THE ADULT VOCATIONS to the collection …

.

The Island of Patmos has always walked a tightrope, until now never cut, let's pray, we hope and trust that our dear readers help us not to cut us …

.

.

.

.

Adult vocations to the priesthood they bring wealth and usefulness to the interior of the Church. All my confreres who came to the Holy Order in adulthood, they have often shown themselves to be very attentive in pastoral practice, having had a past life and all the experiences that sometimes ensue. Adults who become priests, or they are excellent presbyters motivated in faith, or they are huge disasters. Personally, I have never known middle ground nor have I ever had the opportunity to find the element of serene mediocrity in adult vocations: or they are eagles, or are they chickens.

Numerous saints were born from adult vocations, it is enough to mention two great teachers of the sixteenth century: San Filippo Neri and San Ignazio di Loyola, respectively consecrated priests a 37 years the first and a 46 years the second.

From adult vocations another feature also emerges: the lack of eagerness to achieve prestigious positions in the Church or to make a career in the ecclesiastical or academic world. The adult who became a priest had in fact a life already started and, after all, not a few would have had various enticing opportunities - some even remarkable - to make brilliant careers in the world; not a few had even started them successfully, before leaving everything and following Christ through a radical choice of life.

How many come from similar experiences, they will hardly go to annoy their Bishop to be sent to the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, it is equally unlikely that they will compete, or to make war on other priests to be appointed rectors of the cathedral church, or vicars general. Unless some wicked Bishop hungry for priests does not start accepting as candidates for the sacred orders of the forty-year-olds who after a life of human failures, professional and sentimental, not knowing where to beat their heads, they choose the priesthood as a last resort. Usually, But, not even a wise and prudent subject like the Pre-Eastern bishop S.E. Mons. Domenico Sigalini, known for having given diocesan canonical recognition even to ghostly congregations that seem to have come out of the Simpson family cartoons, would never welcome such subjects, because by their very nature they are not formable and above all they are not manageable, given that training and managing an adult is something quite difficult than always requiring very particular trainers, not to mention the saints.

I always remember with deep affection one of my first trainers, also an adult vocation to the priesthood, that despite having never done a single day of seminary - having had another kind of formation outside the seminary for his age -, as soon as he became a priest he was appointed rector of the archiepiscopal seminary of his diocese, where for twenty years he carried out a splendid ministry of which an entire particular Church still preserves devoted memories today [cf. WHO].

One of the limits that I was able to find in adult vocations it is the inability to ask for money. And I, too, who have never blushed in my life, I miss the most embarrassing things, of those that could have led my other brothers to states of shock, I felt trembling instead when at the beginning of the sacred ministry I heard some faithful questions of the type asked: «How much do I have to leave for the celebration of Mass for my dead?». And I: "Anything!». And having said that, I ran away embarrassed.

Anyone who has lived a shorter or longer period of his life producing through his work or benefiting from his or her family's assets, he is not used to asking what is in fact almsgiving. To learn the art of begging you must have entered a seminary as a young person, having eaten at the table and watered at the springs of clericalism; you must have learned to carry i jeans and sneakers to give the illusion - no one knows who! - not to be clerical. And this contrary to the undersigned who instead wears his cassock every day, not least to show his visceral anticlericalism towards the worst of the new clericals, which are precisely i pretini trendy in jeans and sneakers, also called “quick change” O “Camaleonti”.

When my mother asked me what could give me useful I replied: beautiful fabrics to have a good tailor make new cassocks for me. I didn't tell her: “I'd like some nice fabrics, But take that money and give it to the poor ", because for a Catholic mother a priest son is a unique and unrepeatable gift, and I, who also live in contact with the poor, know as well as the poor themselves, unlike Eugenio Scalfari and the whole caste of the gods radical-chic ultra-laicisti, who so much crave a sloppy church with patches to the ass, the priest always want to see him well placed and decent, because he is their priest; because the priest is their common wealth. And I say a priest, imagine therefore the decorum that the poor would always like to see imprinted on a Bishop, or even in the Roman Pontiff, especially in these times tense towards pauperistic sloppiness.

The truth is, a scruffy church, on pretexts of presumed simplicity and unspecified evangelical poverty, i want it hippies who live in the most futile glitzy luxuries, the poor do not want it. Because the poor are the same as always: those who were capable yesterday and who are still able today to bring as a gift the only piece of gold they have to contribute to the fusion of a precious chalice; because the poor do not want the Blood of Christ to be placed inside an earthenware pot, who want it are those who do not believe in the Blood of Christ and who have improvised themselves as false friends of the Church. It is not by chance, Our Lord Jesus Christ, as an example to follow he offers us the poor widow's mite [cf. MC 12, 41-44. LC 21, 1-4], while as an example to be avoided he offers us the false philanthropism for the poor of Judas Iscariot [cf. GV 12, 1-11]. This is what is written in the Gospel, like: and that's.

As you will have understood, the fathers of’Patmos Island they are too ecclesial to be clerical. For this reason Father Giovanni Cavalcoli always wears the noble ancient habit of the sons of San Domenico and I the black cassock of the secular clergy., replaced by the white one in summer when it is very hot, because it is a way to show that we are world in the world, not gods “professional priests” more or less camouflaged in the world to please the world and not to disturb the world, that if necessary it is our task not only to shake but also to disturb.

The impediment explained “anthropological” given upstream bymy inability to ask for money, I go on to tell you that for the second time we have reached “columns of Hercules” and we need for the 2016 of the money needed to get ahead in our work, that as we have always told you and repeated it is as free as it is burdensome, and in the face of our work we only ask you to give us the means to be able to work for all of you for free.

We come to the painful expense report: reiterating that nothing on the internet is free but everything is paid, if you want to make use of the necessary cutting-edge tools. This is why we run into unavoidable expenses at every so-called street corner.

Let's start from server, about which a reader wrote to me: “How would you say you need money for the server? I only pay for my blog 50 euro per year!». I replied: "I do not doubt it. But your blog, daily, how many visits do you have, in addition to that of your mother, of your sister, your grandfather who dabbles with the internet and some of your friends?». The almost offended expert replies: "Look, that I have also come to 100 visits a day!». And since the principle seems to apply “we are all great experts”, I explained that The Island of Patmos has long since passed the 10.000 daily visits and that on the date of 31 January the total number of visitors for the year 2015 was equal to 4.321.800. But if anyone knows a server provider willing to grant us a service a 50 euro per year that allows the site of our online magazine to hold up such a large amount of access - that is, a service for unlimited access with an equally unlimited data archive - let us know, because after subscribing instantly, the fathers of’Patmos Island they will visit him to give him a kiss on the tip of the nose as a sign of gratitude for having avoided spending 1.000 euro per year for Server-business on which we are necessarily supported, in exchange for unlimited access for visitors and other valuable and indispensable user services.

For the work we do we need speed both in “ticket” both in “exit“, which is to say: a line is indispensable that allows to acquire and transmit gods “heavy data”. And this implies a completely different internet subscription from that of a normal home ADSL, for this we use one of those services provided to professional firms and companies, the cost of which, I our case, is equal to 115 € per month (VAT included) for an annual total of 1.380 Euro. And having said that we are a 2.380 euro only for the subscription fees to server and subscription to the internet line, while remaining naturally open to the advice of the “great experts” or anyone who can suggest - but more than anything else show us - that with a simple external internet key to be recharged every now and then with 10 Euro, it is possible to do the kind of work we do.

Of necessity we have to receive and transmit data from computers that offer the best technology; and how do those who know certain services know, professional programs are expensive. Indeed, between graphics programs, editorial, editing movies, security and system protection, etc.. every year we leave there “modica” figure of 1.600 Euro; and this is only because we have chosen to purchase for one year of use, because the definitive purchase of certain individual programs also costs a few thousand euros, etc …

To be brief: our annual management costs amount to 5.150 to work on an internet where in the opinion of some everything would be free.

Who knows about graphics and layout, he immediately understands that the articles of’Patmos Island could be printed in a paper magazine, because if they want to do it they would be ready for printing.

And reiterating how much ours is a world of “great experts”, finally, there was no lack of soul “practice” who suggested us: "There is no need to pay all this money, just get yourself crack i programs!». I answered: "Stupendous! And if it happens, the Guardia di Finanza or whoever is competent finds programs cracked, that means “stolen”, on the computers of a priest and his aide - or the Veterinary Police found on Hypatia's computer Roman cat pirate programs -, used to run a Catholic online magazine where, when necessary, whips are not lacking for those who claim the right to immorality and contempt for the laws of God and men, explain to me what a good impression we make? I tell you: the figure of those who preach well and scratch very badly ".

As you can understand what we need is not the advice given by “experts” to whom the advice, especially those of foreigners, they cost nothing: what we need is your help to carry out our work, because neither Father Giovanni Cavalcoli, who as a Dominican friar has no personal income, depending entirely on its community; nor am I as a member of the secular clergy that I live with 800 euro per month of salary of the Clergy Support Body, some offerings for Holy Masses and the precious help of my family, we can incur similar costs out of our own pocket to offer a free service to all.

For the 2015 Providence has come to meet us through you, we are therefore certain that also for the 2016 Providence will support us, if as we believe The Island of Patmos, John's last place of revelation, it is a service to the Church and its faithful at a time of delicate ecclesial crisis and of so much confusion among the increasingly disoriented living members of the People of God.

In concreto: every time you send us messages like “What great articles … ah, what courage you have! … how much benefit I have found in your words … thanks to your catecheses I understood the nature of the problem and the possible solution …». Well: together with these words that cost nothing, also send us an offer, even small, because even the little added together is very precious. Why to be honest and to the end, we do not hide the understandable fright for the management costs that we will have to bear by the end of January 2016; costs that we are currently unable to bear, having currently in the cashier of our Paypal account 1.100 euros donated at the end 2015 by one of our loyal Piedmontese readers, by an Etruscan-Lazio reader, by a young Roman research doctor living in Dublin, from a dear Milanese reader who, together with his wife, asked me to celebrate some Masses of suffrage for his dead and sending me two offerings that I paid into the account of the’Patmos Island.

During 2015, when we found ourselves without means of support, a dear Piedmontese reader sent us 2.000 euros to cover all the necessary expenses; and thanks to her we were able to continue our service, which we hope to continue throughout the 2016.

If you want you can send us an offer for the sustenance of’Patmos Island using the convenient and safe service PayPal which you can find on the bottom right of the home-page.

.

.

____________________________________

.

I take this opportunity to address a special wish to the Brother Priests whose public images I have used to accompany this article which speaks in the first part of adult vocations to the priesthood. I don't have the pleasure of meeting any of these Brothers, some of them recently consecrated in the Sacred Priestly Order. To all of them I renew my best wishes for every grace and blessing from Christ the Lord at the beginning of this new year.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.