Magone and Mary

Most of the Bosconians I know could very well resonate with the naughty General Mickey than the perpetually holy Savio.  I can perfectly understand the reason why. Dominic, they perceive, must have been groomed right from the very start to become a saint.

General Mickey, on the other hand, had to find his way towards the greater scheme of holiness. It was not an easy feat for him to turn his back on his former life; to leave a life of sin did not happen in a snap. He agonized over the past evils he committed.

Mickey Magone figured into my consciousness when I read in that classic orange book entitled “Don Bosco: Spiritual Director of Young People,” that he made five resolutions to prepare himself to celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of our Lady.

1. To detach my heart from all earthly things so as to give it completely to Mary.
2. To make a general confession in order to ensure a peaceful conscience at the hour of my death.
3. To skip breakfast every morning as a penance for my sins and to recite the Seven joys of Mary to merit her assistance at the last hours of my life. 
4. To go to communion every day provided my confessor advises it. 
5. To tell my companions an anecdote in honor if Mary each day. 
6. To place this sheet at the feet of Our Lady’s statue and, with this act, to consecrate myself completely to her and for the future, I wish to be entirely hers until the very last moments of my life.

All of these were approved by his confessor except for the first part of the third resolution, that is, to skip breakfast every morning as an act of penance for his sins.

Some observations:

First, you see in these resolutions the awareness of Magone of the reality of death.

At a very young age, he did not consider death morbid. In fact, he welcomed the idea of it. He longed for it to happen. He embraced it. And when it finally came, instead of conquering him, he conquered ‘it.’

Second, we see here an image of a young person who desired greatness, not through the use of force and might but through his submission to the will of the Father.   

See again resolutions 1 and 4.

Third, Magone took advantage of the sacraments, particularly confessions and communion, to attain holiness.

And finally, he allowed Mary to be his guide.

Magone died more than 100 years ago. But he lives on in that orange book, and in the many young people who continue to believe and declare, through their words and deeds, that God is still in charge after all. 

Sts Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops, Doctors

Genuine holiness is contagious.

With the beatification last year of the parents of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, now Blesseds Louis Martin and Marie Zelie Guerin, this statement must be beyond reproach.

But if family members could inspire each other to be holy, it is also possible for friends to affect each other to lead a remarkable Christian life. Today, on the first day after the Christmas octave, the Church celebrates the memorial of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen, bishops and doctors.

Their lives and the special breed of friendship that bonded them together challenge each of us to not just be an ordinary friend, but more so, a well-equipped guide in drawing others closer to God.

Here is an excerpt from a sermon by Saint Gregory Nazianzus, which is used in the Roman Office of Readings for January 2.

A Sermon by St Gregory Nazianzen

Two bodies, but a single spirit

Basil and I were both in Athens. We had come, like streams of a river, from the same source in our native land, had separated from each other in pursuit of learning, and were now united again as if by plan, for God so arranged it.

I was not alone at that time in my regard for my friend, the great Basil. I knew his irreproachable conduct, and the maturity and wisdom of his conversation. I sought to persuade others, to whom he was less well known, to have the same regard for him. Many fell immediately under his spell, for they had already heard of him by reputation and hearsay.

What was the outcome? Almost alone of those who had come to Athens to study he was exempted from the customary ceremonies of initiation for he was held in higher honor than his status as a first-year student seemed to warrant.

Such was the prelude to our friendship, the kindling of that flame that was to bind us together. In this way we began to feel affection for each other. When, in the course of time, we acknowledged our friendship and recognized that our ambition was a life of true wisdom, we became everything to each other: we shared the same lodging, the same table, the same desires the same goal. Our love for each other grew daily warmer and deeper.

The same hope inspired us: the pursuit of learning. This is an ambition especially subject to envy. Yet between us there was no envy. On the contrary, we made capital out of our rivalry. Our rivalry consisted, not in seeking the first place for oneself but in yielding it to the other, for we each looked on the other’s success as his own.

We seemed to be two bodies with a single spirit. Though we cannot believe those who claim that everything is contained in everything, yet you must believe that in our case each of us was in the other and with the other.

Our single object and ambition was virtue, and a life of hope in the blessings that are to come; we wanted to withdraw from this world before we departed from it. With this end in view we ordered our lives and all our actions. We followed the guidance of God’s law and spurred each other on to virtue. If it is not too boastful to say, we found in each other a standard and rule for discerning right from wrong.

Different men have different names, which they owe to their parents or to themselves, that is, to their own pursuits and achievements. But our great pursuit, the great name we wanted, was to be Christians, to be called Christians.