Aloysius Gonzaga

though there was then only twelve but already was a child saint one whose pure soul had never been never was to be tarnished by the least imperfection it was the zealous daring reformer who gave holy communion for the first time to this flower of innocence and those who witnessed never forgot the heavenly scene the austere yet kindly archbishop bending over and giving the bread of life to the kneeling boy The faces of both were transfigured, shining with celestial joy, the flames of divine love seeming to envelop them and separate them from ordinary mortals.

This candid and holy youth, afterwards entered the Society of Jesus, was one of the most humble of its members, a mirror of obedience and mortification, and, above all, of purity, and is venerated by us as St. Aloysius Gonzaga.

charles proceeded on his visitations going through the country doing good and bringing comfort and peace to many weary souls he returned to milan for a short time to receive the empress mary of austria who was on her way to portugal having been asked by her brother king philip the second to govern that country having given her the welcome due as much to her virtue and merit as to her exalted rank he went to vertelli on a pilgrimage to the shrine of st eusebius whose relics had lately been discovered by the bishop of that city and the translation of them to a fitting sanctuary was a holy and glorious spectacle one which rejoiced the reverent and devout soul of our saint from vercelli he went to massino where he met his spiritual son charles emmanuel who had succeeded his father as duke of savoy and went with him to turin to gratify once more his devotion to the sacred passion of christ by venerating the holy winding-sheet charles returned to brescia it was a vast diocese and to visit it thoroughly took a long time and many journeys to and fro it extended into wild and unfrequented districts bordering on the tyrol it was always difficult generally dangerous to cross the mountain passes and to venture among the fierce and brutal inhabitants the courageous reformer had in a marked degree the will to do the soul to dare and he went with unruffled calmness into the midst of the most turbulent men with his gentle dignified manner his ardent charity and his fervid eloquence he won their hearts and converted them even as he had the lawless brigands into honest god-fearing men At Cardona he raised the rough and ignorant miners from the state of degradation into which they had fallen.

At Comonica he converted the population en masse, and effected some very necessary reforms among the pastors of these poor neglected sheep.

This reflects so many of the lives of the saints who from their childhood turned to the Lord and dedicated their lives to him because they knew him to be their ultimate and final end and that only he could fulfill their desires where the things of the world could not.

I think of Pope St. John Paul II, St. Therese, St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Fulton J. Sheen, and so many others.

This should be the hope and the goal of all of us, certainly.

But there are some who, after many years of wandering, many years of searching, and perhaps living a life of sin completely devoid of God, turned from the idleness of their lives and they entered into the vineyard of the Lord, that is, the church.

which is

Aloysius Gonzaga.

Okay.

So I know where this is going.

of, of the school.

So not only was he, had he gone from, uh, shaping the minds, but now he's going towards shaping the hearts and the souls of these people.

And that's where he met people like St. Aloysius Gonzaga.

And it wasn't just cause he was the, um, wasn't just cause he was, you know, at the top that he had to meet this young, you know, factually a prince.

After six years of teaching there, he was assigned to teach at the Roman College, now the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

It was there that he became a spiritual director and confessor to the seminarian and future saint Aloysius Gonzaga.

Both in Louvain and in Rome, Father Bellarmine became widely respected for his brilliance and preaching.

While in Rome, Father Bellarmine's lectures turned into a three-volume book called De Controversies, a defense of the Catholic faith in the wake of the Protestant Reformation.

[laughs] It will change you.

And when you look at the pictures of the saints, you know, Saint, uh, Aloysius Gonzaga and many of the saints, what are they, what are they holding? They're holding the crucifix, and they're just, uh, just in love with that great mystery.

So, uh, you know, Archbishop Sheen, he did this so well.

He said, you know, "Look at your crucifix.

At this time, too, he felt a great love and attraction to Our Blessed Lady growing in his heart.

want to be her own little boy i want to belong to her in a special manner he would say to himself and he would kneel at her altar and looking up into the face of her statue there would wonder what he could do to please her about the time of his eighth birthday he went to the parish priest father he said i want to belong to our lady to belong to her in a special way can i do i am pleased to hear you say that replied the priest for if you will only give yourself to our blessed lady and try to please her she will protect you through your whole life take this prayer it is the one used by saint aloysius gonzaga go and kneel at our lady's altar and read it slowly trying to mean every word you say clement took the prayer and did as the priest had told him As I knelt there, he said, my soul was filled with joy.

I felt that our dear lady had indeed accepted me, and from that day my life was changed.

I wished only to live for her and her divine son.