Ever Met The Servant Of God, Don Luigi Guanella?

 

The Servant of God, Don Luigi Guanella, a Saint of Charity and Model of Catholic Intransigence...

Preamble:

Today, October 24th, 2023 marks the 108th anniversary of the death of an Apostle of Charity, the Servant of God, Don Luigi Guanella. 

My first contact with his person took place in 2007 when, in my search for a clerical religious congregation, the congregation of the "Servants of Charity", founded by him, was introduced to me amongst others. 

A Model Priest 

As I read about his life I found in him a priestly model.

 Ordained priest on May 26, 1866 for the diocese of Como, Italy, his sole wish was to be a “ sword in the ministry,” devoting all his gifts of grace and nature to the cause of the Cross – “indeed a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles, but to those who are called… the Wisdom of God.” (1Cor. 1:23, 24)     

He espoused a blend of contemplative and active spirituality, with an ardent devotion to the Eucharist, devotion to Our Lady under the title of “Mother of Divine Providence,” and devotion to the Sacred Heart. His program of life is summed up in his famous catchy phrases: “To pray and to suffer”; “give bread and the Lord.”

 He made these a lived pastoral experience by doing good to those in need both in body and in spirit amid great and numerous difficulties, filled with a filial and compassionate heart with a tender charity to the poorest and an unwavering and serene trust in Divine Providence. By this epithet, give bread and the Lord, his sensitivity to the integral dimension of charity is made evident. To him, as he underlined in his commentary on the beatitudes, “...the highest satisfaction here on earth is to do good to those in need both in body and in spirit.” Taking himself merely to be an instrument of Divine Providence he was always accustomed to affirm “it is God who does it,” referring to his works.

 To him, "we have no rest in this life as long as there are poor souls to be served and saved.” “Our rest is in heaven” he often reiterated. 

 Being from a mountainous region, to drive in the massage that his motto “has always been to pray and to suffer,” he draws an analogy from the difficulty it takes to ascend a mountainous path that “to do charity we must climb the mountain” – here meaning mount Calvary with the Crucified Lord. To manifest his sense of total filial trust in Providence and sense of duty as an unprofitable servant and instrument in the hands of Providence, he always admonished: “We must pray as though all depends on prayer and work as though all depends on work.” 

For him, by suffering cold, heat, smoke, and hunger in the course of executing the works of charity animated by the true faith, we become “victims” for and with Christ. By this he sums up all the inconveniences that must be joyfully, patiently and perseveringly born in order to walk straight in the winding path of perfection of charity and arrive at “the Mountain of Happiness” as he fondly calls the heavenly homeland of the blessed. 

 In his passionate pastoral care for the good of the souls of the poor and susceptible faithful entrusted to him, he saw their faith and eternal salvation threatened by the secular forces at play in his time – the forces that diabolically predominate in our time on a global scale. He recognized these secularist trends as having the wherewithal for corruption and of endangering their souls for eternity; since for him, the salvation of souls was his primary apostolate. Thus, his devoted commitment to promote a well-founded and authentic Catholic education and formation in piety and morals brought him into conflict with those, both ecclesiastical and secular, who stood for the triumph of liberalism. 

This conflict took a dramatic turn when in 1872 – six years after his ordination, he published a “little book” titled “Familiar Advice for All, Especially the Country People”. His dedication to assisting and saving souls saw him establishing the Pious Union of the death of Saint Joseph to help the dying. Among other things, he also promoted the circulation of good literature by publishing ascetic, moral, historical writings and lives of the saints to counter the products of the impious liberal press that were being circulated; for, to him, “...if it is ruinous to have a wicked companion, to have impious books is even more ruinous.”      

In his days as a priest, he had close relationship with Pope St. Pius X, who condemned modernism in September 1907, less than a year before the official foundation of the congregation of the Servants of Charity in March, 1908. If Fr. Guanella had any stench of modernism about him, guess  what would have been his fate and that of his works...

Now, during my days in the congregation of the Servants of Charity I counted, and still do count, myself the “new Guanella”; for, on the date he completed his 72-going-73-year sojourn and was called to, in his own words, the mountain of happiness – 24th of October 1915. On that same date 73 years later, I began my pilgrimage in this valley of tears. His death-day is my birthday; inspiring, isn't it? 

The cause for his canonization was begun under Pope Pius XII, however, his cause fell into the impious hands of Modernist impostors who went about a pretended "Beatification" and "Canonization": the former, by the Papal impostor, "Paul VI", and the later by his successor in what some call the "material papacy", "Benedict XVI". Though very much convinced of his sanctity, we do not address him as "Saint" as an official title, since our Holy Mother the Church has not granted him that title. We do not need manifest Modernist impostors to instruct us on who to address as "Saint", being themselves the most pernicious of adversaries of that saving Faith which the Saints lived and died  for.

Now, some "confreres" back in the days were wont to tease me as "the Guanellian from Alifokpa". And, I was wont to say that "I may not always be a Servant of Charity, but I will always be a Guanellian". How prophetic those words proved to be...

Pope St. Pius X: the Pope of Divine Providence, with whom Fr. Guanella had close relationship, and through whose intervention Fr. Guanella's works found a home in Rome...  He condemned modernism as the synthesis of all heresies: to-day the deviated Congregation of the Servants of Charity marches eagerly under the banner of the Modernist impostors and fully committed to their ecumenical endeavors in all it's details, preaching the misnomer "ecumenism of Charity" oozing the stench of modernism... 

A Disciple's Token of Admiration 

 In my admiration for his unique evangelical fervor, the lyrics of one of the songs I composed (in 2015) in his honor go thus:  

In your heart we see Christ’s Heart: Docile to the Father’s will; Brimming with sensitivity; Burning with unswerving love!  

Yes in your heart we see Christ’s Heart: Filled with utmost compassion; Tender to weak and oppressed; embracing the lowly! 

 In your zeal we see Christ’s Zeal For his Father’s business! Simple; earnest and committed: Firm to withstand all ordeals!  

Obtain for us; obtain for us the grace we need to be true disciples of the Master, Spreading the treasures of his Sacred Heart Just the way you did long ago: Father, Father Guanella! 

Prior to this, in 2013, based on the text of the official prayer composed by the General government of the congregation of the Servants of Charity, after the pretended  “canonization” of Don Guanella by the Modernist papal impostor “Pope” Benedict XVI in 2011, I had composed another hymn in his honor thus: 

 O Holy Father Guanella! Apostle of Charity! obtain for us, we pray, the grace to imitate your virtues; Know and love Jesus; keep step with Him the Master towards the mountain of happiness, the prize of his love to us.

You showed us the way of love: Jesus who came to bring the love of the Father, and be support and comfort of the lowly and afflicted. We are joyful and thankful to the Master: you are to us, a wonderful reflection of his love.

May the radiance of your sanctity shine through the world for the glory of the Father and the succor of the needy: You had an ardent devotion to the Eucharist; serene trust in Divine Providence; tender charity with the poorest; and passionate pastoral care for the people of God.

Thus wooed by the project of life pursued by Don Guanella, mine was the singular will to learn to contribute, as far as it lied within my capacity, to make his legacy for the cause of Christ crucified and His Holy Church appreciated and imitated by all, thus glorify God by winning souls for Him in this valley of tears, souls to populate heaven, fondly called by Don Guanella “the mountain of happiness” – this was my sole and an unflinching intention.  

Mother of Divine Providence: this picture, says Fr. Guanella, reminded him of how the Provident Father clasps us in His warm embrace caressing us fondly with his merciful eyes ever turned toward us to provide for our needs for His honor and glory and our sanctification...  

A Spark Of Guanellian Intransigence

Ten years later, then six years as a temporary professed in the congregation of the Servants of Charity, having completed my supposed second year in theological formation, at the climax of a session in soliloquy my other self addressed me saying

Ayakana, you make bold to call yourself the “new Guanella” because, by some secret design of Providence, you were born on the very date the Servant of God, Don Guanella, was called to the Mountain of Happiness, having fought the good fight and ran the race to the finish. What do you think Don Guanella would do, if, being in your shoes, he was granted to know and understand what you now know and understand (about Modernism, Modernist Vatican II, Modernist impostors, their hypocrisy etc)?  

In conscience, I couldn't but reply:

 I can be sure that, being one of those men that knew not how to flinch when truth and justice due to God are at stake, he would publish a “Familiar Advice to All...” and he would roar thus with fearless Catholic spirit and with all the power he can muster: Brethren! The Judases and Caiaphases who crucified Jesus Christ still exist today. They are the Modernists who, so many times every day blaspheme God and seek to put the Almighty to death by their subjectivism and indifferentism... in our times the executioners who crush skulls by axes and hatchets or throw holy people into rivers are rare. Yet there are many who take their places. To these I want to say: “You crucify your Prophets...!” How many are those who are crucified by the impious and perverse Modernist poison – subjectivism and indifferentism! I turn to the four Cardinal poles and shout to the entire world: “Find out who spread this poison... and you can easily see in them the executioners.” ... Can one wonder, then, as St. Francis De Sales said, why so many people, who are infected with this poison, ... equally esteem Catholic and Protestant religion? 

Logical Action

Like the Servant of God Don Luigi Guanella, finding it “impossible to silence the truth” and knowing no “fear or deceit,” I left the community of the deviated Congregation of the Servants of Charity on the 1st of August, 2017, for, by designs of Providence, I was led sweetly and surely to recognize that the Guanellian ideal which I admire through and through is compromised within the pernicious Ecumenical pan-religious framework of the Modernist impostor institution occupying Catholic buildings, the very ecumenical endeavor to which the deviated Servants of Charity are committed without reserve. 

The Intransigent Guanellian from Alifokpa on the day of his Priestly Ordination, 11th May, 2022... 

A Wish, A Prayer 

Oh that Fr. Guanella's Catholic intransigence, born of, and nurtured by genuine Catholic charity, may live on in the "Guanellian from Alifokpa"! 

Oh heavenly patron, (Holy Servant of God, Don Luigi Guanella,) in whose name I glory, pray ever to God for me. Strengthen me in my faith, establish me in virtue, guide me in the conflict, that I may vanquish the foe malign, and attain to glory everlasting. Amen! (From the Racoltta)