ST. ARTEMIDE ZATTI: MODEL FOR ALL

My dear friends,

We have now entered into the new pastoral year and we are in the second stage of the 2022 Formation itinerary, a journey through which we want to rediscover the foundations of our Christian life and return to that luminous source which guides us to live our vocation with total commitment and sustains us in our service.

The second stage with the theme “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: prayer and word” will help us to focus on prayer as an essential element of Christian life and as dialogue of love with the Father, who “speaking to us through his Son, enables us to speak to Him as His children.”

The second stage providentially takes place in the proximity of a great event which unites the entire Salesian Family and the whole Church in joy, which we too as ADMA want to give great prominence: the canonisation of Artemide Zatti by the promulgation of the Holy Father Francis, which took place in Rome on 9th October.

This event is providential for us as we are also reflecting on the theme of prayer because it is precisely in prayer and in a simple and open dialogue with the Father that Artemide Zatti’s path to holiness began and was formed, and now surely from heaven, he will bless our meetings and our reflection this month.

We read of Artemide Zatti who, as a young immigrant to Argentina, “cultivated and matured a profound relationship with God, under the guidance of Salesian Father Carlo Cavalli, his Parish Priest and Spiritual Director. Artemide found in him a true friend, a wise confessor and an authentic and expert spiritual director, who formed him in the daily rhythm of prayer and weekly sacramental life. With Fr. Cavalli, he established a spiritual and collaborative relationship. In his parish priest’s library, he had the opportunity to read Don Bosco’s biography and was fascinated by it. It was the real beginning of his Salesian vocation".

Certainly his earthly experience - his desire to become a priest and his entry into the novitiate, his ability to carry and offer his own illness that would prevent him from continuing along this path, the gift of his recovery granted by the intercession of Mary Help of Christians, his sincere and generous yes to professing as a Salesian Coadjutor, and finally his service of love with the sick - is entirely sustained by a great faith and a great dialogue of prayer with the Father, in obedience to his will and entrustment to Mary Most Holy.

So, let us also cultivate this desire and let us ask together - through the intercession of the Saint and Mary Help of Christians - for the gift of prayer, so that it may always be at the centre of our projects, the heart of our meetings and the driving force behind our activities. Only prayer makes us alive and will keep our association alive and fruitful.

Renato Valera,

Presidente ADMA Primaria.

Alejandro Guevara,

Animatore Spirituale ADMA Primaria