These two mottos from our beloved founder Joseph Allamano have touched my heart while I heard them for the first time at Consolata Spiritual Centre at Bunju Dar es Salaam (Tanzania 2009) before Joining the Consolata Missionary Family. During that seminar I heard one of the Consolata Missionaries who was explaining about the Consolata Missionaries and some teachings of the Saint Joseph Allamano from the book so called; This I want you to be. One of those touching and striking words which left indelible mark in my heart. Despite the fact that there were many teachings of St. Joseph Allamano, these two mottos have left unforgettable mark in my heart on which am going to give my personal reflection on them on how it has been brought positive impact in my life and the life of the people in general.
“First Saints then Missionary”
The above saying has made me to join consecrated life in special way as a Consolata Missionary because in my life I was desiring sainthood life. When I heard these words, I felt like God is calling me to follow the life of sanctity as St. Joseph Allamano desiring his sons and daughters to be Saints before being Missionaries. Infant being a Missionary is the universal call to every baptised Christian according to Catechism of the Catholic Church (no. 849) and even in the teaching of Pope Francis in his Apostolic Exhortation EVANGELII GAUDIUM (The Joy of the Gospel, no. 120-121).
From that time onward I was looking on how to live the life which pleases God while the words of Our beloved Founder being the light which directs me towards becoming a Saint. After that seminar of “come and see” I didn’t join Consolata, but I continue with my university studies, still in the university the words of St. Joseph Allamano were repeating in my heart. For that reason, it made me to deepen my relationship with God and as the leader of the Catholic group in the university I had time to share and teach others the word of God. Even after completing University and being employed by the government as a teacher still those words of St. Joseph Allamano were repeating in my heart, that inspire me and built in my heart the spirit of teaching the Catholic Faith and Consolation of the people while I was a patron of Tanzania Young Catholic Student (TYCS) where I was working as a teacher.
“Comfort, Comfort my People Says the Lord (Is 40,1)”
These words from the Prophet Isaiah had touched deeply my heart after realising that they resemble with the name of the Congregation- Consolata Missionaries. It made me to form a group of helping people who were in need starting from the Small Christian Community and visiting the sick from various hospitals including Ocean Road hospital in Dar es Salaam which is special for treating people who are suffering from cancer. I was doing all these while I was still working as a teacher, even using part of monthly salary for supporting people who are suffering. Through this motto of Saint Joseph Allamano has made me to go out to meet those who are in need, and through this act of mercy, I meet with many people particularly Muslims who were doing the same work of charity in the hospital, and what surprises me they were doing to everyone regardless of their faith. It is when I came to realise that the call to do good and to help those who are in need is for everyone, and is a religion that God accept, as we read: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1:27)
From that moment I started giving awareness to people such as in the Small Christian Communities and the place where I was working in which it had much positive impact in such a way that I willed that this knowledge of consoling people could reach to many people as many as possible. Through this inspiration in 2013, I wrote articles based on the teaching of the Bible about the importance of doing the act of charity to our brothers and sisters who are in need. I came to realize that these articles could not reach to many people as I wanted, so I wrote the book and in 2015 it was approved to be used in the Catholic Church which is titled: Kuteka Baraka kupitia wahitaji-Kibiblia (To receive blessings through act of Charity according to the teaching of the Bible), which was so helpful to Christians to have Biblical foundation on how to help people who are in need as the inspiration I received from Saint Joseph Allamano of consoling the people.
Through those words of Father Allamano lead me to make the hardest decision of leaving the job and join Consolata for the aim of being closer to God and to deepen more about God and the teaching of Baba Allamano. I do remember that a very day when I was leaving my family to join Consolata, I gave them the newspaper of Consolata (Enendeni) I show them the founder and I told them: “I am going to seek the face of God, and I want to become a Saint”.
How are these words of our beloved founder Saint Joseph Allamano are becoming vivid to me as a Consolata Missionary and to all the Christians?
- As a Consolata Missionary-Saint Joseph Allamano is teaching me about the purity of heart according to the will of God as we read in the Holy Scripture: “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” (1Pt 1:15-16). Father Allamano teaches me that holiness is not a title but our daily lives and that is why he says that everything we do, whether small or big, must be done well without noise.
- To all the Christians- Father Allamano is teaching us all that we can acquire holiness through our small daily activities as he used to tell his missionaries that they should do ordinary things in the extraordinary way (Così vi voglio 41). That means the holiness of life is an invitation to everyone to have communion with God the way fish can’t survive without water, is the same way human being cannot live without God. Since God is holy, human being is supposed to be holy so that he or she can have communion with him. Therefore, each and every one has an opportunity to be holy wherever he or she is and what he or she does. This means his teachings reflect the teaching of the Catholic Church which believes that there are many saints who have not yet been declared and that is why we have a day of all the Saints.
- Therefore, holiness is not a title but a calling of the natural connection between us and God and this calling becomes evident when we overcome temptations with the help of God the way Saint John in his book of Revelation is telling us: “To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne” (Rev 3:21).
Conclusion
I can confess and witness that St. Joseph Allamano for me not only founder of Consolata, but also is my teacher, whos’ words became prophetic voice in my heart. That means our beloved founder Saint Joseph Allamano is calling me to be a living testimony by the act of being a man of prayer in special way adoration of the Eucharistic which is the source and apex of our work of evangelization, the centre to which the spiritual life of individuals and communities tends (cf. Constitutions and General Directory no. 12). Offering myself totally to God by imitating Our Lady Consolata as the model of consolation particularly to people who are poor, suffering and marginalized.