Introduction. The Founder is our source of inspiration, the point of reference for our life. However, there is one characteristic of his that highly favored the contact between him and his sons and daughters: Father Founder opened his heart to them, involved them in his own life. Consequently, they were sure that they knew him intimately, and this led them to feel a great esteem for him, to love him, to open their hearts to him, to follow him.

Today, the Founder lives. We too can have towards Father Founder the same attitude that our first brothers and sisters in the Institute had. We can develop between us and him a spiritual rapport that will influence our entire life. I will try to illustrate this idea in two separate points of reflection: 1) By loking at the experience of our Institute in its beginnings, how the person of the Founder was perceived by the first members of the Institute, and 2) by imagining how it is possible for us today to live that same sort of communion with the Founder.


1. THE FOUNDER COMMUNICATES HIMSELF

In the introduction to the three volumes of the IMC Conferences (of the Founder), Fr. I. Tubaldo presents some criteria that will help us read that work. One criterium, very pertinent indeed to our theme, is the ‘theological’ one, which shows how the faith of Allamano was strong, genuine and operative. Some expressions of the Founder show how this is true, such as, “Do this”, “Act thus”, “Happy will you be if you do act this way”, “Try acting like this”, etc. This tells us how the Founder wanted to communicate to us his own experience of life, making his experiences a guarantee for us his sons.

a) The Founder communicates his own experience. When he gave existence to the Institute, the Founder was a mature person, a person who had a lot of experience. On the fromative level, too, it was easy for him to transfer his experience to his sons. This is important to us, because it is an assurance that the kind of formation that he imparts is based on his life experience. The proposals that he made to us were not theories only (such as the proposal concerning holiness). He had lived them himself.

He himself expresses this criterium. Two examples: The first one is of March 2, 1902. In his notes for the monthly recollection, his conclusion was: “I want to apply to the Institute my own personal experience of community living, in which I have lived my own life. You must listen to my commands, exhortations and wishes, which you know very well.” The second example is from May 29, 1921, towards the end of his life. In this, he teaches how to do properly the visit to the Most Blessed Sacrament. Among other things, he said: “As you enter the chapel, look at the tabernacle, make a good genuflection, say a little spiritual invocation, always with your eyes riveted on the tabernacle… I’m telling you what is in my heart… You see, I really loved it when there was no little curtain in front of the tabernacle, it sort of seemed that we were closer to Jesus in the Sacrament.”

b) The Founder wants to communicate himself. The Founder wanted to go down deeper, meaning that, besides his own experience, he desired to communicate himself. He believed in this vital communication, especially because, for him, a family is built with the father as its foundation. He wanted the family spirit to be lived first towards him who was the father, and then with all the confreres. However, the fact that Allamano communicated himself is not to be seen as a ‘pedagogical method’, but as a ‘style of life’, as ‘spirit’. If we know him, we can believe that in him all this came out naturally, and that even more, he would not have been able to act in a different way, although he was a reserved person, in constant union with God.

Let us now see how the Founder communicated himself. There are thousands of examples of this in his conferences. Here’s one that I find very beautiful, which is taken from a circular letter written to the Missionaries (IMC-MC) on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. In that letter, he first recognizes that his life was a life interwoven with graces from God. He then recalls the most important ones, especially the fact that he had celebrated so many Masses. Then he writes: “Enumera stellas si potes” (count the stars, if you can!) (Genesis 15:5). He goes through the many responsibilities that weighed on him. In all simplicity he writes: “If a saint had been in my place, how much more good would he have done, how many more merits would he have accumulated. It comforts me to know that I always tried to do the will of God as I recognized it in the voice of my superiors. If God blessed many of the works I did, to the point of giving rise to admiration in some, my secret was that I always searched for God and for His Holy Will as manifested to me by my superiors. This was and is my consolation in this life and my cause for confidence when I will stand in God’s tribunal.” He then thanked everyone for their prayers and their best wishes. And he concludes: “I ascribe it to you if I did not die this past winter but arrived at this beautiful day in sufficient health […] Keep on praying that, in me and in you, God’s holy will may always be done.” Thus spoke our Father, and his children understood him.

There isn’t any doubt that Allamano was aware of his spontaneity and openness towards the students, and that he knew that this could stun some of them. He even mentioned this a few times. Probably, he used this system to help some of the students to understand him. For example, after speaking at length about his trip to Rome on November 12, 1914, and after mentioning several details of the trip, he seemed happy with himself and commented: “I tell you everything the way a daddy would.” And in a conference on the Guardian Angels, on September 26, 1916, he included many facts of the war, and said: “[…] I tell you all that gives you consolation, but without omitting the thorns.”

c) The Founder bares his state of soul. A last aspect that I want to emphasize is that the Founder did not camouflage his feelings. Since both he and his listeners felt at ease, there would be no reason to behave in a formal way. Allamano never fell into triviality, he always allowed people to see in his behavior the inner movements of his spirit.

In order to prove this, we could examine his words: In his conferences and in his letters we find many expressions that show us his state of mind and soul. I want to underline here an attitude that the students, especially the Sisters, had assumed: As they wrote down the words of the Founder during the conferences, they would sometimes also describe, between parentheses, his state of mind and soul: That he smiled, looked worried, intense, sad, calm, showed pain or sorrow, etc. This explains to us the emotional ‘current’ that flowed between the father and his sons and daughters, and how the Founder felt free in front of them because he knew they would understand him. Many examples could be given here, some of them rather peculiar. Here are two examples to explain this aspect of the personality of Allamano and how it was viewed by those present. On January 28, 1917, during a conference to the Sisters on “Collaboration with the IMC”, we read: “You see” (he takes a letter out of one of his pockets and, with a pleasant smile, deposits it on the table), “there are missionaries of ours who are in the military and write letters” (visibly satisfied, he takes the letter out of the envelope, unfolds it calmly, sets his eyeglasses on his nose and begins reading the letter. Arriving at the point where these reverend confreres thank everyone for the packages prepared for them, in which there was some food for their trip back to the military after their short vacation that once in a while they received, Allamano adds): “[…] Up to recently, no one of ours had been sent to fight in the war, but now we have two…” (He finishes reading the letter and afterwards, with a smile he says): “This is the affection that there must exist between Confreres and their Sisters… each one doing his/her part… but with affection in the heart. You are like the pious women” (here he stresses his words).

Concerning the Co-Founder, Can. G. Camisassa: Just before the death of the latter, on July 23, 1922, one of the witnesses wrote between parentheses: (“Our most venerable Father Founder, in an affectionate way, talks to us about the beloved Vice-Rector. Afterwards, with a lump in his throat, he says: “I sent a telegram to all the missions in Africa saying: ‘our Vice-Rector is seriously ill: We must all pray.” After the Vice Rector’s death he writes on December 3, 1922: “For me, there was the Vice-Rector… We always loved one another in the Lord… (While saying this, our beloved Father lays his eyes on the photograph of the dearly beloved Vice-Rector, which was hanging on the wall, and becomes deeply sad).” From the way that the witnesses express themselves, we can see how deeply they participated in the Father’s words and attitudes. They seem to experience the same feelings as the Founder. Altough they sometimes refer to attitudes of fragility in the Founder, they do not get scandalized because they know very well the strength of his soul.


2. HOW TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE PERENNIAL FOUNDER

I propose to you three tracks of reflection for us today, so that communion may exist between him and us, a communion that may influence our life and also the service that we accomplish.

a) To know the Founder. We must keep in mind that the Founder lived in a certain historical moment that influenced him too. In order to understand him, we must know his ‘historicity’. That means that we must know his life and his tought, we must not let ourselves become conditioned by the circumstances and style of his times.

Knowing his life does not mean only to come to know the events and the works he accomplished. The most important thing is to understand his inner experiences in every situation and activity of his life. As an example, I give you his reflection at the occasion of the celebration of his 62nd birthday (January 19, 1913): “I spent 14 years in the (diocesan) seminary (of Turin). I listened to the voice of Bishop Gastaldi who called me to be spiritual director (of the seminary), and later on the same voice that wanted me at the Shrine of Our Lady Consolata. […] You see, as I now look at my past life, I feel happy that I obeyed God’s will as he manifested it to me in my superiors. Now I am thoroughly convinced that I always trod the ways that God chose for me.” And so, to know the events of the life and apostolic dynamism of the Founder means to know how he understood and answered the vocation he received.

It is relatively easy for us to know his thought. We are lucky that we have his words and his writings, thanks to the publication of his conferences and letters. If we want to first experience him and afterwards communicate him to others, it is necessary to know these writings. He himself was convinced that he gave us his tought as inheritance. When he gave to P. Nepote, who was then the Novice Master, the sixteen notebooks with his own notes, he said: “These manuscripts of the Conferences contain my true thought.” Since he knew that his conferences were put into stenography, he added: “The rest has the substance, because I spoke very informally to you.”

b) Confronting ourselves with the Founder. We could imagine the Founder dialoguing with us his sons and daughters. To confront ourselves with him means to place ourselves in front of him and ask him questions, discussing with him, answering him. Our life and its activities become the content of this confrontation with him. It’s not suitable to say, “Today, the Founder would have said this or that” in order to come up, we ourselves, with his answers. Confrontation is acceptable when there is knowledge, esteem and especially love. Confrontation is an act of wisdom and should be done in a climate of meditation and prayer.

Besides, confrontation has as a theological foundation our “common vocation”. Each one is called, on account of his/her personal vocation, to live the charism of Allamano: Not alone, but with one’s confreres and sisters. From this standpoint, confrontation becomes a warranty of authenticity. The aids to concretize our vocation cannot be looked for somewhere else, in other charisms: Each one is called by the Spirit to live this charism and not another. That’s why the Founder, who was well aware of this reality, insisted on the need to be well formed “here” and according to the spirit of the Institute.”

Finally, to confront oneself with the Founder means never to get discouraged. Allamano is an educator who always encourages his sons and daughters. Think about the value he gave, in his work of education, to Psalm 76:11: “Nunc coepi = Now I start again!”.

c) Educating with his life. I would like to conclude what I have said by reaffirming the role of witnessing in the work of education. The Founder did talk a lot, he spoke orderly and insistently, in public and in private. That’s the way we know him, by looking at his way of communicating himself, of dealing with others. If we keep in mind what our missionaries say who were fortunate to know him, they were attracted to him first of all by his life, and then by his words. This, of course, is a challenge for us too.