Opera Don Calabria

The beloved stole, which he kissed so many times before putting on, was part of his person as a priest, a vocation accepted and so laboriously pursued. Since he was a child, he had wanted to be a priest, and the Lord took this desire seriously, realizing it mainly through the help of Don Pietro Scapini, rector of the Church of San Lorenzo. But not even St. John Calabria himself could imagine how much that stole would become a sign of the Church lived at the service of the poor, showing the inseparable bond that exists between celebration and life, between vocation and mission.

"If I went back..." How many times have we thought, or perhaps even saidit, sometimes. This stole relentlessly reminds us, instead, to love our vocation, whatever it may be.
St. John Calabria lived as a priest an unlimited esteem for all vocations, those for the consecrated and priestly life as well as for the mission of the laity in the Church and in the Opera, constantly recalling Baptism as the greatest of the gifts received, and the foundation of any call to be at the service of the Kingdom of God. His love for the Church impelled him to promote the ecumenical journey, to desire a great reform for the Church, and to urge the laity to find ever new means, adapted to the times, to proclaim the Gospel and bring souls to Jesus. Can we also learn to love the Church, in a discipleship so enthusiastic, faithful and at the same time creative?