80 Years of Blessing!

Our Brother Raniero Cantalamessa Ofm Cap., Celebrates his 80th Birthday on 22nd July 2014. We join him in thanking the Creator for all the manifold blessings that God has showered upon him.  Since 1980 he has been the Papal Preacher who inspires the Pope and all humanity with his prayer-filled reflections. He is a widely sought after Spiritual Leader and TV Preacher who has written many books. 

The most recent book is an interesting interview by Aldo Maria Valli titled “Il Bambino Che portava acqua.” “A child who carries water.” The following are all the impressions of some of our Capuchin brothers who live with him:

-His recent book is very insightful and while reading that I feel as if a brother talking to me personally about his life journey – Br. Mauro Johri Ofm Cap., General Minister.

-He is a mystic, a man of prayer who meditates and announces the Gospel – Br.. Sidney Ofm Cap.,

-Br. Raniero is Perfume of God’s Word. He is a charismatic person filled with the Spirit of the Lord of Life. His state of serenity  resulted in creating an atmosphere of intimacy with God. One can explain that his tenderness and serenity as coming from the life lived inside the forest of Ducale city. His life is a gift of love that unites the great like a fountain that emerges from the wisdom of the Lord. He need not speak anything but from his gestures one understands that he lives what he prays and it is a life of authentic prayer. Being inside the mystery of God is the centre of all his attitudes. He gifts himself gratuitously to serve the Word and does it well as an instrument of the Lord of life – Br. Erivan Araújo de Souza, OFMCap

These two are some of the questions regarding St. Francis of Assisi was answered candidly in  his another book titled ‘In Love with Christ’:

- St. Francis was neither an intellectual nor a faith healer: so what is the source of his charisma and popularity?

Father Cantalamessa: His young disciple, Anthony of Padua, outweighs him in terms of miracles and healings, and, to a certain level, even in terms of popularity. The reasons for the popularity of St. Francis are more complex. It is his person and his actions as a whole that make him one of the most accomplished and fascinating human beings, and this is also according to the psychologists themselves.  When asked by his companion Frate Masseo: 'Why does all the world run after you?', St Francis answered one day, 'Because God has not found on earth a sinner viler than me.' He was honest, but he did not tell the truth! Actually all the world, after more than eight centuries, still runs after him because he achieved those values that all of us, believers and non-believers, secretly aspire to: joy, peace and fraternity. (www.zenit.org)

- From where was born his ability to love suffering and embrace sinners?

Father Cantalamessa: In his Testament, Francis says it clearly, "The Lord Himself led me among them." It was the love for Jesus that drove him towards the most wounded parts of his Body. There are some that from the love for the poor reached the love for Christ (like Simone Weil), there are others that from the love for Christ reached the love for the poor. (www.zenit.org) 

We wish him a Happy Birth Day & may he continue to be a blessing to the humanity!