Page 197 - Reflections on St. Joseph

It was a spirituality formed on the ashes of his experiences as a youth when he also dreamed of
changing the world, entrusting himself to the ideologies of his time: the time of Garibaldi and
Mazzini, the time of a growing liberalism based on the ideals of the French Revolution.

But later he understood that without the presence of God in the midst of men, nothing good can
be built, and from that moment, when he was 19 years old, his life took on a completely new
speed, sustained by great will and based always more on the great principles of Christian faith
and charity. As a priest, he saw the problems of the world evermore connected with the
problems of the Church: the persecuted Church of the times of Pius IX, but also the Church
defended and supported by the “Italian Catholic Youth Society”, which had been founded in
Bologna by Mario Fani and Giovanni Acquaderni in 1867, and which acquired national status
in the Congress held in Venice in 1874.

The year after the taking of Rome, 1871, was one of great enthusiasm, when young Catholics a two
occasions rallied around Pope Pius IX for the 25th Anniversary of his pontificate in June, and then,
when his pontificate reached the years and days of that of the apostle St. Peter on August 23.

Fr. Marello dreamed of mobilizing the Catholic laity in the city of Asti, and in November of 1872, he
presented to the director of the Michelerio Institute, Canon Giovanni Battista Cerruti, his project for
a “Company of St. Joseph, promoter of the interests of Jesus”. He had absorbed a great love for the
Church and the Pope during the First Vatican Council, living for eight months in Rome in contact
with the great realities of the Church. He had exalted in the defining of papal infallibility and
understood the place which St. Joseph had in the heart of the Church when the Pope accepted the
petition of many of the faithful and proclaimed Joseph Patron of the Universal Church.

Upon these two pillars – Church and St. Joseph – Fr. J. Marello built the edifice of his priestly
spirituality, writing: “O glorious patriarch St Joseph, do not forget us as we continue to plod
along with our weak flesh in this hard land of exile. Next to the Blessed Virgin you were the first
one to enfold in your arms the Redeemer. Be our exemplar in our ministry, which, like your
own, is a ministry of intimate relationship with the Divine Word” (L.35).

From these words, one can see that he conformed his priesthood to the example of St. Joseph,
taking him as a model in his apostolate. St. Joseph was the Guardian and teacher of Jesus and
the priest ought to form Jesus in souls. Therefore it is right to look to this Saint in order for us
also to care for the interests of Jesus in the Church, working like Him in a hard working and
loving silence, following the exhortation of St. Paul, which Marello repeated often: “Your life is
hidden with Christ in God”.

3. Promoting the interests of Jesus.

This authentic life in imitation of St. Joseph was not only his program as a priest, but it also
became that which he proposed to all of his friends, priests and laity, both in spiritual direction
and in his relationships with all kinds of people.

Thus his anxiousness to do good grew more and more. He wrote to Fr. Stefano Delaude: “What
are you doing with your twenty-four hours? How many of them do you employ in praying,

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Reflections on st. joseph