On September 19, 1925 he was ordained a priest Luigi Monza, founder of theSecular institute of the small apostles of charity and of the Association Our family.
To celebrate it, the groups of spirituality and the service experiences born from his charisma organized a Eucharistic celebration chaired by the Bishop Franco Giulio Brambilla, to be held at 16.30 on 27 September – Vigilia of the liturgical memory of Blessed – at the Church of Saints Pietro and Paolo di Saronno (Varese).
“Don Luigi on the day of his priestly ordination still did not know what drawings the Lord had in store for him: a parish to be kept, a secular institute and an association at the service of the little ones to be founded and, above all, a charisma donated by the Holy Spirit to be revealed not only to the Church, but to the world: The fire of the practical charity of the first Christians», He comments Michela Boffi, Responsible for the Blessed Study Center Luigi Monza and viceplator of the cause of canonization.
The life time of Blessed – the first half of the twentieth century – led him to face difficult experiences: the First World War, the rise of fascism, the promulgation of racial laws, the Second World War, the Resistance and the Liberation. Entering the seminary at 18, he faced his pastoral commitment with a missionary charity: first with the young people of the parish of Vedano Olona, later at the Sanctuary of Saronnothen as parish priest in San Giovanni di Lecco; Finally, he founded the secular institute small apostles of Charity and the Association of our family, who began to take care of children with disabilities in Italy and abroad.
“Who would have said that that young Cislaghese minute and reserved that 100 years ago he celebrated his first mass with amazement and tremor would he become the father of a big family?” Dr. Boffi continues.
A father who deeply lived his priestly vocation: In fact, Don Luigi was a priest in everyday life and extraordinary events of life, in the labors and joys, the face of a charity close to the needs and wounds of the world.
«Who among us, a believer or non -believer, would not want to meet today, on their own way, priests happy to live the will of God where they are, generous shepherds who spend themselves with and among the people, priests aware of their own and others’ fragility that are available to learn from everyone? Here: Blessed Luigi Monza was that priest that we all wanted to know why it was the reflection of the love of Dior”.
Also on Saturday 27 September in Saronno, the Eucharistic celebration will be preceded at 3 pm by Prayer to the Madonna and guided tour of the Sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin of Miracleswhere Blessed lived his ministry from 1928 to 1936. The sanctuary is one of the jubilation churches of the diocese of Milan.
