Page 149 - Reflections on St. Joseph

Let everything proceed according to the dictates of faith, with boundless trust in the help of
Heaven and an unfailing gratitude to God, and to Him alone, whether in abundance or
privation, mindful that “sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.”

10 – Regarding the organizational structure, it must be said that Fr. Marello had no more
confidence in human calculations. He had overcome already the period of his youth with all the
signs of youth: “the political friendships of the preparatory works”, “the humanitarian
apostolate”, “journalism”, “the political arena”, “doctrinal and practical proselytism”: all things
which he had left behind, in order to concentrate on the faith and on the unbounded love for
the Church, the true promoter of good in society in all times. He wrote therefore: “The work of
the Saints which the centuries have left intact were always marked by this trait of simplicity…
how much more effective is one charitable thought nurtured in the heart of our Cottolengo
than a thousand philanthropical projects to be promoted at the cost of millions squeezed from
the blood of the people”. With this principle of simplicity, one had to begin with what was
possible at the moment and then develop the work according to that which from day to day
Providence would lead one to do. The important thing was to never give up and to be completely
faithful to that principle.

11 – What did concretely the Company of St. Joseph aim to accomplish and with which arms
would it need to fight its holy battle? It had as its aim the goals proper to the Associations which
had already been formed elsewhere (even if only in the great cities of that time): that is take care
of the interests of Jesus, an expression of Pauline origin, very much used at that time, so much
that the first Associations formed in Rome called itself the “Association for Catholic interests”.

The weapons, that is the means, were to be prayers in the Church called the “Gesu”, culture with
the mobile library of books collected among his ordination companions (cared for by Delaude),
work for the needs of the poor churches, catechesis, etc.

All of these things Marello began to develop in the following year (1873) and the most
successful (and remembered) was the Eucharistic Adoration on Thursdays, present in his
intentions from the very beginning: “I shall offer up my private prayers in union with those
that you yourself may wish to offer for that same purpose, possibly through some morning or
evening reading or period of ADORATION or other devout exercise in the new church…”

From this Eucharistic adoration was also born the “Pious Union of Perpetual Adorers in the
Century”, which Fr. Marello promoted and for which he prepared a little book of prayers and of
useful spiritual counsels. Many people in the city came to the Church called the “Gesu” for the
Eucharistic adorations preached by Marello, who in this way began to become a point of
reference for confessions and spiritual direction forming apostolic souls and promoting
vocations to the religious life, above all the sisterhood.

12 – A boy from the Michelerio, who later became a Brother in the Congregation, Giuseppe
Coppo (Bro. Benedetto), recalled those Thursdays in the Church called the “Gesu”: “Orphaned by
my father and my mother having to go with her relatives who were going to France, I was placed
in the Michelerio Orphanage at the age of eleven. I was first in the carpenter shop, then the
125

Reflections on st. joseph