7th Day: Faith gives us courage to ask “If you have faith and do not waver, even if you say to this mountain: ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea’, it will be done. Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive” (Mt 21:21). O Father! You are always attentive to the prayers of your children. Whenever Saint Joseph Allamano needed something from you, he always showed an indomitable kind of perseverence. He teaches us that, “In order to obtain favors from you, we must ask with much faith, with the audacity and the trust that perform miracles”. He encourages us with these words: “Courage, my children, and always go forward in the Lord!” Stimulated by his teaching, we turn to you, and we are sure that you will listen with loving care. Through the intercession of your faithful servant, grant us the favor we now ask for… In the name of all persons of good will, we ask you to assemble from the east and from the west your dispersed children, and have them sit at the table of your Kingdom (See Mt 8:11). Through Christ our Lord. Amen. Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father. Saint Joseph Allamano, pray for us! JOIN US IN PRAYERS! On Facebook and on TikTok
Novena to Saint Joseph Allamano – Sixth Day
6th Day: I believe in the goodness of the Lord “If you who are wicked know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give good things to those who ask Him!” Mt 7:11). God, our Good Father! All through his life, Saint Joseph Allamano experienced the wealth of your bounty. He assures us that, “You love it when we believe in your goodness, and that you love to raise us up to yourself, even in the smallest things and events… You enjoy it when we show our trust in you, whatever course the events of our lives may follow.” We would never doubt your generosity. Now that we are here in your presence, we give ourselves entirely to you, for you are infinitely good. Through the intercession of your faithful servant, grant us the grace we ask for… Following the example of your Son who, though he was in the form of God, emptied himself, taking the form of a slave and became obedient even unto death on a cross (See Philippians 2:7-8), may the Church always engage herself in favor of those who suffer from poverty, war and any other kind of injustice. Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father. Saint Joseph Allamano, pray for us! JOIN US IN PRAYERS! On Facebook and on TikTok
Novena to Saint Joseph Allamano – Fifth Day
5th Day: I have trusted in the Lord! “Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet none of them has escaped the notice of God. Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows (Lk 12:6-7). Oh Father! You are always concerned about the good of us your children. Saint Joseph Allamano never ceased to hope in your aid in every moment of need. He inspired us to “Often make acts of confidence in your love without ever losing heart”. Or, “If ever you make us wait, it is to test us and to remind us how poor we are.” Filled with such assurance, we tell you that our hearts are full of confidence in you. Through the intercession of your faihful servant, we now ask from you the following favor… We pray that you sustain those who announce your Gospel to all the people who do not yet know you, that your name may be known and blessed throughout the whole world (See Acts 2:21). Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father. Saint Joseph Allamano, pray for us! JOIN US IN PRAYERS! On Facebook and on TikTok
Novena to Saint Joseph Allamano – Fourth Day
4th Day: Let us trust in God without fear “Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. Ask and you shall receive, so that your joy may be complete” (John 16:23-24). Father ever faithful to your Promises! Blessed Joseph Allamano always entrusted himself to you who are the loving Father of all your creatures. He summons us to “Put everything into your hands with no fear whatsoever because, he tells us, you never do things half-way”, and that you never disappoint your children who hope in you. Fired up by this hope, and certain that you never leave our supplications unanswered, we entrust ourselves entirely to you. Through the intercession of your faithful servant, we confidently ask you for the following favor… In communion with the whole missionary Church, we ask that Your Only Son whom you sent to save the world (See John 3:17) be accepted by all people as the Good Shepherd, and that soon there may be on earth only one fold under the guidance of one Shepherd (see John 10:6 Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father. Saint Joseph Allamano, pray for us! JOIN US IN PRAYERS! On Facebook and on TikTok
Novena to Saint Joseph Allamano – Third Day
3rd Day: Hope in the Father’s providence “Look at the birds of the sky; they do not sow or reap; they gather nothing into barns; Yet, your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?” (Mt 6:26). Oh God, our Provident Father! All through his life, Saint Joseph Allamano experienced concretely the reality of your help. He assures us that, “We never have enough hope in your Providence”, because “You who give food to the birds of the sky will certainly give it to us even more abundantly.” We now turn to you, for we know that you are always near us, ever attentive to our needs. Through the intercession of your faithful servant, we confidently ask you for the following favor… In union with all the baptized of the world, we ask: May your Church spread and grow in all peoples. May it be the hidden leaven that transforms the world through the power of your Gospel (See Lk 13:20-21). Through Christ our Lord. Amen. Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father. Saint Joseph Allamano, pray for us! JOIN US IN PRAYERS! On Facebook and on TikTok
Novena to Saint Joseph Allamano – Second Day
2nd Day: Trust in God who wants to help us ““When you pray, do not babble like the pagans,who think that they will be heard because of their many words.Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him” (Mt 6:7-8).Mt 7:7-8). O God, our Father! Saint Joseph Allamano understood your fatherly concern for all your children, especially those in difficulty. He assures us that, “No one who ever trusts in You will ever be confounded”, because “You can, you know how and you want to help us.” Encouraged by these words and filled with confidence, we turn now to your unbounded goodness. Through the intercession of your faithful servant, we confidently ask of you for the following favor… In the name of all those who believe in you, we ask you to extend your Kingdom of love and peace to the entire world (Mt 24:14) . Through Christ our Lord. Amen. Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father. Saint Joseph Allamano, pray for us! JOIN US IN PRAYERS! On Facebook and on TikTok
Novena to Saint Joseph Allamano – First Day
1st Day: Boundless trust in God’s goodness “ Ask and you shall receive;seek and you shall find; knock and the door will be opened to you.For everyone who asks, receives;and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Mt 7:7-8). O God, our Good Father! All through his life, Saint Joseph Allamano experienced your loving mercy. He encourages us to pray with great confidence, without the “fear of not obtaining what we ask for”, because you “grant what is asked to those who trust in you.” With firm hope and childlike courage, we turn to your fatherly goodness: through the intercession of your faithful servant, we confidently ask of you the following favor… As children of the Church, we ask you to send many workers into your vineyard to carry your saving word to the ends of the earth (See Acts 1:8). Through Christ our Lord. Amen. Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father. Saint Joseph Allamano, pray for us! JOIN US IN PRAYERS! On Facebook and on TikTok
My first steps in Kazakhstan
A year has passed since my arrival in Kazakhstan: my “first steps” in this land… Through “professional deformation”, I dare to remember, that a child takes his first steps towards 11 months of life, or at least … stands up! Here, I am in yet another “phase” of the “first steps” taken in my missionary life, I say it with a smile! And if every day we take more or less 5000 steps… (almost 4 km) … I have already done many in Kazakhstan too! Here many things “speak” to me of my homeland: people of Polish descent, food, some traditions, even trees, flowers! Like in the countryside, where I grew up, or like in the garden, near my grandfather’s hut. Walking in the village of Zhanashar, in the south of the country, I meet the simple, friendly people who greet you along the streets, invite you to go in and have tea. But the crowning glory is a view of the beautiful Altai Mountains, which invites us to raise our gaze to Heaven, enlarge our hearts and “sing the glory of God”! In any case, I feel small and grateful in this great and mysterious Kazakh land, “sanctified” by so many innocent lives, handed over at the time of deportations: men, women, children of various nationalities. I read, I listened to some descendants of the deportees, I saw what is left of the ‘gulags’ in the north of the country… Always little, compared to the reality of that time! Only the deep blue sky and the infinite steppe would be able to tell of the suffering, despair, desolation experienced, hidden! Of fatigue, tiredness of their “first steps” as exhausted, hungry, abandoned… So many people have been able to live all this, with courageous faith, which can almost be “touched”! Just think of the miracle of the lake with fish in Oziornoie, where Our Lady comes to the aid of hungry people! The steppe soaked in tears and unshakable faith, generates life! I am convinced, that only with great respect, “barefoot” and “in an attitude of listening (…) we are called to insert ourselves, to incarnate ourselves among the people”, experiencing our smallness, living a simple, humble, essential life… Our presence as a Church is small, but this”is a beatitude (…), because littleness humbly gives us over to the power of God, and leads us not to base ecclesial action on our own abilities. And this is a grace! (…) We let ourselves be guided by the Lord and we humbly place ourselves next to people… bringing the joy of the Gospel into the situations of life” (cf. Pope Francis’ Address in Kazakhstan, 2022). At least, let’s try! This requires from me, from us, that “more” that our Father Founder, Giuseppe Allamano, indicated. A longer time of prayer, Eucharistic adoration, reading of Sacred Scripture and contemplation… To feel the Heart of God and to feel with the Heart of God, what He is already doing in the hearts of the people to whom we are sent here and now. “I abandon myself to God’s fidelity”, to His Love, even if I take only one step a day, I am in peace, in joy. And my heart is open to the graces that the Lord offers me, to His blessings, even in the smallest gestures of goodness and love in daily life! Every day is an opportunity to grow in holiness and to be even closer to the Heart of God, to love this land, this multicultural people of Kazakhstan! I thank with all my heart those who faithfully support us in various ways, in our “first steps”… Sister Dorota, mc
Sister Simona Brambilla New Prefect for Consecrated Life
Sister Simona Brambilla, a Consolata missionary, has been appointed by the Holy Father Pope Francis as Prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. After her service as Superior General of the Congregation (from 2011 to 2023), she was appointed Secretary of the Dicastery from December 2023. Here is the appointment in the Bulletin of the Press Office of the Holy See: Appointment of the Prefect and Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life The Holy Father has appointed as Prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life the Most Reverend Sister Simona Brambilla, M.C., until now Secretary of the same Curial Institution. The Holy Father has appointed as Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life His Eminence Most Reverend Cardinal Ángel FernándezArtime, S.D.B., former Rector Major of the Salesian Society of St. John Bosco. Our dear Sister Simona, we assure you of our prayers and our affection and we ask Our Lady Consolata and Saint Joseph Allamano, our Founder, to support and bless you in every moment of this important service to the Church and to Religious Life.
The Miraculous Healing of Sorino Yanomami: A Theological Perspective
In the early hours of February 7, 1996, Sorino Yanomami set out hunting from his maloca (collective Yanomami home). While in the forest, he was attacked and seriously injured by a jaguar. According to local people, this was the second case of a jaguar attack in the Catrimani Mission region, located 150 kilometers from Boa Vista, in the state of Roraima. In the first assault, which occurred at the end of 1995, only remains of the victim’s body were found. As we know, Sorino Yanomami was rescued in serious conditions by the Consolata Missionaries, who work in the Catrimani Mission. He had to be urgently transferred to Boa Vista’s General Hospital by air taxi. The people were shocked and scared, and everyone believed that he would not survive. For this reason, they asked that Sorino remain in his maloca to die in the company of his family. With faith, trust and hope, like those in the Gospel who carried the paralytic on a stretcher and lowered him through the hole in the roof in front of Jesus to be healed, so the Consolata Missionary Sisters, after providing first aid, risked everything to take Sorino to Boa Vista. They began to pray to Blessed Joseph Allamano to intercede for his healing. In Boa Vista, the Sisters took turns at the General Hospital to assist Sorino and facilitate the visit and stay of his relatives. In 1901 Blessed Joseph Allamano founded the Institute of the Consolata Missionaries, and in 1910 the congregation of the Consolata Missionary Sisters. Therefore, he is the Founding Father, a man entirely for Christ and for the mission. In the context of the story of the miraculous healing of Sorino Yanomami, Blessed Joseph Allamano is that “hole in the roof” through which the four of the Gospel made the paralytic pass so that he could reach Jesus and be healed. The Sisters constantly prayed to Blessed Joseph Allamano for Sorino’s healing. The four men in the Gospel (Mt 9:1-8; Mk 2:1-12, Lk 5:17-18) had faith in Jesus, they believed in his healing power. It was a practical faith that pushed them to seek at all costs the healing of their paralytic friend. The paralytic on the stretcher was in a state of helplessness, he needed help. The four friends took charge of him with a free and living faith, embodied in their actions. According to St. James, “faith without works is dead” (James 2:17). The faith and trust in the unshakable goodness of God’s power, and hope pushed the four men to take an unprecedented action. Overcoming their limits, they uncovered the roof of the house by opening it and lowering the paralytic with his stretcher into the center of the house where Jesus was. They were not afraid of the people’s reaction. They wanted to see their friend healed. Trust is the fifth essence of hope, Blessed Joseph Allamano used to tell his missionaries. In Greek cosmology, aether is the fifth element, something magnificent, great, much greater than the air we breathe. Aether is the fifth essence. You can have everything: air, fire, water and earth, but if you don’t have trust and hope, you may die. In the Gospel we read that Jesus healed all the sick he met or who were brought to him. “… people brought to him all who were suffering from various diseases and torments, those who were demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics; and he healed them” (Mt 4:24). But Jesus also heals thanks to the faith of those who turn to him for healing, as in the case of the four friends who, with faith, trust, and hope, let the paralytic man pass through the hole in the roof to receive Jesus’ healing. The miraculous healing of Sorino Yanomami, like that of the paralytic, highlights the value of concrete faith, trust and hope, demonstrating that God is attentive to those who invoke Him and turn to Him in times of need. The healing of the indigenous Sorino in the middle of the Amazon forest is a visible sign of the presence of the Creator in the life of the Yanomami people and confirms the charism of the mission ad gentes left as a legacy by Blessed Joseph Allamano. Sister Mary Agnes, mc