CENTENARY OF BIRTH Seven years have passed since the beatification of Brother Luigi Bordino, a professed religious of the Congregation of the Brothers of St. Joseph Cottolengo.
The biography of his short earthly life, only 55 years old, tells us of a Christianity embodied in the depths of his time, immediately alongside the least and most fragile. A life of prayer and the practice of charity alongside the sick, cared for and cared for, and the marginalized, embraced and loved in the name of Christ. A witness of the Gospel who enters the folds and wounds of history, in the Soviet gulags, in his apostolate among the sick, he always has Jesus in his heart. Brother Bordino is a Samaritan of our time, a man who put into practice the teachings of the Gospel. A lover of Christ who did not remain a spectator of the needs of others, but became concrete in serving his brothers.
Fraternity and service are, in fact, the constants around which his life revolves; his testimony and his legacy for the younger generations. A profound ability to “be the Gospel” to the point of heroism and total self-giving. Gratuitousness, experienced in prompt proximity, lived in fidelity to history, and nourished by an authentically embodied spirituality, leads Brother Bordino to choices of service that still enchant and question today. The generous oblativity shines through in every passage and in every choice of his so luminous testimony, and it is precisely in the hardest and most painful passage of the disease that it shines even more brightly. As lay people of Catholic Action we gather the deepest teaching: embrace all brothers, always being a presence. A tender presence rich in human warmth, never overpowering, which does not judge, does not humiliate, does not hurt but loves. Because, “whatever you did to one of these least of my brothers, you did it to me.”
The construction of a fraternal society requires the ability to walk alongside everyone with delicacy and tenderness, taking charge of the desire for good, justice and truth that dwells in the hearts of all men today. We are “on a synodal journey” with all the people of God: an itinerary of conversion that exhorts us to leave the comfort zone in which we have often holed up, to truly follow the Lord who always awaits us in the Galilee of the peoples.
Giuseppe Notarstefano, national president of the Italian Catholic Action
The celebrations and the pilgrimage a Bra
In the process of approaching the hundredth anniversary of his birth, which we will celebrate in August, the first appointments for the rediscovery of this saint of our house begin: the centenary will start for our diocese Saturday 18 June in Castellinaldo at 8.30 pm, at the Pylon erected by Blessed Bordino and his brother Risbaldo returning from the Russian campaign, with a Eucharistic celebration presided over by the bishop of Alba, Monsignor Marco Brunetti. The following week, the June 25a rich and demanding day with the pilgrimage “In the footsteps of brother Luigi”: retracing the night that led brother Luigi to choose the religious life, we will leave on foot from Castellinaldo at 7 to arrive at the sanctuary of the Madonna dei Fiori where at 17.30 we will live a intense Eucharistic celebration and the inauguration of the statue dedicated to the blessed which will be blessed and installed on the facade of the old sanctuary next to blessed Giacomo Alberione. Details of these first initiatives are available on And http://www.alba.chiesacattolica.it.
Pastoral Social and Labor Office – Diocese of Alba
