Servants of Charity

Dear Confreres, 

2021 marks the ten year anniversary of the canonization of our holy Founder, Fr. Louis Guanella who was proclaimed a saint officially by Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday, October 23, 2011. Fr. Guanella often said, “Se vivi santamente sarai felice” which translates to, “If you live holily, you will be happy.” 'Holiness will save the world' was the famous slogan that was repeated often during the time of his canonization in attributing to the virtuous life that he lived here on earth. I would say that holiness helps us to bring out the best from within us. It is not meant just to copy the way of life of someone that was canonized. Next, Holiness contains 'going against the flow' and I would attribute the best example of this is our dear founder, St. Louis Guanella. While many of his fellow priests were happy with their usual duties as priests, he thought differently. He wanted to care for those who were not given due respect in society because of the social climate of Italy during the period of industrialization in his lifetime.
For the occasion, we have proclaimed with great enthusiasm and genuine conviction: “Holiness will save the world!” These words of St. Louis Guanella though beautiful and significant would mean nothing if we are not in tune with him. Pope Francis says, “The power of charity renews society,” and hopefully the same power of charity will fill all of us to make our charism, vocation and mission richer and more beautiful. As the famous quote of Pope Francis goes, “Do not be afraid to aim for holiness and turn yourselves over to the love of God. Holiness does not mean performing extraordinary things but carrying out daily things in an extraordinary way – that is, with love, joy and faith.” Let us carry out our daily ministry with love, joy and faith which will eventually lead us to live the life of holiness. Eventually, our way of life will infect others to live a life of holiness since the life of holiness is contagious.
The development of the apostolic activity of the Guanellian Family from our Motherhouse “Little House of Providence” in Como to the houses that opened in 2021 reveals that it has spread fruitfully on all the continents of the world. This history speaks to us of a journey without rest. It speaks to us of a journey, always on the road, attentive to the needs of the brethren. Always on the road, with joy and hope, in order to be able to communicate God's goodness and love to all. Pope Francis, when he declared the year of Consecrated Life, gave a wakeup call to all Religious saying, “Wake up the world! Be witnesses of a different way of doing things, of acting, of living! It is possible to live differently in the world.” We need to take this wakeup call very seriously and go back to our roots and make the desires and inspirations of our Founder our own.
The Divine Providence Province, which was five years old at the time of the canonization of our founder, has grown up and is fifteen years old as of now. As a province, we have grown by stretching our boundaries, the charism and mission of our congregation to different parts of the province. Our Congregation and the province were born as a “little flock” and though today the Guanellian family has become a vast population of different cultures and nations, we still feel ourselves small, insufficient to answer in quantity and quality the many requests from the poor, the Church and the world. In our more and more secularized society, and under the spell of a financial crisis, history will ask us in the coming years, to make courageous choices in order to remain faithful to the charism, Guanellian vocation and to our spirit in the mission which we have inherited from our holy founder. Pope Francis has a famous quote from the composer Mahler, “tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.” He often used this quote and repeated these words to us consecrated people in relation to our founders. That quote suggests to us the need for a living experience, an experience of life that keeps alive the fire of the initial experience capable to produce and spread new warmth. This type of experience generates life and therefore guarantees a future. The founder is not a glorious past leader; his work continues, unchanged, through the centuries.
The canonization of our founder is not a mere memory of the past but an event that is still alive and continues his presence among us. St. Guanella has left us the story of his call, the charism which is a gift from God, the mission in various fields and a method of prayer and relationships. We are called to relive that charism and mission with St. Louis Guanella. The celebration of the tenth anniversary of canonization of our founder reminds us to increase the space within our hearts as well as in our “Tents of Charity” where the Guanellian spirit of the Founder is alive. “We can never stop! ...” St. Guanella often said. “The whole world is your homeland!” Let us continue to spread the fire of mission to more people and together let us embrace more of our brethren who are in need of an experience of God's love through our human companionship and touch! I wish you a fruitful journey along with our Founder throughout this month

Fr. Ronald J, SdC

Provincial Superior