Guanella News - Number 101- 25 May 2016 -
SERVANTS OF CHARITY - GENERALATE Guanella NEWS
‘MOST HOLY AND GLORIOUS DAY’
One hundred and fifty years ago, on 26 less brightened by the luminous day of may 1866, Fr Guanella was ordained a his priestly consecration. If we compare priest at the Diocesan Seminary in Como. this text with the text – without any This was a difficult period for the doubt autobiographical – of Fr Church and especially for the Guanella’s short work ‘Il Mon- Diocese of Como; Bishop Fra- tanaro’, which he wrote 20 scolla, the Pastor who ordained years later, we can, precisely, him, had been put under house admire the farsightedness of arrest in the Diocesan Seminary his feelings and the constancy Most Holy and for having expressed his opposi- with which he was able to keep Glorious Day tion to the liberalizing ideas of faith with his spiritual tension the nascent Italian State. It was in and his youthful enthusiasm: this atmosphere that Fr Guanel- “That young son of a mountain- la’s Ordination, which took place, dweller who in offering himself to as it were, in concealment in the God was already saying: ‘Father, I chapel of the Seminary in Como, want to become a priest’… now, here was also experienced by Fr Guanella as a he was; having overcome multiple obstacles he challenge of fidelity to the Church and to exclaimed at last: ‘I am now a priest for ever! the Pope. The figure of the persecuted Blessed be the Lord! I was a shepherd who bishop became, in Fr Guanella’s interpre- tended sheep and now I am the pastor of a tation, that of the courageous Pastor who people… My people, pray for your pastor… gives his life for his people. About a month For I want to be angelic in my habits, I want to Faithfulness in our before his Ordination Fr Guanella wrote a be a sword of fire in the holy ministry’”. The Vocation letter to Fr Adamini who was preparing pastor of a people and a sword of fire: the homily for his First Holy Mass in Pro- these were indisputably two characteri- sto on the upcoming Feast of Corpus Christi. stics lived in an extraordinary way by Fr In this letter Fr Guanella lets his deepest Guanella in the 49 years of his priestly feelings regarding the gift he was about to life. For Fr Guanella being a priest al- receive filter through: “That most holy and ways meant serving his people in order glorious day, the most beautiful day of my life, a to defend them from dangers and from day on which, on going back over it in my mind in attacks against their faith. He called this the years to come, I was to forget any longings in to mind writing in his autobiography: order to leap with joy and gratitude. However, it “It seemed impossible for Fr Guanella to be Appuntamenti e viaggi prepared me for entering this ministry, moreover silent about the truth and he was never silent del Consiglio Generale tremendous and terrible…”. As well as the fee- about it, neither in church nor outside it, and ling of deep gratitude and great humility, hence the wickedness, threats and political sur- there was something of a perception of his veillance that arose… Crooked ways and timi- future, also full of difficulties but neverthe- dity were utterly unknown to him”.