In the world of today, it is probably asking too much to speak of an industrious and silent person. It may even appear incompatible to speak of the two traits in a single person, since industriousness today goes hand in and hand with advertisement, publicity and a lot of media hype. This is why it must be a bit astounding to speak of an industrious silent person in the world of today.
It is however possible to speak of such a person if we mean a person who exists and lives through others, regardless of when he lived. In my quest to identify the few industrious and silent men who have existed, and who could direct a world engulfed by technological noise and indifference, I found myself staring at the picture of Blessed Joseph Allamano, the Founder of the Consolata Missionaries, an international religious and Missionary Institute in the Church, which is known for its concretized method of evangelization since 1901 when it was founded. Having heard questions like: why is Fr. Allamano still blessed after all these years? Why is Fr. Allamano so silent about our agitation to see him canonized? Why isn’t Fr. Allamano doing another miracle? etc., I realized that I was actually gazing at one of the silent industrious people who lived. The above questions and many more have been asked by people who feel that Fr. Allamano is too silent to the prayers of his sons and daughters. Such people would have wished to see a glorious Fr. Allamano, who would not only be canonized, but also be active in throw-ing miracles left, right and centre. It is because Fr. Allamano is not that kind of a miracle worker that has caused many people to ask such questions that border frustration. Unfortunately, those questions are fruits of lack of understanding of who Fr. Allamano actually was. It is for that reason I decided to re-look the life of this Turinese Priest, under the title “Understanding the silent industrious man: Blessed Joseph Allamano”. Although as a Christian it did not escape me that Joseph the husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary was also a silent industrious man, as a Consolata Missionary, I decided to investigate the life and teachings of Fr. Joseph Allamano, the man behind the Consolata Missionaries’ fraternity in the world.
Being a young priest (not even ten years in priest-hood), the effort to understand the Founder profoundly was not easy. This booklet is therefore a result of analytical reading of other books about Fr. Allamano. Although it may sound as just another fine synthesis of several other books on the Founder and his teaching, its originality is in the reflection of the implications his life and teaching have in our own lives as Consolata Missionaries, and as Christians in general, since Fr. Allamano is a model in the universal Church.
This book is therefore useful to you since it is as a positive catalyst to your spiritual life. It is advisable for those who due to challenges of life are about to give up. Fr. Allamano’s struggle to be a priest and his exertion for ten year before succeeding to begin the Missionary Institute, reveals that “we should not give up since sometimes it is the last key in the bunch that opens the door”. This is why this book is crucial for Consolata Missionaries’ formees, who from the struggle and achievement of their Father, can learn to respond to the call of God and to move calmly and steadily towards their vocation regardless of what they encounter. As much as this book is a result of my effort to understand Fr. Allamano better, it is also a fruit of the need for synthesized material about Fr. Allamano and his teaching, a need that was identified by the Consolata Missionaries Continental formators’ meeting that took place in Sagana (Kenya) between 18th and 21st July 2019. Although this book is not exhaustive in itself in explaining the Founder, it offers our formators and formees of the initial stages of formation a clear and well analyzed presentation of Fr. Allamano’s life and his teachings. It particularly looks at Fr. Allamano in his two characteristic qualities: silence and industriousness. It also looks at the Founder in relation to key aspects of religious and missionary life. As such, this book offers a deeper understanding and insight into what most of us have known about the Founder.
In this work, I would like to particularly acknowledge the great assistance of Fr. Joseph Inverardi, who tireless read and re-read the drafts that led to this piece of work, correcting and directing my ideas. I would like also to thank Fr. Francesco Bernardi for his support, which gave this book the layout/design it has. As we present you this book, we wish you a nice reading, and a fruitful reflection of the silent industrious man: Blessed Joseph Allamano. It is our hope that at the end of it all, you will concur with us that in a world that has lost the sense of the importance of silence through mass media hype, and hence nullified the importance of and the power of speech, a silent industrious person is needed to remind the world that ‘noise does not produce any good, and neither does the good produce noise’. Fr. Joseph Allamano is that man, who continues to cause ripples in over 30 countries in the world, through silent but transforming evangelical acts of his sons and daughters, the Consolata Missionaries.