How to be extremely holy today?

Giuseppe Allamano always encouraged the Missionaries of the Consolata, the institute he founded in 1901, to be “extremely holy.” On the occasion of his canonization, the current Superior General, Father James Bhola Lengarin, explained to ACI Prensa how all Catholics can be faithful to this legacy and achieve sainthood.

Allamano left the Italian city of Turin only once in his life. He went to Rome to request the Holy See to register the Missionaries of the Consolata institute. A century later, its missionaries bring the Gospel and the Word of God closer to 40 countries.

How to be saints today?

Nearly 1,300 missionaries from all corners of the world traveled to Rome to witness the ceremony in which Pope Francis will elevate its founder to the altars.

One of them is the Kenyan priest James Bhola, tenth Superior General in the history of the Consolata Missions Institute, who explained to ACI Prensa what is necessary to live holiness today.

At that time, at the beginning of the 20th century, holiness was, according to the missionary, “easy to follow, because there were rules.”

However, now that “there are not so many rules” and that everyone “lives how they want,” he says, this way of life becomes an even more difficult goal to achieve.

“Holiness is living the hope of knowing that there is a God who loves meto be aware that there is a God that I must serve and that he is within me,” said the priest.

Once this “beauty” is discovered, which each person carries within them, “it must be shared with others and brought to others with fidelity.”

“We must always go towards others, help them see the positive and recognize them as people who go through the same path that we all go through,” he added.

Be satisfied with what you have

For Father Lengarin, it is also necessary to “be satisfied” with what one has. “Now we are used to accumulating things, but that is not life, life is doing good with the little we have. Giuseppe Allamano is not a saint only because of his miracles, but because he did good, and this means becoming a saint today.”

He also highlighted that Allamano was an “instrument of God”, who has taught that what is important is “let yourself fall in love with the Word of God”, a love “that changes and transforms the person”.

This transformation, he told ACI Prensa, makes one look further afield, “towards those who have not had the opportunity to know the Gospel and thus know how to help them walk.”

He highlighted that he was also a man who, despite not having left Italy, truly believed “that priests and also lay people could bring the Word of God to the entire world.”

“This is his great teaching, that we can do thousands of things where we areand even more so now with technologies and globality. With a just heart, we must bring to others what creates communion among humanity,” he said.

“He truly accompanies”

Part of this great family is Sister. Lucia Bartolomasi, superior of the female branch of missionaries also founded by Father Giuseppe Allamano.

In Rome, the nun spoke with ACI Prensa about her 14 years as a missionary in Mongolia. “What I have experienced there, where people do not know Jesus Christ and the Gospel, has always touched my heart. Seeing how people came to ask us why we were there and seeing how they came to know Jesus Christ.”

She especially remembers an occasion in which a woman who lived far from the mission walked for an hour despite the cold just to get to where the missionaries were and “live the word of God.”

“When I asked her why she had made this journey despite the cold, she replied: ‘with such a beautiful thing, I couldn’t not come.’ One realizes that the Lord touches hearts and that He truly accompanies,” she recalled excitedly.

He also highlighted that there have been many challenges he has had to face, but that he has learned a lot from the inhabitants. “People who are brave, strong and determined even though the situation may be difficult and precarious. This bravery has always taught me a lot.”

Likewise, he stated that this canonization is a gift and a gift, as well as an opportunity to “discover the beauty of this charism, which is to bring the Gospel to people who have not had the opportunity to encounter Jesus Christan opportunity to live holiness with its simple, humble and close style to the people.”

Giuseppe Allamano He always ended his writings with a request: “be brave and move forward.” “That is what we feel in our hearts,” said Sister. Lucia.

A miracle in the Amazon jungle

Deeply influenced by the spirituality of the Salesians and Saint John Bosco, who was his spiritual director, the Italian priest reaches the altars after the Vatican approved a miracle attributed to his intercession: the healing of a man who was attacked by a jaguar in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil in 1996.

This is Sorino Yanomami, who with a fractured skull after the attack had to endure eight hours until he was transferred to a hospital. During his stay in the Intensive Care Unit, a group of Consolata missionary sisters prayed for him tirelessly with a relic of their founder to ask for his intercession.

They also prayed a novena to the then blessed Allamano to ask for his healing. On the tenth day, Sorino Yanomami woke up without any neurological damage and without long-term consequences.