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My dear Sisters,
When I saw a letter in my mailbox from the sender “Suore del Divin Salvatore”, I was very happy, because I remember the many times you sent me a card with good wishes and the promise of prayer for my Franco.
Franco is my husband. With him I lived the sacrament of matrimony for 40 years, and I continue to live it spiritually even now. The Lord has given us three children: Andrea, Stefano and Laura, who, in turn have become parents giving me the gift of five little grandchildren.
Reading the content of the letter, my eyes filled with tears, because I know that what you asked of me was too great a task for an insignificant person like me.
Then I started to pray with the words of Father Jordan: “Here I am, Lord, send me as soon as possible”, and I added “Oh, my beloved Lord, I am happy, hoping to be able to spill my blood for you”. Why these strong sentences, why speak of my own poverty, placing it there, naked, in front of everyone, saying that I have not studied, that I don’t know how to write, when, today, the world is travelling on the internet!
Don’t think that it is easy. However, here are the miracles of every day.
I have always in mind Fr. Jordan’s sentences “Never seek yourself, but only God, your Creator and your highest Lord”.
To speak of Him, of our Lord, is like feeling that all my armor and defences crumble and begin to melt, and feeling like the Holy Spirit is going into action, and my heart is beginning to have the melodious rhythm of love and peace.
In Father Jordan’s Diary I read: “Embrace the cross and kiss it. Easter morning is coming soon.”
At Easter 2000, I can say that the Lord gave me the opportunity to have his same experience as a gift of passion, death and resurrection. Franco on the cross, like Jesus, and I, as Mary, under the cross pronouncing only one phrase: “your will be done”.
Every day they told me that he would not make it until the morning. I refused to listen, because I always believed that the last word belongs to Him, to our Father, who is in heaven.
What has Father Jordan been for me?
Before speaking of him, I have to take some steps back.
From my parents I learned to understand the values of life. During the preparation for my Holy Communion I loved Jesus, the Savior of the world, who died on the cross also for me, and I knew that, if I did not want to make Him die everyday for me and for others, I had to become His follower. So, I started to offer Him my life, to the point of sacrificing it every day through the work for others. I was afraid to speak about Jesus, afraid that I might do it wrong, doing more harm than good.
Then, quite a number of years ago, I took part in a Cursillo, a Christian experience which opened my heart and mind still more, making me ready to welcome the message of Father Jordan’s experience. In my parish, I have had two extraordinary apostles who have brought me to know his charism: one spoke to me in small doses, and little by little led me to love him; this was Father Agostino.
The other was Ermes Luparia who, like a tornado or an earthquake, told us plainly and strongly that, since we had come to know him, we could go into action by becoming Lay Salvatorians, promising to continue to work for all that Father Jordan had believed in, i.e., evangelization.
Hearing this word, my heart turned a somersault: this was exactly what I was looking for.
Evangelization, the courage to use God’s word anywhere and at any time. Until that time, I spoke of God through action, being beside those who are last, the sick, the gypsies, those who are poor in things and of spirit. I understood that the words arrive at the heart first, because it is God himself who intervenes and proposes. There was no longer any time to lose.
My big, dear Franco and I responded to this invitation as if it had been addressed only to us, but, happily we noticed that many others thirsted for God and had the desire to put themselves at His service with the same love our Founder had taught us. Many things have happened since that day!
Beautiful things have happened, because the Lord loves us and gives us joy, as if we had made them happen, while we know that He alone can do everything. The painful things have helped us to continue to grow in faith and to purify us. Even if the pains have been many, the consolations have not been less.
The experience in the Hospital of Careggio in Florence was marked and lived following the example of a great master: “I can do all in Him who strengthens me.” I spoke with many people, patients and relatives, and I have seen many a wonderful fruit.
One patient confided to me that he had not gone to confession since his first communion; he had been far from the Church, because he had never found persons to whom he could open his heart in the way he felt at that moment. I suggested that he take the step, because Jesus was there, waiting for him. He answered me that now he could no longer do it, because he would feel like a coward doing it now that he was on the razor’s edge. I explained to him that Jesus was happier to receive a sinner who repents than a hundred just ones. The next day, his wife came to ask me what in the world I had said to bring her husband to Confession and Communion.
Lorenzo, a young man of 27 from Padova, had a tumor at the cerebellum and was to be operated only because they had tried everything else. I stayed close to him, prayed with him, cried and laughed together with him, telling him about my mission experiences in Africa and in Albania.
About Africa, I told him that when the old men feel that they are no longer useful, they go to the savannah to die, and that Mons. Piazzi, a Stigmatine missionary, together with Father Angelo Dusi from Lonato, thought of building a center that could receive the men with dignity. Our Father Eugenio, SDS, accepted the call, and went every year with a group to help make this housing complex a reality. Today it is accredited by the State that has staffed it with all the personnel, including the physicians.
Always in Africa, I went to visit an institute of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, were there are many children suffering from AIDS, lying in cradles meant for newborn babies, as there were no beds for them, with their arms and legs hanging out. I had brought them a package with linen, but after seeing this scene, I was ashamed and put the package on the side without saying anything, and from that moment I understood that one does not give Jesus the crumbs that fall, but the most important place of honor at the table. In the same place I saw other children, some sitting on the potty, some on the floor, who only had the strength to turn their stupendous eyes, which I will never forget: those eyes were the eyes of Jesus. And I asked: Jesus, why do you look at me? What do you want me to do for you?” Before we left that institute, the Sisters told us that they needed fifteen special, and therefore very expensive, beds. Neither Franco nor the group let this be repeated, and right after they returned home, they could immediately send what had been asked, thanks to the positive response of many who gave us a helping hand.
The young man, touched by these experiences, answered me that, if he would survive this operation, he too would do voluntary work for all his life. -- He was not even for one minute in the recovery room, but was immediately brought to his room. His illness was not what they had thought, and what had brought so much suffering to him and his mother, who suffered from multiple sclerosis and was unable to walk.
I had told him also about the experience of the mission in Albania. Before going to heaven, Franco spoke with Father Eugenio about the mission in Albania and about the project that needed to be done there, and it seemed to be taken for granted, that he too wanted to participate.
I must state beforehand that on March 5, 2000, Franco suffered an aneurism due to the rupture of a blood vessel in two points of the brain, which left him with grave infirmities, and he did not really realize what he could or could not do, and he told Fr. Eugenio about it, who answered him: “Franco, even if you do nothing, you have always done a lot” and Franco smiled with joy.
Jesus comforts his disciples, saying: “In my Father’s house there are many homes, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and when I shall have gone and prepared a place for you, I will come to take you, so that where I am you will also be.”
Jesus did so before the project in Albania could be realized: Jesus took Franco with Him and brought him to the Father’s house. Now, Franco, happy and well in body and spirit, is praying for us, and with his example and his testimony, he will be our guide.
I could not refrain from leaving for Albania, I could not say “no” to a project Franco wanted to realize, and I said: “here I am, Lord, I come”. On July 4, Father Eugenio, Costante and Vittorio left, and the following day Roberto, Umberto and I. Everything spoke to me of Franco, and I seemed to hear his questions and his answers regarding everything I saw.
Sister Carla and Sister Ermanna, like two attentive angels tried to anticipate our needs. Father Eugenio, what should I say of him, that you do not know? He is as strong as a rock, attentive to the needs of all; he knows how to listen and how to anticipate, giving us the joy of beginning every day with Lauds and Holy Mass, so that everything was more beautiful and we felt, effortless. The group of workmen went ahead splendidly; they are untiring, strong men, and in spite of the intense work and the great heat, they were always smiling and in good spirits.
What did I do? I was the “jack of all trades”, because my work changed continually, according to need, and that made me happy.
Jesus said: “Also you, when you have done everything, say: we are useless servants, we have only done what was our duty.”
Without me you can do nothing, and St. Augustine remarks: Jesus does not say that you can do nothing with ease, nor nothing great, He says simply nothing, neither great nor small, neither easy nor difficult, because without grace we can do nothing that has value for eternal life. Unfailingly there was the prayer of Vespers to conclude the hours of work.
Men, women, children of Albania – what are they like? They are persons in search of everything and of everyone. One may be fast to speak badly about them, saying this or that, but before speaking, one should see how they live and how they don’t live, take a few steps back and see how they have always actually lived their every day lives.
Their eyes look lost; they are in need of everything. First of all, they are searching for God, even without knowing it. All these years, nobody has spoken to them about the love of God, about a God who is good, great, merciful, and also demanding. Nobody has ever loved them openly and shared their preoccupations with them, and therefore they need to experience the contact of a handshake, of a loving smile. Today, for many families it may even be worse than before, because they start to see the differences, also among themselves. Before, they were all the same; now, those who have children in Italy, in Greece, or elsewhere, can bring home money. Those who do not have this possibility will be still poorer. They cannot build a house for themselves; they feel they have no future. So they lose courage and give up. For many years, a dictatorship kept them suppressed; they were not to know, they were not to study, they were not to pray.
They were not able to develop their abilities; they were only to obey and do what they were asked to do. The human person has to be rebuilt; to reshape their character, to learn to have the possibility to work; in this way, the day will come also for them – we hope in the not too distant future – that things will change.
One day, my son came to visit me with his wife and with little Carol. They live in Trieste. They told me that they did not know how to handle the child because she is very lively. Also many complaints came from the kindergarten. I told them that, maybe, the time had come to have a little sister or brother, and, that they would do well to go to a doctor to have some help. Back home, they went to the doctor, who told them the same things – but they refused to listen.
Some time passed, and they let me know that my son’s wife was expecting. I wanted to joke with them to give them courage and said that the Lord is so good that He had taken care even without their agreement. Until the first ultrasound, everything seemed to go well, then the disheartening verdict: it seems that the little one’s stomach was separated from the esophagus, a serious problem, that called for an operation immediately after birth, followed by other operations later on.
Another phone call – this time with many tears – but firmly resolved to have an abortion. I spoke much with them, and I begged them not to do it, but rather to pray and to entrust themselves to God, because we don’t know His plans. We have to accept what He sends, for we are not master of our lives, and much less of that of the little one who still had to be born. Their answer was: “Mamma, how can you say that, it will be hell for him and for us”. And I added: “It will be hell above all for you, if you do not accept him. I am here, and I will be with you.” Other phone calls and more tears. Then: “Yes, mamma, we will carry through with the pregnancy.”
Every month they spent a whole day at the hospital, and a team of doctors repeated the same sentences for nine months, and, finally: the great day.
“Mamma, tomorrow morning he will do the caesarean, not to let the child suffer, and then the operation.”
The same evening I arrived in Trieste. The next morning, the delivery is normal… the operating room is ready for the child, but the child has nothing!
All ask themselves how it was possible to make a mistake for nine months!?
I have another answer: “Lord, you are great! I did not doubt. Thank you for everything you do for us and for the whole world.”
Here, there is more than one miracle:
1. the child is alive,
2. the child is healthy.
These are some experiences, but there are so many, that one could write a book.
I want to place everything in the hands of Father Jordan, so that he may intercede for me, presenting me to the Lord as a creature, rich only in misery. I believe, it is precisely because of this, recognizing my poverty, that I have put myself in His hands, for only He is Way, Truth and Life.”
Solidarity, hope and life, are three things which, I believe, cannot be separated, for if we are in solidarity, we automatically give hope, and hope unfailingly leads to life.
Christ has not only died, He has also risen.
Therefore, we too, must be like our dear Founder, who never lost hope but fought till the last iota of his strength for Christ and the salvation of souls.
As long as there is only one person on earth who does not know and does not love God above all things, you may not give yourself a moment’s rest. This is what he believed, loved, and suffered for. With his life witness he has communicated to my heart the missionary spirit and love for every creature.
This is eternal life.
Mrs. Carla Altieri
Lay Salvatorian
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