In 1929, Pope Pius XI wrote a letter to all seminarians, especially to his “Jesuit sons,” asking them to enter a new seminary that had just been founded in Rome to prepare young priests for possible missionary work in Russia. Walter Ciszek, who had entered the Company of Jesus in the United States the year before, offered himself to go. There, he studied theology and learned to celebrate the Mass in the Byzantine Rite, but, after he was ordained[1] –and, by the way, Fr. Ciszek was the first American priest ordained in the Byzantine Rite– it was impossible to send priests to Russia. So they were sent to Poland, to an Eastern Rite mission that the Jesuits had in Albertyn. The war began in 1939.
In the confusion, and because of invasions, Fr. Ciszek entered Russia on March 19, 1939 –the feast of Saint Joseph– accompanying Polish refugees, hoping to be able to serve them spiritually. But soon, in 1941, the Soviet secret police discovered and arrested him –after only 4 years of priesthood– under the false charge of “being a Vatican spy” and sent him to prison. He was 5 years in the Lubianka prison, and the majority of those years were spent in solitary confinement. What is more, in 1942, they found him guilty of spying and added four more years to his sentence. In 1947, the United States “officially listed him as dead.” He was then sentenced to 15 years at hard labor in the prison camps of Siberia. He was put to work in labor brigades doing outdoor construction in the extreme arctic cold, or in coal and copper mines, ill-clothed, ill-fed, and poorly housed in barracks surrounded by barbed wire. He testified how men died, especially those who gave up hope. After his 15 years ran out, he remained there, living in Siberian villages because he could not leave Siberia or go to the main cities of Russia. So he worked as an auto mechanic, among other things, until one day, October 12, 1963 –feast of Our Lady of Pilar– the American government exchanged two Russian spies for him. Twenty-four years had passed, his first 24 years of priesthood. When, after his return home, people would ask him how he managed to survive, how he had persevered, he would affirm, “I trusted in God, never felt abandoned or without hope, and survived along with many others. I never looked on my survival as anything special or extraordinary, but I did give thanks to God for sustaining and preserving me through those years.”[2]
After recounting the inhuman situation in which he lived in Lubianka, the injustice of being imprisoned for no reason, and how he was looked down on precisely because he was a priest, he wrote, “No situation is ever without its worth and purpose in God’s providence. It is a very human temptation to feel frustrated by circumstances, to feel overwhelmed and helpless in the face of the established order whether that order is an NKVD prison, or the whole Soviet system, […] or the whole, oppressive rotten world! Under the worst imaginable circumstances, a man remains a man with free will and God stands ready to assist him with his grace. Indeed, more than that, God expects him to act in these circumstances, this situation, as He would have him act. For these situations, too, these people and places and things, are God’s will for him now.
“He may not be able to change the ‘system’, any more than I could change conditions in that prison, but he is not for that reason excused from acting at all. Many men feel frustrated, or disappointed, or even defeated, when they find themselves face to face with a situation or an evil they cannot do much about. Poverty […], social injustice […], hatred and bitterness, war, corruption, and the oppressive bureaucracy of every institution—all can serve as a source of bitter frustration and a feeling sometimes of utter hopelessness. But God does not expect a man single-handedly to change the world or overthrow all evil or cure all ills. He does expect him, though, to act as He would have him act in these circumstances ordained by his will and his providence. Nor will God’s grace be lacking to help him act.
“The sense of hopelessness we all experience in such circumstances really arises from our tendency to inject too much of self into the picture. […] We tend to concentrate on ourselves, we tend to think of what we can or cannot do, and we forget about God and His will and his providence. Yet God never forgets each individual’s significance, his dignity and worth, and the role each has been asked to play in the workings of His providence. To Him, each individual is equally important at all times. He cares. But He also expects each man to accept, as from His hands, the daily situations He sends him and to act as He would have him act and gives him the grace to act.”[3]
Fr. Walter Ciszek died on December 8, 1984—Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception—in New York, USA.
Certainly, his was an extreme experience. However, who of us has not experienced—in varying degrees—circumstances that put our trust in Divine Providence to the test? Even so, nothing less was expected of us than the attitude of abandonment, trusting in God’s Providence, because “He alone knows […] the secret buttons that must be pushed in order to bring us to heaven.”[4]
Therefore, and whatever the particular circumstances we find ourselves in may be, personally or as an Institute, we should follow the 11th rule of discernment that Saint Ignatius gives us in his Spiritual Exercises: “He who enjoys consolation should take care to humble himself and lower himself as much as possible. Let him recall how little he is able to do in time of desolation, when he is left without such grace or consolation. On the other hand, one who suffers desolation should remember that by making use of the sufficient grace offered him, he can do much to withstand all his enemies. Let him find his strength in his Creator and Lord.”[5] For this reason, it seems to us that it could be very healthy for our souls to reflect on God’s special Providence towards his missionaries, a Providence that we have experienced, not only individually, but also as a missionary Institute over these 37 years of existence. In fact, we would dare to say that the birth, growth, and life of our Institute is a continual work of his merciful Divine Providence and of “Mary’s maternal providence,”[6] through whose hands all graces descend to us.
1. Divine Providence in the life and works of our Institute
We would therefore like to begin by recalling—even if only in broad strokes—the blessings that God has been pleased to pour out on our Institute, despite our great miseries, the menacing fists raised on our way, the great difficulties we had to overcome, the countless obstacles that sowed fear in our souls… and how in all of this, the Institute, for the glory and honor of Divine Providence, has come through unscathed, has kept going forward, and can say with Saint John of the Cross: “But everything is brief, for it lasts only until the knife is raised; and then Isaac remains alive with the promise of a multiplied offspring.”[7]
For no one can deny Our Lord’s special Providence when on October 7, 1983, Msgr. Kruk, bishop of San Rafael, authorized us to begin an experience of religious life and, at the same time, also authorized our founder to begin a diocesan seminary. How can we not see the delicate hand of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who arranged that our Institute be founded on the providential date of March 25, 1984, when, at the conclusion of the “Holy Year of the Redemption,” Saint John Paul II consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, together with all the bishops of the world, and published the Apostolic Exhortation Redemptionis Donum on the religious consecration in the light of the mystery of the redemption.
How can the intertwining of different providential circumstances not be seen: the fact that the next year, in 1985, the Villa de Luján—our beloved Finca—was founded, where our Motherhouse was established, admittedly in great poverty, and nevertheless, in overabundance of joy and dedication—which up to now is the house of the Institute that has given the most missionaries to the Church.
And we could continue enumerating foundations: first in Suncho Corral (Santiago del Estero, Argentina) and then in Cuzco, Peru; the foundation of the Minor Seminary with the first teenagers who arrived—and who are now missionary priests in different parts of the world; the foundation of the contemplative branch, the foundation of the Bachillerato Humanista “Alfredo Bufano”—the first humanist academic establishment in San Rafael and the Institute’s first school. How can we not mention that on April 16, 1990, the Institute’s first major house of formation was founded: the “María Madre del Verbo Encarnado” Seminary in San Rafael. And so on, throughout the years, like continuous links of God’s admirable Providence towards the Institute, we continued opening foundations and new projects, vocations arrived—including from countries where we are not even present—more opportunities for apostolate were begun, there were more threats from enemies and more interventions from friends, mistakes on our part and undoubtedly providential decisions, trials that reduced hope to a minimum, and heavenly interventions that increased our confidence again and drove fear from our minds; being able to say in the end: Blessed be God for the trials to which He submits us and the graces He grants us!
What is more, we cannot fail to see the fact that God not only wanted our Institute to be born under the pontificate of Saint John Paul II, but that the Holy Father himself had a providential role in the young life of our little Religious Family. Indeed, when many were opposed to us, he could firmly say, “No matter what others say, I want this Institute to go ahead.”[8] That is to say, the approval of our Institute was promoted and discerned by the saintly Pope, with all that that entails. But his interventions were not just providential, acting as an instrument “external” to the Institute, taking care of us with exquisite paternal solicitude, but even intrinsically, given that our Founder wrote the Constitutions in 1992, using many of the subjects treated in the magisterium of the great Pope as a guide. In fact, there are more than 1,000 explicit quotations of Saint John Paul II in our proper law, and many implicit ones. This is something that perhaps, over the years, we have become accustomed to, but when someone mentioned it to Cardinal Dziwisz[9] not long ago, he was pleasantly surprised.
Something more: we should also recognize, with profound gratitude and with the most genuine humility, that even though “We live in a time marked in its own way by a denial of the Incarnation,”[10] our good God—who knows the times and seasons—has raised up, within his Church and for his Church, our beloved Institute, which, though small and lacking in means, has the most noble task of testifying to the world that the Word was made flesh! And to “assume all that is human”[11] in order to elevate it, dignify it and perfect it.[12] Therefore, we can say that our Institute, with its specific charism and own mission, is a “work of God” for the good of the Church. All of which requires not only faithfulness on our part, guarding our identity with all its non-negotiable elements and transmitting all of this rich patrimony in all its force to future generations, but it also—and we want to emphasize this—requires trust in Divine Providence. Because if the congregation is a work of God and, as the Apostle says, the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable,[13] He will be able to defend it against the different vicissitudes that we might pass through now or in the future.
We have to be realistic: our life as an Institute, which is “of the Incarnate Word” and which always wants to follow the road that He has pointed out to us, demands of us that we learn to live among thorns, without having anywhere to rest our heads, afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed,[14] rather, comforted by God who is ready to work wonders in the humble ones who wholeheartedly entrust themselves to Him.
In turn, we should have great trust in the foundational grace, especially in times of trial, because we could often be tempted to want to change things, that is, to change the charism that God inspired, and this is often the ruin of congregations, wanting to reform the intentions of the Founder that touch upon the charism of the Institute. Thus, other things seem better to some because they see them in other Institutes. Nevertheless, this is not what God asks of us. We have to have great confidence in our charism, because it is to live this that God has called us to this beloved Institute, and not to live something else. And if we do this, if we live according to the charism to which God, in His providence, has destined us when he bestowed on us the religious vocation, we have to have confidence that we will be sanctified. Only in this way will we become members who are “useful to the master.”[15] For this reason, Saint John Bosco gave this recommendation to the Salesians, which is also valid for us: “Let us fight shy of all itching for reform. Let us instead apply ourselves to the observance of the rule without being preoccupied with its improvement or reform.”[16]
When one learns about or reviews the history of the Institute, he has no other option than confessing that we have more than enough motives to rejoice and thank God for the delicate Providence that has guided our steps, that has been a refuge in storms, that has given us so many consolations in the midst of men’s persecutions, and that has been a gracious hand and tender caress when thorns surrounded us and all doors seemed to shut. So we can say with the Doctor Saint John of Avila, “May the Almighty be blessed in all things, and may His judgments be adored, for His infinite Wisdom knows how to turn to our advantage what seems to us the loss of all things. This He does to teach us our ignorance and insufficiency, so that with full confidence, we may abandon ourselves utterly to His care, trusting that, although we know not how, He will find a remedy for all our ills.”[17]
It is also true that each one of us has anecdotes and stories—some are truly incredible—in which Divine Providence has clearly manifested itself, since no other explanation would fit. What is more, we can affirm without fearing to err that each mission of the Institute, each house, each work begun (Seminaries, mercy homes, schools, monasteries, etc.), the vocations God was pleased to send us (from the most diverse cultures, from countries where the Institute is not even present, from the most diverse social classes and educational backgrounds), the many different activities organized by the Religious Family, including at the international level, undoubtedly arose, were sustained, and have grown thanks to Divine Providence. Without going any further, the vast majority of us met the Institute in a providential way and have experienced, right from the moment of our entrance, that to live dependent upon divine gifts is something proper to us, because, as the Saint from Fontiveros said, “he who looks after the beasts will not be forgetful of you.”[18] In this way, what Blessed Giuseppe Allamano said to his religious is accomplished in us: “Divine Providence will care for you—you will never lack what you need.”[19] And we are convinced that it has been so, because God will not abandon those who, with the intention of following Christ, abandon all their possessions and entrust themselves to Divine Providence.[20]
We should bear all that we just said, all these graces and divine favors, very much in mind, being always thankful for them, so that the memory of them, above all when we pass through storms, and “the soul comes to believe that all its blessings are over for ever… and it will never again be happy as in the past,”[21] will help us to arm our souls in the face of despair.
“Times are hard,” said Saint John Paul II, “and the soul sometimes feels disturbed and depressed.”[22] Even thus, and even when the circumstances are the worst and drag on indefinitely, “keep your spirit fervent, despite adversities and temptations, remembering what Don Orione said: ‘For us, there is no other school, no other teacher, no other authority than the Cross. Live the poverty of Christ, the silence and the mortification of Christ, the humility and the obedience of Christ, in purity and holiness of life; patient and meek, persevering in prayer, all united in mind and heart to Christ; in a word: live as Christ.”[23] This must be our attitude.
We have to practice the exercise of nailing in our soul the revealed truth that all things work for good for those who love God.[24] “When he says ‘everything,’” as our proper law well explains, “he leaves nothing out. This includes every situation, whether prosperous or adverse; whether concerning the good of the soul, goods of fortune or reputation. This ‘everything’ further includes all conditions of human life (family, study, talents, etc.), all interior states we experience (joys, happiness, deprivations, dryness, displeasures, tediousness, temptations, etc.), even faults and sins. It includes everything, absolutely everything. When Saint Paul says ‘works for good,’ it is understood that everything cooperates, contributes, and happens for our spiritual good. We must have this vision, and not that of the flesh or the world. We must see everything in light of the loving designs of God’s Providence.”[25] And when temptations intensify and all seems to collapse, “let us leave aside sorrow and weakness that grip us and run with patience to the war that is before us, looking always at Jesus Christ in order to take heart. Just as He is the author of our faith, He will see it through and perfect it in us, and just as He, gladly, being able to avoid death, did not refuse to pass through all labors and outrages until dying such an outrageous death as that of the cross,”[26] so also let us dispose ourselves to die, if it were necessary, for the good of the Church and of the Institute, in the service of Jesus Christ.[27]
Blessed Allamano made this petition to the Missionaries of the Consolata, petition that today we would like to take as directed also to us: “I so hope that our Congregations in general and each of you in particular would have this sort of overwhelming trust in God [because]: Whoever trusts in the Lord will not be disappointed.”[28]
“Confidence shows a loving trust in Divine Providence which guides every step of our life. Let us abandon ourselves to God and leave everything in His hands. He is our Father and does everything in our best interest. We must never fear for the future of our Congregation or any individual. In everything—even little things—let us raise our hearts to God and trust in Him alone whatever happens. We do not base our confidence on our own human resources: talent, strength, virtue, etc., or on the resources of others. We must do all we can for our part and then without fear leave the rest in the Lord’s hands. He never leaves something only half-done.”[29]
Understand this well: our life as religious missionaries involves considerable difficulties and obstacles. It is normal that this would worry us; nevertheless, this situation should be, at the same time, a providential stimulus for our Institute, so that, with ever greater ardor, we may overcome temptations to discouragement and vigorously and determinedly dedicate ourselves to the marvelous task of inculturating the Gospel, without desisting whatsoever from it. Rather, our response ought to be to delve into the particular characteristics of the missionary vocation that distinguishes us and constantly renew the charismatic commitment we have received, clinging ever more tightly to the non-negotiable elements of our charism. In a word: being ever-increasingly religious of the Incarnate Word.
“Do not be afraid! Never doubt… never lose confidence in the validity of your mission. The daily and generous profession of faith—I believe in You Lord, who wanted me as Your priest [or Your monk, or Your religious brother, or Your seminarian, or Your novice of the Institute of the Incarnate Word] and continuator of Your mission—should instill in you daily and firm confidence, in order to remain in your place, to refresh your energies in the inexhaustible fountains of grace, to resist the temptation of discouragement and desertion.”[30]
2. To console the afflicted
At the beginning, we cited Fr. Ciszek, who testified how men would die, especially those who abandoned hope. It is true that in times of particular tribulation, the most common temptation is to let oneself get carried away by discouragement and loss of hope. Up to here, there is nothing new.
What should be new, in the sense of being different, is the attitude with which one faces the trial, the affliction, the tribulation, the persecution, the continual refusals, in short, all that is “not pleasant” and, rather, weighs on us.
Many religious, often with a good reason, are very “worried” and even anxious about “what is going to happen to the Institute,” “how this is going to continue,” “how much longer this can last,” and feel downcast because they do not see any “way out,” forgetting that the designs of God’s Providence transcend our ignorance and human limitation and that, very probably, help, the solution, the hoped for “break” will come from where we least think.
The great Doctor of the Church, Saint John of Avila, in one of his letters to “a young woman in great affliction,” has a treasury of advice that we think applies well to this class of preoccupation that we just mentioned (and certainly to any tribulation, especially of the spiritual order). We will not transcribe the entire letter, but rather some excerpts, which we will then comment upon.
It could be that we often find ourselves in such a great predicament that it seems that we are like “the people of Israel […], after they had left Egypt, when they found themselves hemmed in by high mountains, with the sea before them, and their enemy in pursuit (cf. Ex 13:9). Often you will feel like David, when he cried: I said in the excess of my mind: I am cast away from before thy eyes (Ps 30:23). […] You will cry, and not be heard: that in which you sought and hoped to find relief, will only make you more disconsolate. […] What then, ought you to do in such a case? Ought you to give up that hope which Christ has so often bidden you hold fast? Should you give way to that despair to which nature, and the temptations of the devil would lead you? or ought you not rather to find consolation in the loving kindness of Him, Who, when He is angry, is mindful of His mercies? There is no need […], for any great deliberation on this subject, but there is much for you to do; there is nothing at which to be dismayed, but great need of courage.”[31]
Here is the first lesson: the worse the trial, the harder the suffering, there is no need for deliberation, but rather for doing; there is nothing at which to be dismayed, but great need of exertion. That is to say, the fiercer the fight, the more threatening the snares, we have to see in this an incentive to fight. We have to “put a brave face” on the situation, in the sense of accepting the trial and facing it with “attitude.” Because there are some who are so patient in this wanting to overcome it that, as Saint John of the Cross said, “God would gladly see them less so.”[32] Let us be persuaded that what we need are “holy priests and religious who are […] soldiers, who […] fight,”[33] “not with a childish spirit but with a robust will.”[34] We shouldn’t wait until someone else does it for us, we can’t wait for the superiors to take care of it, but rather, each of us, in his post, must accomplish what he has to do with zeal, humility, and confidence in God, without drawing back if he has to make some sacrifice, but rather, reflecting that his labors will be useful to the Institute to which we have consecrated ourselves.
We have often said that we should have a “spirit of a body,” function as “a body,” which should not be exclusively reduced to being unified and “on the same page” about our principles and values, but also that the effort, the battle, is for everyone. Because some, though with a good heart, often become anxious about the present situation, believing and demanding that the solution come from others, when in reality, we have to “know that we are able to help”[35] and, indeed, put ourselves to work, each one in his place, with his own duties and carrying his own cross.
We have to see the “grace of the trial” in which God, says Saint John of Avila, “like a loving Father, lest his children fall into negligence and false security, […] hides the love He bears them, so that they may always preserve some holy fear to keep them from becoming negligent and so losing the inheritance he is keeping for them in the kingdom of heaven. God knows how it torments these souls to feel that He is dissatisfied with them, how they are tempted when they think that He turns away from them; yet it is His wish that they should pass through this trial. Watching them and loving them as He does, He dissimulates His tenderness, and keeps them safe by teaching them this painful lesson.”[36] We should, then, in the face of a trial, fill our hearts with valor and the valor of trust in God, because He who called us to this vocation will never abandon us, if we do not let go of His hand. We have to reject temptations to distrust Divine Providence, which would never have entrusted so many apostolates to us, sent us so many vocations, chosen to care for and assist so many poor and marginalized persons in our homes, if at the same time it would not have destined help, assistance, and a very sufficient and abundant grace to support us and so we can keep going.
The Master of Avila continues: “And the most marvelous is, that He not only allows them to suffer persecutions raised up by the devil and other persons, but the same Father of all mercies (2 Cor 1:3), true lover of His children above all earthly parents […] not only sees in silence that we suffer from our enemies, but Himself sends us more trials and temptations. After some great sorrow, God usually grants us happiness, as to Abraham [and Isaac]. […] And as He plunged the patriarch into grief again, by commanding him to kill the son He had bestowed for his consolation (cf. Gen 22:2), so does God often deprive His children of their happiness, bidding them sacrifice it and live in sadness.
“[…] Why then should you be troubled by the trials your Savior sends you? Why should you dislike the medicine which has come from the hands of your tender Father? Do you think He is austere enough to grieve you, and too weak to deliver you from the afflictions sent by Him? Does He lack mercy, that He will not pardon you, and grant you greater graces than ever? […] God gives you these sufferings here, to save you from those of eternity. He says of His vineyard: Night and day I guard it. I am not angry (Is 27:3-4); […] whether He consoles or afflicts us, He keeps His holy watch over us, and never so faithfully as when we think He has abandoned us.”[37]
This is what we have so often repeated: “God does not abandon us, rather, He governs us.” With a valiant tranquil attitude before the evil that attacks us and the trials God that allows us to undergo, let us repeat with Saint Boniface: “Since this is the case, and since the truth can be assaulted but never defeated or falsified, with our tired mind let us turn to the words of Solomon: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own prudence. Think on Him in all your ways, and He will guide your steps. In another place he says: The name of the Lord is an impregnable tower. The just man seeks refuge in it and he will be saved. Let us stand fast in what is right and prepare our souls for trial. Let us wait upon God’s strengthening aid and say to Him: O Lord, You have been our refuge in all generations. Let us trust in Him who has placed this burden upon us. What we ourselves cannot bear let us bear with the help of Christ. For He is all-powerful and He tells us: My yoke is easy and my burden is light. Let us continue the fight on the day of the Lord. The days of anguish and of tribulation have overtaken us; if God so wills, let us die for the holy laws of our fathers, so that we may deserve to obtain an eternal inheritance with them.”[38]
In another passage of his letter, the Doctor of Avila says, “You cannot with all your thinking and worrying add one cubit to your stature (cf. Mt 6:27). […] the more hopeless you feel of a remedy for your troubles, because you know not where to look nor what to do for one, the more hopeful is your state. This is because when human counsel and strength fail, God stretches forth His hand, and that is the hour he was waiting for, in which best to show His mercy. This is to show us that the remedy comes not from our own power, but from the loving and gracious will of God. Therefore, the more our misfortunes accumulate, the more ready and prepared our souls are to receive God s mercy, for the greatness of our misery moves His compassion and causes Him to show the more pity for us. […] Do not be disturbed if that time seems long in coming, for delay is not refusal, especially when the promise has been given by the Truth Himself.
[…] Remember that on the eve of their deliverance, God’s chosen people were afflicted more than they had ever been; burden after burden was laid upon their shoulders, and they were cruelly scourged. So it is that after a night of tempest, the day dawns brightest; after the storm comes the fair weather, and when her travail is over, the mother rejoices in the birth of her child. You must believe that your trials are the heralds of great joy.”[39]
How profitable this advice is, especially for those religious who become frightened before the possible scenarios, who want to go back before the objective difficulties that arise or who sit back and wait for the solution to “fall from heaven.” They forget that the Put out into deep water,[40] pronounced by our Lord on the Lake of Gennesaret and repeated to countless souls since then and until the end of the world, implies “taking the demands of the Gospel seriously and thoroughly,”[41] since it requires “humble, hardworking men who do not fear dangers; vigilant and patient during long vigils, consistent in repeating their outings on the sea, […] being willing to die.”[42] Therefore, we have to nourish hope, fill our souls with valor, knowing that we are loved by God; strengthen ourselves interiorly, reflecting that “Divine Providence will take care of us to the extent that we trust in it,”[43] and as arduous circumstances arrive, God, from whom we are and to whom we belong, will free us from them. And if He has protected us up to the present, if we continue to grasp the hand of His Providence, He will assist us Himself in every opportunity, and if we are not able to continue, He will sustain us. Don’t get discouraged! Don’t look back! The recognition of our limits and weaknesses—which seem to stand out even more in times of trial—can be transformed in an occasion to experience the extraordinary force and richness of God’s grace, as we have in fact experienced it so many times throughout the life of the Institute.
“God is proving you; be faithful to Him, and submit to all He sends you. Love Him, although He chastises you, and follow Him, although He turns away from you. If He answers not, never cease crying to Him, knowing that you will not labor in vain, for He is faithful and cannot deny Himself and will not despise to the end the prayer of the poor (2 Tim 2:13; cf. Ps 101:18). He will rise and command the sea to be still, and He will give back the living Isaac to you. He will turn your mourning into joy, and after your many fights will grant you abundance of peace. If your merits do not deserve all this, you will receive it from his bounty. God asks you to learn to live among the thorns, where there is no place to lay your head: if you can do but little, you must compensate by suffering much. You must walk resolutely in the way of God, for the crown is lost only by those who go astray and renounce it. As for the remedy of your ills, God will give it; when and how you know not. For the afflictions you bear now you will have a fullness of joy, for which you must bless His Majesty both here and forever in heaven.”[44]
We said this before: not fighting, fleeing, leaving aside things that are worth dying for, this is already losing even before the battle begins. Our proper law said it: “Cowards die many times before their death.”[45] We must remain firm. Let us be men of faith, “a living, firm, unshaken, eminent, heroic faith; a faith convinced that God would not be God if we were capable of grasping Him with our limited intelligence or if we understood all His judgments and ways”[46] Let us be men who act like He wants us to in the circumstances decreed by His will and providence, moved by that faith “that triumphs over the world and over evil; that is able to build great things; that illuminates life and gives it meaning; one that strengthens, encourages, comforts, and casts out fear: It is I, have no fear.”[47] And with this filial trust that faith inspires in us, let us “snatch favors from the Lord. […] We must have the sort of confidence that makes us appear bold, or even a bully – demanding miracles. The Lord will not be offended by this. […] We must persevere and not lose heart if God does not answer our prayers immediately. We knock on the door and if it isn’t opened, we knock harder, and if that doesn’t work, we break down the door!”[48]
*****
This is the ultimate message: let us not live frightened, fearful, or timid, but rather with trust in God’s merciful designs, and let us embark boldly to restore all things in Christ.[49]
We mustn’t be afraid! Pay attention to what Saint John of the Cross said and what we can well apply to the Institute and to each of its faithful members: “Since he is omnipotent, he omnipotently loves and does good to you; since he is wise, you feel that he loves and does good to you with wisdom; since he is infinitely good, you feel that he loves you with goodness; since he is holy, you feel that with holiness he loves and favors you; since he is just, you feel that in justice he loves and favors you; since he is merciful, mild, and clement, you feel his mercy, mildness, and clemency; since he is a strong, sublime, and delicate being, you feel that his love for you is strong, sublime, and delicate; since he is pure and undefiled, you feel that he loves you in a pure and undefiled way; since he is truth, you feel that he loves you in truthfulness; since he is liberal, you feel that he liberally loves and favors you, without any personal profit, only in order to do good to you; since he is the virtue of supreme humility, he loves you with supreme humility and esteem and makes you his equal, gladly revealing himself to you in these ways of knowledge, in this his countenance filled with graces, and telling you in this his union, not without great rejoicing: ‘I am yours and for you and delighted to be what I am so as to be yours and give myself to you.’”[50]
And let us remember that we count on the effective help of the Blessed Virgin, Mother of Divine Providence, in all things. She “takes care of our human events.”[51] For this reason, let us trust that God, who, looking upon her, did in her “great things,” will also do likewise with us, her sons of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, who have given Him everything and who have given themselves to Him through the hands of His Holy Mother, for His glory and that of His holy Church.
Let us pray with filial trust to the Mother of God, who keeps nothing for herself,[52] for ourselves and for the Institute, with the “imperious” prayer with which Saint Francis de Sales “importuned” the Virgin:
Remember, most sweet Virgin Mary,
that you are my Mother, and that I am your son.
You all powerful, and I poor, weak and vile.
Nevertheless, I beseech you, O sweetest Mother,
to keep me and defend me in all my ways and in all my actions. […]
Tell me not, gracious Virgin, that you cannot do so,
because your Son gave you all power in heaven and on earth.
Neither tell me that you ought not to hear me,
for you are the common Mother of all poor mortals,
and of me in particular.
If you could not grant my prayer, then I should excuse you, saying:
It is true that she is my Mother, and that I am her son,
but she is not able to help me.
If you were not my Mother, then, indeed, I should have patience, saying:
She is rich enough to be able to assist me,
but, alas! not being my Mother, she does not love me.
But since, most sweet Virgin,
you are not only my Mother, but are also powerful,
how can you be excused if you do not console me,
and come to my relief and assistance?
You see, my Mother, that it is difficult for you
to reject any request that I may make you.
[…] For the honor and glory of your Divine Son Jesus,
accept me for your son, without regard to my miseries and sins.
Deliver me from all evil of soul and body,
obtain for me every virtue, and first of all humility;
and bestow upon me all the benefits and graces
necessary to make me pleasing to the Most Holy Trinity,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
May the Virgin Most Holy, who, in her most profound obedience to God’s divine plans, conceived virginally and gave birth to the Son of Man, grant us the grace to have a providential view of our whole life and to be men truly “abandoned to Providence,”[53] and may her maternal providence direct and protect, today and always, the little ship of our life, individually and as an Institute.
Well then! Courage! We are the Virgin’s and the Virgin is ours.
[1] On June 24, 1937, in the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, the feast of Saint John the Baptist and the 400th anniversary of the ordination of Saint Ignatius of Loyola.
[2] Walter Ciszek, He Leadeth Me, Prologue.
[3] He Leadeth Me, Ch. 4.
[4] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 67.
[5] Spiritual Exercises, [324].
[6] Constitutions, 83.
[7] Saint John of the Cross, The Letters, Letter 11, To Doña Juana de Pedraza (January 28, 1589).
[8] As at least one cardinal of the Roman Curia and a bishop, who were eyewitnesses, testified.
[9] He was John Paul II’s personal secretary for forty-six years.
[10] Saint John Paul II, Letter to Reverend Timothy Radcliffe, Master General of the Order of Preachers, (June 28, 2001).
[11] Constitutions, 11.
[12] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 50.
[13] Rom 11:29.
[14] 2 Cor 4:8-9.
[15] Constitutions, 217; op. cit. 2 Tim 2:21.
[16] The first of the “five faults to be avoided,” in “To the Salesian Confreres,” Don Bosco’s introduction to the Salesian Constitutions published in 1885.
[17] Saint John of Avila, “Letter to a young lady in great affliction,” in Letters of Blessed John of Avila, trans. by the Benedictines of Stanbrook, Letter XVIII, (London: Burns and Oats, 1904), p. 111. [In the Spanish edition, Obras Completas de San Juan de Ávila, IV, it is Letter XLI, p. 385]
[18] Saint John of the Cross, Precautions, 7.
[19] This I Want You to Be, Ch. 2, 36.
[20] Cf. Saint Thomas Aquinas, S. Th., II-II, 186, 3 ad 2; quoted in the Constitutions, 63.
[21] Cf. Saint John of the Cross, The Dark Night, Bk. 2, Ch. 7, 6.
[22] To men and women religious of Don Orione, (October 22, 1980).
[23] Cf. Ibidem; op. cit. Letter of Don Orione of October 22, 1937.
[24] Rm 8:28.
[25] Directory of Spirituality, 67.
[26] Cf. Saint John of Avila, Obras completas de San Juan de Ávila, IV, Letter II, To a Religious Preacher. [Translated from the Spanish]
[27] Cf. Constitutions, 113.
[28] Blessed Giuseppe Allamano, This I Want You to Be, Ch. 5, 95; op. cit. Sir 32:24.
[29] Ibidem, 94.
[30] Saint John Paul II, To priests and religious of the Diocese of Bergamo (April 26, 1981).
[31] Saint John of Avila, “Letter to a young lady in great affliction,” in Letters of Blessed John of Avila, pp. 112-13.
[32] Dark Night of the Soul, Bk. 1, Ch. 5, 3.
[33] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 108.
[34] Saint John of the Cross, The Letters, Letter 16, To Madre María de Jesús (July 18, 1589).
[35] Directory of Fraternal Life, 37.
[36] Saint John of Avila, “Letter to a young lady in great affliction,” in Letters of Blessed John of Avila, pp. 113-14.
[37] Cf. Saint John of Avila, “Letter to a young lady in great affliction,” in Letters of Blessed John of Avila, pp. 114-15.
[38] From the Office of Readings for the feast of Saint Boniface, (Ep. 78: MGH, Epistolae, 3, 352. 354).
[39] Saint John of Avila, “Letter to a young lady in great affliction,” in Letters of Blessed John of Avila, pp. 116-17.
[40] Lk 5:4.
[41] Directory of Spirituality, 216.
[42] Cf. Ibidem.
[43] Saint Francis de Sales, cited by F. Vidal, En las fuentes de la alegría. [Translated from the Spanish]
[44] Saint John of Avila, “Letter to a young lady in great affliction,” in Letters of Blessed John of Avila, pp. 117-18.
[45] Directory of Spirituality, 76.
[46] Ibidem.
[47] Ibidem, op. cit. Mk 6:50.
[48] Blessed Giuseppe Allamano, This I Want You to Be, Ch. 10, 177.
[49] Directory of Spirituality, 1; op. cit. Eph 1:10.
[50] Cf. Saint John of the Cross, The Living Flame of Love, Stanza 3, 6.
[51] Saint John Paul II, Mass in Plaza de Las Américas de San Juan de Puerto Rico (October 12, 1984).
[52] Cf. Constitutions, 85.
[53] Constitutions, 231.
