St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians deals at length with various Charisms, or gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12, 13, 14; [1 Cor. 12:4-11]), granted by God to different people for the full growth of the community just as a body needs different parts to be fully grown and healthy. Charism is also a particular inspiration to individual persons on how to live in a special way a specific aspect of the Gospel. In other words, it is an inspiration on how to imitate a characteristic trait of the life of Jesus. The Charism is sometimes called spirituality. That way, the charism or the spirituality is the religious or ethical value that is concretized as an attitude or spirit from which one’s actions flow. (That is why other people speak of the spirituality instead of Charism). The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that charisms are graces of the Holy Spirit which directly or indirectly benefit the Church, ordered as they are to her building up, to the good of men, and to the needs of the world (CCC 799). It applies to a person’s belief in the divine transcendence, through which he or she fashions a lifestyle according to one’s religious convictions. Charisms apply not only applies to persons, but also to communities. This is important to know so as to avoid confusion when later we hear a person use the term spirituality. The life and teaching of Jesus are so rich and deep that nobody can live them fully. Some people are called to live in depth, one or another aspect of it. For example, St. Francis of Assisi was inspired by the radical poverty of Jesus, St. Dominic tried to follow Jesus in his preaching of the word of God. St. Camillus was impressed by Jesus’ loving care for the sick. Don Bosco was inspired by Jesus’ concern for the children and young people. Mother Teresa was inspired by the Lord’s love for the poor. This means that the founders and foundresses of religious congregations are among people whom God touched in different ways, and in that way inspired them to focus their attention on specific aspects of Jesus’ life for the greater glory of God and in response to some peculiar needs of the surrounding society. To make their work more effective they were expected to call other people to join them. That is how religious congregations began, and that distinct way of living the Gospel is what we call charism of a congregation. It is the thing that is specific to each one of them. It is what differentiates them as a kind of individual identity. If you want to join a congregation, the first thing you should enquire about it is its charism and see if it appeals to you, if that is what God is asking of you according to your personality, feelings, talents, and limitations.
How did Allamano discover his Charism
A charism or spirituality is not necessarily the fruit of a sudden inspiration, dream, vision, etc. Most often, it is something that develops in time, through various events and through the sensitivity of the person in perceiving God’s presence in such events, in reading the so called “signs of the time”. This appears very clearly in Bd. Joseph Allamano, the founder of Consolata Missionaries Family - the fathers and brothers on one side and the sisters on the other. It took a number of years before he had it clear in his mind.
Fr. Allamano had accepted, purely out of obedience, to be the Rector of the Consolata Shrine. He channeled all his energies and resources into that work without any kind of reservation, as it was his personality to offer himself totally in any task he undertook. Soon, however, he started questioning his role there, as a priest. What was he really supposed to do? He had been called there to be the visible presence of Our Lady for the people in need of comfort and consolation (after all she was Our Lady of Consolation). As a matter of fact, people were flocking into the Shrine and Fr. Allamano would listen to them and give them words of comfort and encouragement. But for what? For a sick person in a family or somebody who had died, a person in danger, a student facing the exams, the victim of an accident, a successful surgical operation, a safe pregnancy, a long journey, and so on. These are obviously human problems and worries, but are they the most important ones, true priorities for people who are Christians? Is this the main concern for Mary in her role as a consoler? Did Jesus die and did Mary suffer with him for these needs only? Is this not too restrictive? There are spiritual needs also. Jesus said “Do not worry about material things. Set your hearts on God’s kingdom first and all other things would be given as well” (Mt. 6:25-34). Fr. Allamano remembered that when Prophet Isaiah was reminding the people of Israel about the coming of the Messiah, he spoke about God’s consolation. The whole book of Consolation (Isa. 40-55) talks about God’s concern for his people and his plan of salvation. “Console console my people”, “I am your consoler” (Isa. 40:1; 49:13; 52:12). Here we find the famous Servant of Yahweh that Jesus emphasized and identified with his person and his mission. That became a spark of intuition for Fr. Allamano: God’s Consolation is Jesus himself, the consolation that Mary was asked to give to the world. Fr. Allamano’s role as a priest in that Shrine looked brighter: as the visible hand of Mary, he was there to give Jesus to the people. Reflecting deeply, Fr. Allamano realized that every priest is supposed to give Jesus to the people in his preaching, in the celebration of the sacraments, especially Eucharist, and in the building of the community of believers? Obviously, with Jesus, all the other gifts and consolations would come, since God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for the sake of all of us. So, can we not expect that with him he will freely give us all his gifts? (Rom. 8:32)
Fr. Allamano was however not completely satisfied of all he was doing. Something was not fitting properly. Something was missing. It is great to give Jesus to the people, but the people who were coming to the Shrine already knew Jesus. They were already Christians. They were just trying their best to live their Christian commitment. They were lucky to have an excess of priests serving them. What about the huge number of people who in the world had never heard of Jesus? What about the millions who walked around on the face of the earth, but did not know about Jesus message and his salvation? Were they not in a greater need of the same God’s Consolation that he was offering to those who came to the Shrine? Fr. Allamano knew that there was a greater need in places where Christ had never been preached. His precarious health however, could never allow him to become a missionary and go throughout the world spreading the Gospel. That did not mean that he could not do something - and something he did. He knew he could prepare and send missionaries; in that way he could magnify what he would have done alone were he to become a missionary himself as an individual. That is how the first idea of a missionary society started germinating in his mind. This tiny seed grew, gradually into a clear and detailed project. In this process, Fr. Allamano spiritual journey could not be ignored or forgotten. The connection between Our Lady of Consolation, God’s Consolation and Mission became clear each day for Fr. Allamano. Fr. Allamano’s spiritual venture ended into a very specific way of understanding mission and missionary work. His missionaries, the Consolata Missionaries, would go around the world to bring Jesus and his gospel with new flavor: very human, deeply felt and appreciating the flavour of consolation amid the human burdens, sufferings and problems caused by sin. Fr. Allamano’s children would be missionaries, but different from other missionaries with their special charism. It is probably that distinctive view of the Gospel which induced him to propose to his Missionary congregations their characteristics: Family spirit, Gentleness, Love for the Eucharist and for Mary, and especially, sensitivity towards all human needs, including food, health and education. This sensitivity moved him to think about the salvation of the whole man, body and soul, thus considering the so-called human promotion as integral part of the process of evangelization. The Consolata Missionaries Institute was therefore approved as a missionary family in which members are consecrated to God for mission “Ad Gentes”.
This is therefore the Consolata Charism: “to bring to non-Christians, Jesus and the Gospel as Consolation of God to his children”. We can’t bring consolation to others unless we have been fully impregnated by the spirit of the Gospel that we ourselves become joyful and confident people. This is why Allamano expected of his missionaries only first-class people in terms of commitment and generosity in the service of God and the Church, not half-hearted missionaries. After deep moments of silence and prayer, the Founder coined his expectation into the catchphrase ‘first saints then Missionaries’, in which he encouraged that his missionaries first cultivate their own sanctity as a basis of offering an acceptable and worthy service to their brothers and sisters, and then moving to apply the fruits of that sanctity to others. To live that charism, the Consolata missionaries are guided and protected by Our Lady of Consolation, whom Fr. Allamano considered our Foundress and patron, our model and mother. All our efforts are to present the consoling love of God, i.e. Jesus, as she did.
Counting the blessings
Sure that in a few days his dream of having missionaries in Africa would be a reality, Fr. Allamano could not avoid a smile. He was happy. After what had been a real trial, he knew that his project was ready to fly. He could not forget what had become clear grace of God after the heavy test that he had endured for ten years. To him, the appointment of his friend Agostino Richelmy as the archbishop of Turin was not just by chance. Remember that Fr. Allamano was firm believer of the will of God in everything. Having noted that his miraculous recovery in 1900 had been the first grace from God that confirmed that he was the one to found the Institute, we can now say that the appointment of Cardinal Richelmy must have counted as the second of his consolation. God had “fed him with bread of tears and made him drink tears by the bowlful” (Ps. 80:5) for ten years, but now he was being consoled. Luckily, Fr. Allamano had not complained. He knew that faith in God meant also faith in his designs and timings. That conviction is what kept him calm and focused over the ten years he had waited. Although many people had presented themselves as opposers of his intention to start the missionary Institute, he was aware that the worst mistake he would have done was to lament, curse or blame others for the challenges he had gone through. In silence and prayer, he only allowed himself to see the hand of God in whatever happened.
Thirdly, the offer of Monsignor Angelo Demichelis who had died, gave the Founder the ground on where to start his project. Starting a religious Institute is not a task for the faint hearted. It requires not only courage and virtue, but also practical things like funds and property. Monsignor Demichelis before he died had left the premises in Corso Duca di Genova to Fr. Allamano. There, the Founder would later have his first missionaries, having nick named the house ‘Consolatina’. Fr. Allamano had also received another house in Rivoli and some money - all of which he accepted at the archbishop’s advice.
Fourth, the generosity with which people offered to support Fr. Allamano’s young project was a real sign of God’s encouragement to go on. Among them was some three hundred thousand Italian Lire from a certain Edoardo Felizzati. He was an engineer and a friend of Fr. Allamano. The Founder only discovered that the man had left him such an amount only after the man’s death. The same was the case of Fr. Nicolis, who provoked by the pessimism that was being peddled about Fr. Allamano’s project and his capacity to support the Institute, decided to leave a fortune to the Founder. In February 1904 when the man died, Fr. Allamano was shocked to be informed that the man had left him two dairy farms at Verolengo, a library full of books and a golden chalice that the man had been offered for his first Mass. Fr. Allamano refused to take the two dairy farms, but after considering the generosity and trust that the man had had towards him, he accepted the value price of the two farms when it was offered to him by the man’s family.
Lastly, the approval of the Institute by Cardinal Richelmy was the greatest grace that Fr. Allamano had experienced after a long time. It was the lack of such approval that had kept him floating for ten good years. The approval was the Church’s consent he had been praying for for a decade. It was a real self-manifestation of God in his life. Today, reflecting on the generosity with which people offered resources to Fr. Allamano, we can easily identify something about the Founder. Naturally, people are generous to a good and generous person. The fact that many people offered their donations without informing the Founder, and the fact that he only discovered such offerings after the people’s death says a lot him. It evidently tells us that the Founder, unknown to him, managed to touch the hearts of many people who were around him and those with whom he met even for a short duration. Whether it was his silent and prayerful character, or his open and transparent accountability, we may never be able to tell what really made people so generous to him. What we know for sure is that in his serene and absorbed disposition, Fr. Allamano was touching and transforming hearts and souls of many. That was certainly a testimony to what he would later demand of his missionaries: the good must be done well without noise. Today, if we discover that our apostolate attracts thunderous appraisals, we must be very concerned.