continuation of the
Pauline Family always proceeded in a twofold obedience: inspirations
received from the Lord in the Eucharist and corroborated by his
Spiritual Director, together with the express will of his
ecclesiastical superiors. When the time came to start, the Bishop
struck the hour of God (he was waiting for the bell stroke) charging
him to devote himself to the diocesan press. This opened the way for
the apostolate” (AD 29-30).
Enlightened by God
(a). Fr. Alberione walks with decision towards the vocation that God
has proposed to him (b). In the face of difficulties or obstacles on
the way, James allows himself to be guided by God, sometimes to be
chided, as he is aware of his poverty and of his being a poor
instrument in the hands of God (c). And God fills him with gifts and
helps necessary for his journey, particularly with witnesses that
are decisive for the maturation of his vocation (d). But basic in
this journey is passion for the present and for the culture that the
young Alberione has lived and has opened for him new needs of
evangelization (e). But always in obedience to God and as a faithful
disciple of the Church (f).
These are some of
the advices that Fr. Alberione through the history of his vocation
offers to a young man on the journey of his calling. Even today, at
a time of fragmentation and disorientation, God will know how to
offer to the young, who are truly searching, those guides that are
necessary and those experiences that are decisive to get hold of his
plan of love. Provided they have the courage to be, like Fr.
Alberione: “Here is a half-blind man, who is being led; and in
moving along he is enlightened from time to time, so that he can
proceed further: God is the light” (AD 202).
If Fr. Alberione returned among us, how would
he talk to us?
 “I HAVE DISCOVERED THE FASCINATION
THAT JESUS WAS EXERCISING IN MY LIFE”
Sr. M. Paola
Gasperini, PDDM
For
some years now I help in the diocesan Seminary of Alba in the
orientation of young men discerning their vocation; the same with
seminarians. Here where the young James grew and defined his
vocation at the service of the Gospel, I ask myself what would he
say if today, a hundred years since his priestly ordination, he
returned to these corridors, in the midst of these youth searching
for a meaning to give to their life. I tried to put myself in
listening mode and to let him talk.
“My most loved
boys, I know that you are very alert, that people cannot easily tell
you fables. I know that you are well-prepared culturally, that you
want to give an answer to so many “whys” that you have in your
hearts and want to give a meaning to your life and to what you are
thinking of undertaking.
You know the
reality of the Italian Church: a clergy becoming more and more
elderly and tired. Regarding consecrated people, perhaps you do not
really know them and you do not understand the meaning of their
existence. In effect, nobody talks to you becomingly about their
vocation as an important and beautiful gift from God for the Church
and for society.
Then, it’s true,
that ecclesial spirituality, of a Church-Communion that fascinates
everybody but that is also so tested by many conflicts,
contradictions and inconsistencies... Let us not forget, however,
that the Church is also the Mother and the diocesan seminary is the
palpitating heart of our diocese, where in the past many of us have
known the Lord, have found the guide for their life and now this
place has become the house of young people.
Friend, don’t be
afraid of fatigue, obstacles, or of those things that do not please
you, but go ahead in your sincere search, because the Lord has a
plan for you and about you.. You surely are passionate like me
about the diocesan spirituality also expressed in the
iconographic paths of the Chapel of the seminary...: but the Lord
can also ask from you to leave for faraway lands, as many of our
brothers of Alba have done.
You, today, ask me
how I have come to have such courage. I want to tell you just one
thing: I have met the person of Jesus who, as Master, has
fascinated my heart and and has given a meaning to my life. I have
discovered him as the Truth that gives light, the Way that guides
our steps with security, the Life that fills us with joy. And He
said to me: “Listen, I need you. There is need for you!”. I remained
stupefied, confused, happy but also restless, a bit more than the
usual me.
I still remember
with exactness the moment when with greater clarity I have heard
this appeal: it was the night between 31 December 1900 and 1 January
1901. In the Dome there was a solemn Mass after which followed the
Eucharistic adoration lasting until morning. It was an extraordinary
way to start the year and to us, seminary boys, was given the
freedom to stay to pray for as long as we wanted. That night I did
not notice the passage of time: I was too intent on listening to the
inner Voice that guided my expectations during that new start of the
century.
Since then, though
still very young, I set myself to listen to the expectations of my
Church, of my people, to what was happening in society, listening
to myself, always a little concerned, dissatisfied. In this search
I have began to discover that anxiety needed not only a human
psychological response, but to find a higher meaning: a spiritual
meaning.
It is truly
necessary to give a meaning to one’s life and so you will succeed in
living always in joy and you will be capable of great giving. In
fact, the true meaning is that which makes you happy, allows you to
face every challenge and sacrifice, giving you an enormous courage
even when you have to go against the current.
Then I have also
discovered the fascination that Jesus exercised in my life. He
proposed himself to his disciples as Way, Truth and Life. In these
three words I have understood that to live as He teaches decisively
directs the steps to be made in the various moments of life, that
his Word is word of Truth, light to our thoughts, our consciences;
that He himself has given his Life for us so that we would have
life in abundance. Authentic meeting with Him through Holy Scripture
and the Eucharist celebrated and adored sent me back to my brothers
and sisters, especially to those who do not know him and therefore
do not possess true happiness.
In short, the
fascination for that Person so special and love for Him have caused
me to go out of myself, from my comfortable world, from my egoism,
from the thousand fears that rise in my heart... For example: Shall
I be able to do it? What if I’m wrong and everything is just a
mirage? But in truth what is God’s dream about me? And what is my
dream about myself? Oh, well!
I want to help you
a bit: every dream becomes true in a calling that in turn makes true
the life of a person.
There is, however,
a calling that is more beautiful than the others, that is, MINE for
myself and YOURS for yourself, whether you marry or you take vows;
whether you are a priest or you remain in the world of work or
politics as a Christian. YOUR VOCATION.
You ask me: “And
who says that it is truly my vocation?”.
Your question is
truly original because it is obvious. I’ll try to help you: to all
of us are given instruments that we can decide to make ours or else
no. Then think of the “treasure hunt”: every time you reach a goal,
it sends you to another point, until you arrive at the place where
the TREASURE is hidden.
THE SEARCH in the
“treasure hunt” is similar to the search in the spiritual life: with
the help of the organizer the game walks toward the “treasure”.
In the spiritual
life the one who searches is you, but another accompanies you,
giving you some very valuable indications. I now list down some for
you: the Word of God, the Sacraments, the spiritual director, the
community, prayer, brothers in need, your sensibility and attitude,
etc.… Thus you slowly arrive to discover the TREASURE for which you
can spend your whole life.
And you ask me
still: “Where can you find a spirituality like that of the Pauline
Family in the Church and in relation to its spirituality?”
Every spirituality
is a gift for the Church, for the men of that time in which it is
born, but also for the others. A spirituality, in the light of the
Spirit, is given to be placed at the service of the whole Church,
where one completes another: the greatest secret is COMMUNION.
I seem to
hear you: you are afraid because you see that often consecrated
persons look like small islands... But look, the Ocean of the Church
is made beautiful by everything that has life in itself and when it
is harmonious because it serves communion, then the Church becomes
ever more beautiful because all of us exist with that gift that has
been given to us. Take heart! It is not enough to understand: it is
necessary to decide and to leave for that voyage that is life, that
is your vocation. Wait no longer”.
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