ST. JOHN CALABRIA VISITS US WITH EARTH AND BLOOD
From Verona, where it all began on October 8, 1873, St. John Calabria will reach the Opera over the world. For a providential sequence of events that began on the night in which St. John Calabria left us (December 4, 1954) we are now in possession of an ampoule of his blood. It is found in liquid form not for prodigious events, but for the preservation treatment to which it was subjected before being sealed. In addition to the affective value and in some way tangible form of a presence that has never been lacking, this blood has the very strong symbolic value of witnessing a life spent to the end, and without sparing, for the mission to which it was entirely dedicated. It also possesses, evidently, the canonical value of "relic of the first degree" traditionally recognized to a bone or fragment of the body of a saint, and which can be exposed only after the ceremony of proclamation of beatification. For St. John Calabria this happened on April 17, 1988, in Verona, and then on April 18, 1999, in St. Peter's the canonization was made, always by Pope St. John Paul II.
The blood was united to the soil of Verona, of his "beloved Verona, so beloved of the Lord" and in particular the land of the Mother House of San Zeno in Monte, inserted in the base of the reliquary in the shape of a lighthouse containing the small ampoule with blood.
Soil & Blood, as life and mission that are completely identified in the person of St. John Calabria, become one, and become a total gift, an offering pleasing to God for the construction of his Kingdom.
The blood was united to the soil of Verona, of his "beloved Verona, so beloved of the Lord" and in particular the land of the Mother House of San Zeno in Monte, inserted in the base of the reliquary in the shape of a lighthouse containing the small ampoule with blood.
Soil & Blood, as life and mission that are completely identified in the person of St. John Calabria, become one, and become a total gift, an offering pleasing to God for the construction of his Kingdom.
ST. JOHN CALABRIA SPEAKS TO US WITH SOIL AND BLOOD
San Zeno in Monte was called by St. John Calabria "holy and blessed land" but where the charism is lived, a light is released and becomes a "beacon of holiness": "The Opera is great, the Opera is divine, it must be a beacon of light for all souls to the ends of the earth"; but let us remember, that the first, absolutely necessary condition is to become saints, saints, saints, living the pure and genuine spirit of the Opera".
Welcoming this relic is like welcoming Father John Calabria in person, even if we believe that the places that will be reached by this traveling exhibition have already been strongly visited and blessed by him, who certainly accompanied its birth and development. Bringing together the land of the Mother House with all the other lands in which today we live the same charism will have the symbolic value of blessing our mission, part of a history that becomes the current presence of a charism, that is, of a gift that many before us have been able to collect and that continues to pulsate through us.
Welcoming this relic is like welcoming Father John Calabria in person, even if we believe that the places that will be reached by this traveling exhibition have already been strongly visited and blessed by him, who certainly accompanied its birth and development. Bringing together the land of the Mother House with all the other lands in which today we live the same charism will have the symbolic value of blessing our mission, part of a history that becomes the current presence of a charism, that is, of a gift that many before us have been able to collect and that continues to pulsate through us.