BLESSED JOHN SCALABRINI AND DEVOTIONS TO THE MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT—Frequent and daily Communion 

The extract speaks of frequent – indeed, daily – communion, with an openness that foreshadows Pius IX (to whom Scalabrini sent the acts of the Eucharistic synod). Communion is not a prize, but a necessity, and in order to have access to it, it is enough to be in the grace of God, without demanding an “extraordinary purity of mind.” 

Eucharistic devotion requires that in each parish a considerable number of people should take communion several times a month; others several times a week; and others every day. Where this frequency is not found, even the most essential part of Christianity gradually languishes and fades because it lacks life. 

Communion is the spring from which the soul draws the water that wells up to eternal life; it is the place where its wounds are healed; it is, in a word, the principle and end of that union with God raised to the highest power and brought to that highest degree of perfection that can be hoped for in the present order. If the Word of God was united personally with human nature in the incarnation, it is united even more so to our personality in communion. In this way, he divinizes our essence, Christianizing, so to speak, our individual being; and his union with us has as its emblem the same one that transforms food into the substance of the body that eats it. So those who take communion, as a holy doctor wrote, have Jesus in their minds, hearts, breasts, eyes and tongue. This Savior corrects, purifies and vivifies everything. He loves in the heart, understands in the mind, imparts strength in the breast, sees in the eyes, speaks by means of the tongue, and moves every other power. He works all things in all people, and they no longer live in themselves, but is the Word of God who lives in them, setting nobler and higher aims and purer and more perfect motives for their actions. 

As you can see, my loved ones, there is nothing beyond this union but heaven. So when the divine substance is conjoined with ours, if God were to transform our understanding into his and our will into his love in the same proportion, then we would see him clearly and love him with the love of the blessed. Now, what else is this if not eternal life? 

Take communion, I shall now say to all of you, my very dearest children, take communion often, and you will find all you need. If you lack help, Jesus is strength; if you fear death, he is life; if you desire heaven, he is the way that leads there; if you flee the shadows, he is light; if you seek your food, he is the living bread; so taste how sweet is the Lord. However, so far as you are able, let your life be such as to be worthy of receiving the holy Eucharist each day. Come to Jesus with purity of mind, heart and body, and with the firm intention of never offending him again. Urge yourselves to the liveliest acts of faith, humility, hope and love before receiving him in your breast, and, after receiving him, stay with him for a long time, thanking him for every good thing. Then I am sure that you will always leave the Eucharistic table better, and more disposed and ready to walk to the eternal pastures in the footsteps of the Good Shepherd. 

Continued

III. BISHOP OF PIACENZA – Continued

Continued

III. BISHOP OF PIACENZA
1. The Pastor
“The spirit, the character, the sole ambition of the bishop lies in sacrificing himself in every way to spread the kingdom of Jesus Christ in people’s souls, risking, if necessary, his own life for the salvation of his beloved flock, placing himself, so to speak, on his knees before all the people in order to beseech the favor of their permission to do them good. He uses everything – his whole authority, skill, health, strength – for this noblest of purposes” (Scalabrini).
In his twenty-nine years of ministry as bishop of the Piacenza Diocese, he showed above all his gifts as a pastor of souls, “thirsting” to communicate the life of the Good Shepherd to them. He always walked before his sheep, leading them to the pastures of an “abundant” Christian life, through effective, timely and incisive action of government to improve the structure of pastoral work, taking St. Charles Borromeo as his model.

2. The Pastor of the Clergy
His first concern was for the clergy, to whom he addressed his third pastoral letter (August 1876), reminding them of the need for the Spiritual Exercises, which he saw (and here we find one of his typical features) not only as a time of spiritual experience, but also, and above all, as a time to reexamine and plan one’s life.
He instilled new discipline and introduced a new curriculum in his three seminaries, anticipating by three years Leo XIII’s Thomistic reform. He also started courses in Gregorian chant and instituted its practice, anticipating in this case Pius X’s reform by many years.

He worked for harmony among the clergy in an age of polarization not only in the political sphere (between the “transigent” and “intransigent” groups), but also in the philosophical sphere (between Rosminians and Thomists).
His relations with his clergy were marked by concern, respect, justice and fatherliness, and he was repaid with zeal, obedience and filial love – to the extent that for a long time after his death he was still “the bishop” for the clergy of Piacenza.
As was said, he actively supported the transigent party, convinced that the temporal power of the Pope (the Papal States), had seen its day, and that the Church must become – with a minimum of territorial sovereignty (i.e. the Vatican) to guarantee its spiritual independence – an evangelical power in the service of the highest good, which is the salvation of souls. In other words, he wanted to reconcile the two contrasting aspirations which were such a “torment to many consciences” in contemporary Italy – those of religion and country.

Continued

II. Biographical Information
Born at Fino Mornasco near Como on July 8 1839, the third of eight children, he attended the public high school in Como, where he showed a fine intelligence, but above all a constancy in hard work – qualities also seen when, after junior high school, he entered the minor seminary and, in due course, the major seminary. After being ordained to the priesthood in 1863 at the age of twenty-four, he expressed a desire to become a missionary with PIME, but his bishop decided to send him instead to the minor seminary as teacher and vice-rector, and later as rector. “Your Indies are in Italy,” he told him.
Here he brought a breath of fresh air in terms of method and content in the teaching of history and Greek, opening it up to a more modern approach. He also showed the compassion and love for those in need when he distinguished himself in the care of the victims of cholera which struck the region. In the political sphere, he showed a certain tendency toward the “transigent” attitude –
which sought conciliation between Italy and the Vatican. Since this tendency cooled his relations with the old guard of “intransigent” professors – who wanted the Pope to regain possession of the Papal States – in 1870 the bishop appointed him parish priest of St. Bartholomew’s on the industrial outskirts of Como, in order to spare him more serious problems.

His new post gave him a chance to bear the first fruits of that pastoral activity that would grow into a personal trademark: a zeal for souls, which places intelligence at the service of good. And thus, we come across his Small Catechism for Nursery Schools (1875), various social initiatives, including those for textile workers and the deaf and dumb, a mutual assistance society to help the unemployed and the handicapped, and the first oratory for men in Como.
He also kept in touch with issues and events outside his parish resulting, among others, in the eleven talks on the First Vatican Council (appreciated also by St. John Bosco). These were printed and reached as far as Rome, contributing to his appointment as Bishop of Piacenza in 1876 when he was only thirty-six.

By—Father Stelio Fongaro

translated by Father Peter P. Polo

collaboration with Father Gino Dalpiaz

I. Lovable Dignity

“He who lives from faith not only loves God, but feels impelled to make others love him…. Hence the fever of saints to sacrifice their whole selves for the salvation of souls. And hence those wonders of charity and zeal that we read about in their lives and that call forth the admiration of every age. The zeal of God’s glory consumed them, never letting them rest for a single instant” (Pastoral Letter of 1877).

Fr. Francesconi’s very complete biography of Bishop John Baptist Scalabrini may leave us with two apparently contradictory reactions. On the one hand, we are left with the impression of being almost overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of a figure who left such a strong mark on the history of Italy as well as the Church; who traveled the length and breadth of his far-flung and almost inaccessible diocese in five pastoral visits, like some member of the land commission; who sifted like a gold digger through the boundless regions entrusted to his missionaries in North America and Brazil; who held three synods, founded two missionary congregations, licensed the publication of reviews, held congresses, and had a decisive influence on Italian legislation on migration; and who succeeded in the titanic task of restoring his city’s cathedral.

On the other hand, we are somewhat surprised by the style of this great man who would often come out onto a walkway overlooking the cathedral, to be able to gaze from the Bishop’s house at the Most Blessed Sacrament through a small window in the apse; who left a will asking to be buried with the elements for the celebration of Mass; who helped himself in the recitation of the psalms with pieces of paper marked “to be kept in the breviary”; and who died murmuring short prayers like the humblest of Christians.

However, if we reflect a little, we can see that his special quality lies precisely in this mingling of greatness and littleness, and that this is what uplifts our spirit as we contemplate him.