ST
JOHN BOSCO: THE PRIEST WHO FED THOUSANDS OF ORPHANS
LET’S
ABANDON OUR OWN WILL AND OPEN OURSELVES TO THE FLAMES OF CHARITY OF
THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS…HE WILL WORK MIRACLES IN US AND THROUGH
US:
Most
fervently devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was St John Bosco,
founder of the Salesians and the apostolate to young people, the
great and providential man of modern times. His parents were pious
farmers and lived in a small village called Castelnuovo. It was
immediately apparent that he had a good and virtuous character. While
still young, his father died and his mother said to him through her
tears, “Now you can really say, our Father who art in heaven.”
And he, full of love, gave himself into the hands of the heavenly
Father, who meant him to be a great benefactor of mankind. His mother
brought him up as a Christian, saying to him time and again, “I
love you very much, but I would rather see you dead than a sinner.”
Therefore he was always horrified by sin. Once, he broke a jar
containing oil, and he himself brought the cane to his mother, so
that she would punish and correct him.
He
began to learn to be a tailor but he remained a little apostle who
gathered others of his age around him and preached to them, telling
them to fall in love with God; even a young Jew called Jonah
converted and was baptized after he had listened to St John. The
Sacred Heart called John to be a priest, and even though he had
almost nothing, he studied hard and became an exemplary one. He had a
disposition prone to fighting and disagreements within him, but he
was able to overcome these things and became incredibly humble. The
fire of love produced in him a flame of generous, apostolic and hard
working zeal. Putting into practice the imitation and glorification
of the Heart of Jesus, he worked in hospitals and prisons in times of
epidemic!
Overcoming
every obstacle and difficulty, he instituted in Turin the oratory of
St Francis De Sales, where thousands of young people especially
orphans, were fed, educated and taught the faith, all in the name of
loving divine providence. He had the magnificent Church of the Sacred
Heart built in Rome and the Church of Our Lady Help of Christians in
Turin.
He
used to say in holy wit, “Let’s pick three numbers to play the
lottery, and these numbers are faith, hope and charity.” And with
these three numbers, he saw his houses multiply all over Europe,
cross to America and expand everywhere in an incredible way. These
are lasting trophies dedicated to the Heart of Jesus that St John
Bosco so loved and imitated.
PRAYER
(to be repeated frequently during the day): “O beneficent Heart so
loving, with Your love and Your favor, may I always love my
neighbor.”
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