Xaverian Calendar October 2010

St. Therese of the Child Jesus, 'Little Flower' of Lisieux, Patroness of the Missions
First Friday
"St. Therese of the Child Jesus offered to God her suffering, sacrifices and penance for the fecundity of the Apostolate of those who work on the front line of God’s Kingdom to spread the Gospel. Her heartfelt affection went out to the many generous Missionaries and she declared that, if she were to reach heaven, she would continue the prayer for them that she began on earth." [Blessed Conforti on April 25, 1926 - Antol. 52]
See October Mission and Church Intentions of the Pope
1919 - Opening of the house in Vicenza, Northern Italy, second mission center of the Xaverians
1959 - Beginning of the Xaverian presence in Mazatlan, Mexico
1992 - Blessing of the Xaverian house in Dhaka, Bangladesh
Jewish observance: Simchat Torah

Feast of the Guardian Angels
"We are what we truly are. Why should we praise ourselves? Why should we despair? Neither praises nor personal failures add anything to our true selves." [Blessed Conforti on May 20, 1921]
1930 - Blessed Conforti gives the mission Cross to departing China missionaries Frs. M. Ghezzi and M. Lanciotti
See October Mission and Church Intentions of the Pope
1869 - Birthday of Mohandas Karamchand Ghandhi, the Mahatma

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Respect Life Sunday: Begun in 1972, the Respect Life program strives to bring Church teaching on the value and dignity of human life to the attention of the Catholic community and the wider public. The program combines prayer, pastoral services, advocacy and education.
"May I, as your Bishop, be allowed to express a fervent desire: that from among our bold youth there may emerge imitators of the apostolic life of Francis Xavier!" [Blessed Conforti on Feb. 20, 1922 - Antol. 320]

St. Francis of Assisi, Religious Founder
"Francis of Assisi is not only a messenger of peace, dear friends; he is most of all a Saint, an apostle of Holiness. It is this aspect which we must preferentially admire in Francis." [Blessed Conforti on April 24, 1927]
1999 - Fr. Noel Tomasi dies in Bukavu, Congo: director in US communities, missionary to Congo
1992 - Mozambique Peace Accord

"Every missionary should consider himself a voluntary victim for the conversion of non-Christians, and value his modest contribution to Christ’s salvific work as his greatest glory." [Const. 1921, 184 - RF #9]
1920 - Blessed Conforti presides over the First National Congress of the Missionary Union of the Clergy, in Rome
1939 - Xaverians start their mission activities in Peching, China
International Teachers Day

St. Bruno, Founder of the Carthusians and Blessed Marie-Rose Durocher, Canadian sister and founder
"Grace is God who comes to us like the fire envelops the iron: it heats up, it penetrates, it enflames and makes the iron similar to the fire." [Blessed Conforti on Aug. 15, 1917]

Our Lady of the Rosary
"The Virgin Mary can obtain for us anything: she does not pray, but she rules." [Blessed Conforti on May 20, 1922]
1915 - Blessed Conforti writes a letter to the priests on Catechetical Instruction

"Grace is God who enters in us like the light enters into objects, making them shine like light itself." [Blessed Conforti on Aug. 15, 1917]
1912 - Blessed Conforti presides over the celebration of the First Eucharistic Congress in the diocese of Parma

St. Denis, Bishop and Martyr of the Early Church and St. John Leonardi, helped found the 'Propagation of the Faith' (known today as the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples)
"Divine grace is God who comes to us like the perfume of the flower-pot. Grace is God who marks us with His image and likeness, like a seal marks its image on hot wax." [Blessed Conforti on Aug. 15, 1917]
1918 - Blessed Conforti asks the Vatican to approve the founding of the Oblates of the Sacred Heart

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Vocation Awareness Sunday
St. Daniele Comboni, founder of the Comboni missionaries
"I read the life of the admirable Msgr. Comboni… Ever since my happy years in the Seminary, I came to venerate this great Apostle of Africa. The reading of his beautiful pages confirmed and increased in me my highest appreciation of his life. And I pray that, in the nearest future, God may grant him the glory of the Saints." [Blessed Conforti on Aug. 20, 1928]
USA - National Children's Day

USA Columbus Day - Native American Day
"Prayer is an invocation to God who comes down to us; in the beautiful words of Augustine, it is God poured into our hearts." [Blessed Conforti on Jan. 6, 1913 - Antol. 611]
1962 - Convocation of the Second Vatican Council

"Prayer is God our Redeemer, our friend and our brother who looks at us and listens to us, who smiles benevolently at our homage and our affection." [Blessed Conforti on Jan. 6, 1913 - Antol. 611]
Brazil: Feasts of Our Lady: N. Sehnora Aparecida and N. Sehnora de Nazarè
UN - World Hunger Day

"Let us pray our Immaculate Virgin in this solemn moment that she obtain from our Lord the grace of all graces, the grace of perseverance." [Blessed Conforti on Dec. 8 1929]
1928 - On their trip to China, Blessed Conforti and Frs. Bonardi and Ferrari arrive in Singapore: they visit the Procure of the 'Foreign Missions of Paris' and the church in the Chinese neighborhood

St. Callistus I, Pope and Martyr of the Early Church
"Everything that is good, honest, pleasing, becomes more beautiful and holier by grace, and transformed by God's glory." [Blessed Conforti on Dec. 8, 1920]
1914 - At the end of the 19th Synod of the diocese of Parma, Blessed Conforti announces his second pastoral visit
UN - International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction
1974 - Xaverian Fr. Valerian Cobbe is killed in Shimulia, Xaverian Martyr in Bangladesh

St. Teresa of Jesus - Avila, Doctor of the Church and Foundress of the Discalced Carmelite friars and sisters
"Divine Providence, which sustains and governs all things, will use any human means to accomplish its mysterious plans on the poor of the world." [Blessed Conforti, May 1893]

St. Hedwig, Mother and Religious dedicated to poor and prisoners and St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Promoter of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
"All our knowledge, all our natural and human affections, and all our bonds of blood and friendship remain in us, but they will find their meaning and perfection in heaven." [Blessed Conforti on Dec. 8, 1920]
1903 - Blessed Conforti writes a Pastoral Letter before his First Pastoral Visit in Ravenna
1946 - Beginning of the Xaverian house in Holliston, MA
1987 - Xaverian Fr. Salvatore Deiana is killed at Altamira, Para', Xaverian Martyr in Brazil
UN - World Food Day

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr, successor of St. Peter in Antioch
"Divine Providence has already given me the necessary means to start a missionary congregation with modest beginnings... I'm convinced that, whatever may come, my poor efforts will bring some good fruit." [Blessed Conforti on May 1, 1894]
UN - International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

St. Luke the Evangelist
"In the recitation of our Breviary, let us resolve to ask God for some special grace either for ourselves or for others, thus making this solemn act of priestly piety more fruitful, mindful that the public prayer of the Church has a special efficacy." [Blessed Conforti on Oct. 22, 1930 - Antol. 90]

Saints John de Brèbeuf, Isaac Jogues and Companions, North American Martyrs
"Hence, the missionaries should hold in high esteem everything that nourishes the supernatural life, above all the sacraments; these are the source and the channels of sanctifying grace which unites us to God and transforms us in Him." [Const. 1921, 207 - RF #20]

St. Paul of the Cross, Founder of the Passionists
"I will not decide on anything which will bring good to individuals or to the community, without having spent a lot of time in thought, in prayer, and having asked some counsel. Yet, after the decision is made, I will be inflexible about it." [Blessed Conforti, FCT 20, 168]
1897 - Beginning of the school year for the Seminary for the Missions in Parma, with 35 students, of which three in Theology and three in Philosophy

"In the person of my Superior I will see another Christ; I will obey his commands perfectly as the commands of Christ. Far from judging in any way his directions, I will strive to make his will my own." [Blessed Conforti on Sept. 12, 1885]
1930 - Blessed Conforti celebrates the 20th Synod of the diocese of Parma
1970 - The General Direction of the Xaverian Congregation establishes its presence in Rome

"To gain virtue, one must oppose violently all evil passions. He who does not do this cannot hope to become virtuous."
[Blessed Conforti on Sept. 12, 1885]

St. John of Capistrano, reformer of the Franciscans and Poor Clares
"An action of little importance, but fostered by a spirit of obedience, is more pleasing to God than a harsh penance guided by one's own will." [Blessed Conforti on Sept. 12, 1885]
1930 - The first three Xaverians [Frs. Roteglia, Turci and Valenti] pass the exams of the course of Medicine at the University of Parma

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
WORLD MISSION SUNDAY: In 1926 Pope Pius XI instituted Mission Sunday for the whole Church with the first worldwide Mission Sunday collection taking place in October 1927. The Mission Sunday collection is always taken on the next to last Sunday during the month of October. That day is celebrated in all the local Churches as the feast of catholicity and universal solidarity so Christians the world over will recognize their common responsibility with regard to the evangelization of the world.
St. Anthony Mary Claret, Bishop and Founder of the Claretians
"We must strive to implement the sublime goals that our Institute sets out to achieve... thus making our own modest contribution to the fulfillment of Christ’s prophecy, which desires the formation of a single Christian family that embraces the whole of humanity." [Blessed Conforti on July 2, 1921 - LT #1 - Antol. 332]
1921 - Pope Benedict XV names Blessed Conforti 'Superior General of the Xaverian Missionaries for Life'

"Life is a constant fight, and we will be overcome, if we stop fighting." [Blessed Conforti, FCT 20, 181]
1931 - Blessed Conforti ordains nine Xaverians to the Minor Orders at the Chapel of the Motherhouse in Parma, 10 days before his death
1955 - Sadako Sasaki (1943-1955), Japanese student, a victim of Hiroshima bombing, dies of leukemia. She folds 646 cranes before she dies. Her fellow students complete her project of folding 1000 cranes to fulfill Sadako's wish of achieving world peace. 'I will write peace on your wings, and you will fly all over the world.'

"Grace is God who gives our souls a divine form; God, life of the soul, as St. Augustine remarked, like the soul is the life of the body." [Blessed Conforti on Aug. 15, 1917]
1928 - Blessed Conforti, Frs. Bonardi and Ferrari arrive in Shang-Hai, China, welcomed by Bishop Louis Calza

Oct. 27 - Nov. 4: First Day of the Novena of Blessed Guido M. Conforti
"Far from placing obstacles in the path of the social or political progress of his own country, he proclaims the Christian principle that should defeat all tyranny. People do not exist for governments, but governments exist for the people." [Blessed Conforti on Jan. 14, 1911 - Antol. 419]

Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles
Oct. 27 - Nov. 4: Second Day of the Novena of Blessed Guido M. Conforti
"Encourage the young seminarians to read Mission magazines... All their reading will help tremendously in their apostolic vocation. We need to form an environment which is filled with this missionary spirit." [Blessed Conforti to Fr. Peter Uccelli, on Sept. 21, 1924]
1958 - First Xaverians arrive in Congo: Frs. Catarzi, Fellini, Pansa, Tomaselli, Vagni and Viotti
UN - National Immigrants Day

Oct. 27 - Nov. 4: Third Day of the Novena of Blessed Guido M. Conforti
"May the Lord sustain you in these holy resolutions for the good of our dear Congregation who, now more than ever, needs willing and ready members for its growth." [Blessed Conforti to Fr. Peter Uccelli, on Oct. 20, 1921]
1954 - Xaverian Fr. Peter Uccelli, a saintly man, dies in Vicenza, Italy

Oct. 27 - Nov. 4: Fourth Day of the Novena of Blessed Guido M. Conforti
"Please pray, through the intercession of St. Joseph, that the construction of our Seminary may succeed; we need this space, if we want to receive more missionary candidates." [Blessed Conforti to Fr. Uccelli, March 10, 1926]
1950 - Founding of UNICEF, United Nations' International Children Emergency Fund

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Priesthood Sunday USA
Oct. 27 - Nov. 4: Fifth Day of the Novena of Blessed Guido M. Conforti
"We cannot pretend to have everything, because Divine Providence will not give us what we don't need, but what it's necessary, even though our poor resources are almost exhausted." [Blessed Conforti to Fr. Peter Uccelli, July 15, 1922]
1997 - Opening of the Shrine of Blessed Guido M. Conforti, in Parma, Italy
USA - Celebration of Halloween