LOVE OF GOD

The Heart of Jesus constantly tells you: love me and let me love!

Let God alone be in your mind and heart, every day, from morning to night.

A soul that loves Jesus Christ does not allow itself be stricken nor won by any difficulty,
because love is always strong as death,
fights with it (death) and does not allow itself to be won.

We are created to be transformed in God
We are created to love God
We are created to possess God

Let uslove God, because with love we will possess Him!

If our ultimate aim is to know God, doesn't that also mean to love Him?
For it is impossible to have experience of beautyand not to love it.

God loves us. God is willing to love us forever,
no matter how much we are unworthy of his love.

Your heartis not yours, God demands it!

Love draws to itself all the virtues and it does not make you feel the pains of life.

Let the rising of the sun find us with works of the love of God and at sunset closely united with Him.

To make up for the times we did not love God, let us enhance the acts of love toward Him.

Goddid not wait forour lovebutanticipated it.

Do we want to be sure of the love of Jesus?
Let us raise our eyes and see him hanging on the cross.

Let us grow fervent in the love of the Lord, having always the crucifix before our eyes.

A soul that loves God does not want anything other than to sacrifice itself for Him and every pain is home to her.

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 LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOUR

Charity, charity with all: do not forget that you are Sisters for the exercise of charity.

Charity is the queen seated on the throne of humility,
all other virtues are like many handmaids by her side.

My daughters, let us respond evil with good.
That is what Jesus Christ has taught us; if we want to imitate him.

My daughters, let your eyes, your hearts be simple,
righteous and be nourished always with honey.

The first and foremost of your duties is to love affectionately the sick,
recognizing in them the suffering Saviour Jesus Christ.

Let your charity be a true copy of the charity exercised by our Heavenly Father.

Do not be like the milestones that show others the way while they remain static,
rather try every day to progress in virtue.

Do everything and only for the Lord, serving Him earnestly and humbly in these poor patients.
Take pleasure in serving your divine Spouse in the person of these sick and you will have a paradise in advance.

Dearest daughter, look after these young girls always
as though they are handed over to you by your divine Spouse
and consider them as an apple of your eye.

Let go of our comforts and let us sacrifice willingly to be in harmony with our holy vocation,
which is the glory of God alone and the sanctification of souls.

I entrust you to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
in whom we want to find ourselves often.

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TRUST IN THE PROVIDENCE

Abandon yourself to the Providence with great faith.

To die, yes; to offend the Lord with distrust, no, no, no!

Trust in God and totally surrender yourself to Him who is our Father.

The Lord helps and never abandons the one who puts his trust in Him.

Let us love the will of God and we will become great saints.

Have always your divine Spouse before your eyes.
I leave you secure in the Sacred Hearts of our Beloveds.

May the Lord continue to bless you and give you the grace of holy perseverance.

Be happyin the Lord andfear nothing.

The Lord can do everything and when he wants something from us,
also gives us the means to achieve it.

We are always united with our good Lord and we will be happy in every place and with any work.

Take everything from the hands of the Lord because He does everything for our good.

May the Lord bless you and you trust in Him, who, himself is charity.
 
Let us trust in the Lord and with confidence, let us imitate our saintly father, Cajetan,
let us honour him in a way most dear to him.

In your great and many occupations think that you are not alone
but you are with your divine Spouse.

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HOLINESS

Let everythingbe holyin usfrom morningto night.

The Lord loves you so much, He wants you for himself; he wants you holy.

I leave you in the companyofyour Jesus.

We have just one affair to deal with every day and that is our sanctification.

Take things as they come from the Lord, for our sanctification.

The virtues cannot be practised unless there are opportunities to exercise them.

I remind you to be aware of the presence of the Lord and during the day often do some acts of love towards Him.

My daughters, be the little ones, because when you are lowly,
Jesus gets close to you with greater affection.
Jesus is consoled my little, little daughters!

Look for the last place, daughters, because there you will find Jesus.
He alone be the witness of your sacrifices.

The crosses produce marvellous fruits and it is an honour to be crucified with Jesus and for Jesus.

May the Lord bless and give you the happiness that makes you enjoy a paradise in advance here on earth.

Let your dealing with all be humble, sweet and respectful.

Humility is the foundation of Christian perfection.

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THE WILL OF GOD

Thought of God, heartfor God, hand forGod!

Paradise, paradise... only up above we will find everything and we shall love the Lord forever.

Try to walk always in the presence of your divine Spouse and do everything that is pleasing to him.

Let the Lord work in us! Let us totally abandon ourselves to Him!

Let us pray and be resigned to whatever the Lord is pleased to provide us with.

Let us place ourselves as instruments in the hands of the divine Providence who may make use of us for its greater glory.

Abandon yourself to the divine will and you will have peace of mind and nothing will disturb you.

Pray for the light to discern well the will of God.

Let the Lord make of me what he wishes, I ask for nothing but that his will be done.

The proof ofloving Godis tosuffer for the love of him.

The Lord allows everything for our good and he wants us to draw good even from evil for his greater glory.

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VARIOUS THOUGHTS

Giving you the holy blessing, entrust you to the Most Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,

Keep your eyes always on Our Lady
and in her honour do acts that are in perfect consonance with her divine Son.
 
Run to Mary, our Mother, with great trust in all your needs.
 
In your spiritual needs have always St. Joseph as your teacher

Continue to trust in St. Joseph who will not fail to protect you in your every need.
 
Have trust in our divine Mother and in our beloved father, St Joseph.

I'll remember you on the altar every day.

See the Heart of Jesus opened, which
invites you to enter it, where you will find light and heavenly consolation.
 
I see that the Lord loves you very much,
giving you many opportunities to store treasure for the eternal life.
 
Great humility and charity, great gentleness in every meeting and everything will be fine.

May the good Lord grant you every happiness as Christmas and New Year are approaching.
 
As the Easter celebrations near, I wish you happy and full of choicest consolations in the Lord.
 
The coming of Jesus Christ is a proof of God’s profound love for us.

Always take care of these children as the apple of your eyes.

May your eyes be simple, upright and always nourished with Honey!

Let us live the New Year as though it is the last of our lives.

God loves us. God is willing to love us forever, however we are unworthy of his love.

Be zealous for the glory of God and for the honour of the Heart of Jesus

I leave youall in the Most SacredHearts of Our Beloveds.

 

 

 

Padre Luigi's "fiutis" (little daughters), as he loved to call his Sisters in Friulian language, faithfully continue his work with humility; totally surrendering themselves to God and unconditionally loving the poor, the children and adults, the sick, the elderly and poor families in Italy, Brazil, Uruguay, Togo, Benin, Ivory Coast, India, Bolivia, Romania and Moldova, Burma (Myanmar) and Thailand.

More than ever, St. Luigi is alive today in evangelical love that impels the Sisters of Providence to transcend towards new frontiers of suffering of this restless humanity.

They are called to give genuine witness for the new evangelisation that for the Friulian saint had only one name and method: "charity, charity, save souls and save them with charity."

The fame of his holiness spread quickly among the people. Not only the believers mourned the death of the saint but even the anticlericals. The so called five non-Catholic newspapers of Udine, managed by liberals, anticlericals and Freemasons, recognized the exceptional nature of his role as a priest. Among all of them "The Friuli", notoriously anticlerical, is a proof of it: "It seems impossible - it wrote - but this time the philanthropist is a priest... it is Padre Luigi Scrosoppi, a good minister of god - “g” with small letter - who always served with zeal for the good of his neighbour, and worked towards the establishment of several charitable institutions."

And immediately there began the favours, both of physical and moral healing, attributed to his intercession. The normal process for the approval of his holiness took place from 1932 to 1936. His heroic virtues were officially recognized by Pope Paul VI, on 12 June 1978.

Pope John Paul II solemnly proclaimed him blessed, in St. Peter's Square, on 4 October 1981. The last miracle, officially recognized by the Church, needed for the cause of canonization, was done in favour of Peter Shitima Chungu from Zambia. A student of the Oratory of St. Philip in South Africa, who became ill with peripheral poly-neuritis of the lower limbs wasting syndrome, in short, an AIDS patient in fatal stage. He was sent home in Zambia by the doctors so that he could die at home. The Oratorian community, parishioners and also his family began asking healing for Chungu through the intercession of Blessed Luigi, to whom Chungu was very devoted. One night he dreamt Padre Luigi, who assured him of his recovery. The very next day he began to get up and feel as good as before the illness. Now he is back in South Africa and a priest!

Pope John Paul II officially recognized the holiness of Padre Luigi in a public Consistory (assembly of the cardinals) on 23 March 2001. The solemn canonization took place on 10 June 2001, in St. Peter's Square, in the presence of thousands of faithful from his Friuli and from all over Italy and around the world, where even today, and always his beloved Sisters work with the same zeal for the poor.

The death of PadreLuigi was indeed exemplary. He wanted to become a copy of Christ; his final illness was a sort of Calvary, made of physical and moral sufferings, which he faced with a spirit of complete surrender to God.

He prepared himself with a "novitiate for heaven" under the direction of Sr. Agostina, who was asked to accuse him of the defects and faults, as well as, to impose on him harsh and humiliating penance. In order to overcome her reluctance, the saint fell himself on his knees, imploring her in the virtue of holy obedience to be his novice mistress: "Let's help each other to become saints", he encouraged her.

The illness and the risk of death did not stop himeven when his doctor pressed him to take bed rest: he had too many "works needing urgent attention” to give importance “to a silly sickness like this", he explained. He was suffering from pemphigus, a serious form of purulent dermatitis; "it is thus pleased to our good Father in heaven, so it must to us", or in times of great suffering: "bonum mihi, Domine, quia humiliasti me" (for my good, Lord, you have humbled me), he would say.

The mother superiors of the houses, in turn, visited his bedside, which became his last chair (teaching place) of holiness. To each one, without failing, his farewell greeting was: "See you in heaven." Then, one night, St. Ann, St. Martha and his three women Saints (Mary Magdalene, Mary of Cleophas and Mary Salome) appeared to him: "I have always venerated them – he confessed to mother Cecilia, the mother General – they have come tonight to inform me" .

Before his death he wanted to greet everyone, even the mason, the gardener, the labourer, he embraced them all. Finally, a last prophecy for his Sisters: "The congregation will go through tribulations, but then, everything will be fine. I must leave for the greater good of the community." It was on 3 April 1884, towards late morning, Padre Luigi joined the company of the saints in heaven.

His funeral was attended by a multitude of people. According to his will, his mortal remains were taken to the house at Orzano, which he had bought to ensure vegetables and food supplies to the House of Providence in Udine. A farm-house that he visited frequently and considered as an oasis of peace where one could finally rest.

The urn, with his remains, was transferred to Udine on 23 April 1952 to the church of St. Cajetan, in the house of Providence, the mother house of the Sisters of Providence.

In the nineteenth century, Friuli also went through a time of great social and political turmoil and great social and cultural upheavals. With the arrival of Napoleon, came also the wind of revolution, a spirit of “illuminism”, a government with strong anticlerical and anti-religious attitude. Even under the Austro-Hungarian Empire it was not easy to preserve the freedom of religion, as Josephism claimed to rule and control.

Illiteracy was common, especially among women. Fr. Luigi was a forerunner of the empowerment of women, dedicating all his energies for the young girls and then, for the Sisters.

Another constant concern of his was to preserve the freedom and autonomy of his activities, especially the freedom of education, the autonomy of the educational plan of his Home, against the attempts of the Austrian government and then that of the Italian, to control it. It was better to renounce the recognition rather than being subjected to foreign protection; better to give up even significant public donations rather than giving up the freedom of education. He, then, never failed to claim the dignity of the Sisters and defend their works, asking various institutions to recognize their worth.

When various governments came up, one after the other, muzzling the Church, he had no fear to stand by the side of the Bishop and the Pope. He was not a saint living in isolation but participated in all the events of the local Church, supporting its various initiatives morally and financially, while maintaining himself and his works of charity as well. He had an open and far-sighted vision, so much so, for example, he was one among the staunchest supporters of the Catholic Press. He participated personally contributing to sustain the origin of a Catholic newspaper in Udine, unique among other five liberals and anticlerical, belonging to Freemason movement. He lived in contact with the best Catholic minds of the time, both in social and cultural field. In addition to be in communion with his Church, he practised an open missionary spirit, which enabled him to respond promptly to the requests for the presence of his Sisters to ever more distant places: first in various places in Friuli, then in Trent, Tyrol and Istria. The important thing was to place themselves at the service of the poor, who, for him, were the living embodiment of Jesus Christ. 

The Sisters of Providence were the first and indispensable companions of St. Luigi's adventure; at first they were just Friulian volunteers called upon to lend a helping hand. Then, he gradually developed the decision to found a religious community, which he matured in 1845. While his brother was still alive, he thought of a possible aggregation with some "religious family": preferably, the Sisters of Fr. Antony Rosmini, of whom Fr Carlo was a friend and that Padre Luigi admired his writings and works, or some other Congregation. But none of that came through. A sign of Providence, explained Padre Luigi to his brother, who eventually gave him the consent to provide them by himself. Thus, the Congregation of the Sisters of Providence was born under the protection of St. Cajetan of Thiene, the saint of Providence. In reality, Padre Luigi, devoted to many saints, would place them also under the protection of the Holy Family of Nazareth, the Holy Virgin Mary, "the tender Mother and guide" and St. Joseph. The Son of God, present in the Eucharist was their only point of reference.

The first collaborators were simple and generous souls, totally devoted to God and neighbour. He wanted his Sisters to be docile instruments of Providence, in full appreciation of their feminine nature. He was not a commanding father of the Sisters, but their most humble "servant", just as he wanted to be of the poor and the sick. So much so a servant, he did his "last" novitiate, the one for heaven, under the direction of a Sister, just before he fell ill and died.

He wanted the Sisters to be courageous: out on the streets of Udine in 1848, when the Austrian siege and bombardment raged, to help the wounded, no matter of which side they were. Fear of death? Sure, but the love for Jesus overcame even the fear. After blessing them, he would say: "If God so wishes, see you in Heaven."

In 1855, they were out again, on the streets of Friuli, when cholera broke out and people went on dying like flies. The Sisters went around looking for the sick in the houses and cared for them without any fear of succumbing to the plague.

Apart from spiritually being strong, he wanted them prepared professionally as well. Foreseeing the Austrian bombardment and the need of helping the wounded, Padre Luigi was anxious to call Dr. Giacomo Zambelli to prepare the Sisters with basic knowledge in nursing. The same concern he had for any other charitable activity: opened a teachers' training school for the Sisters who would be teachers, sent others to learn auxiliary nursing, still others to learn the sign language of the deaf & dumb and Braille, some to prepare themselves for the care of the mental patients. Every new initiative was studied in detail, so as to find themselves well prepared.

The Providence was the faithful companion of Padre Luigi; his final and secure reference. While his beloved and esteemed brother Carlo was alive, Luigi worked under his shadows, efficient in the management of the Home, true social and spiritual animator of the group of women, who had come together to work as volunteers. His brother Carlo died in 1854 and Luigi had to shoulder all the responsibilities of the Home; at this point he decisively took upon himself the spiritual guidance of the Sisters of Providence.

Those were tough years under Napoleonic dictatorship; oppressor and confiscator of the Church property. They were equally bitter even under Austrian Josephism (policies & reforms began by emperor Joseph II [1741-1790] of Austria by which the Church was controlled), which tried to restrict the works of the Church. It was also the time of Italian uprising (for unification) which, after 1866 trod the path of liberalism, strong anti-clericalism and Freemasonry. It was not easy to manage the Home, to feed so many mouths; it was very difficult to safeguard the freedom of education and religion.

The Home lived on charity, even when it was forbidden to beg things on roads and towns. There were times when the Sisters, who worked in the kitchen, were in despair for the lack of alimentary supplies; not even flour for polenta (a yellow cake made of maize flour, in the past it was the food of the poor). Padre Luigi would reassure them and then would go to the church to intercede St. Cajetan and his other saints. After that he would send the Sister to take the flour, which was not there before; but then miraculously it was there and for all. Not just one, but many episodes narrated by the Sisters make us understand the special relationship the saint had with the Providence.

From 1813 to 1817, Friuli was marked by famine, hunger, disease and wars: years of bad harvests, not even millet, foot and mouth disease, famine in the mountains, continuous rains in 1816, change of political power between the French and the Austrians, smallpox and typhoid in 1817; this, last one, left two thousand victims in Udine alone, out of 17 thousand inhabitants. An Oratorian priest, Fr. Gaetano Salomoni, opened the "home for the abandoned" in Udine under the protection of the Virgin Mary and St. Cajetan of Thiene, the saint of Providence. He provided hospitality to the orphaned, abandoned and poor girls: gave them food and clothing, taught them to read, write and basic accounting in addition to embroidery and tailoring.

Initially, they were around 19 children, but in 1817 they became 40. They were all less than 12 years old. The first voluntary "teachers" of Friuli, Sandra Marpillero from Venzone and Margarita Gaspardis from Sevegliano were dressmakers and embroiderers. In 1819, Fr. Carlo was asked to lend a hand as treasurer; three years later, in 1822, he became the director of the Home. In 1929, Fr. Giovanni Battista Bearzi of Udine appointed Padre Luigi as Vice-Director.

It was neither easy to run the Home during those days nor to maintain the girls. Ever since a priest, Padre Luigi, made himself a beggar on the streets of Friuli to help his brother. But once the administration of the Home was entrusted to him, the income became more stable; thanks to the Providence in which he had unwavering trust and also due to his initiatives: he travelled the streets of Friuli with a handcart collecting donations and food. Often he had to bear harsh insults and even blows. It is said about a man who slapped him considering him an idler. "This is for me but now what will you give for my little girls?", was the reaction of the saint! Amazed by the attitude of Luigi, the ill-tempered man provided him with plenty of foodstuff and became a supporter of the work.

There were hundreds and hundreds of girls helped by the Home; in addition, the young who were already in the Home were assured not only human and religious education but also vocational training, so that, they could face life with dignity. Padre Luigi himself, together with his collaborators, future Sisters of Providence, taught not only catechism lessons but also astronomy, geography and history.