Blessed Antonio Rosmini

Rosminian Family

Gentili Province Inauguration

The Homily  from Fr David Myers.

As a child on holiday by the sea, one of the things I did a couple of times with my brothers and sisters, was to put a message in a bottle, seal it with great care, and then throw it into the sea.

I now know this was not an environmentally friendly thing to do, and maybe, even dangerous if the bottle broke and someone cut their feet on broken glass. But those long years ago, in our imaginations, that bottle would be taken by the wind and current to exotic places all round the world.

The image of a bottle being carried by forces outside itself, can be seen as a parable of Divine Providence,  which is the loving care of  God who brings us to the place where we are meant to be.

If  a bottle had been washed ashore in New Zealand in 1835 it would have arrived at the same time as H. M.S.  Beagle.  On board that ship was Charles Darwin. When he landed on the beach he played a game of cricket, a typically English thing to do.

 In that year 1835, the USA consisted of twenty four States. Between them they had a population of about 12 million people. The vast majority of whom, were descendents from Northern European Protestants and the descendents of Africans who were slaves. The Catholic population of the USA, at that time, was small and vulnerable.

In Ireland in 1835 there were about eight million people the vast majority of whom were Catholic and also extremely poor.

 Obviously I keep harking on about 1835 because in that year, on this day, the 15^th July, 175 years ago, a ship docked at in the heart of London at Tilbury.  Three foreign Catholic priests stepped ashore.  Unlike to-day it was dark and miserable. The mission they began then, is continuing to this day. The three of them belonged to a new Religious Order, called the Institute of Charity, which had been founded only seven years before by Blessed Antonio Rosmini. This Religious Order had not yet been approved by the Church, and consisted of only a handful of people.

What had inspired Antonio Rosmini to send his first companions to these lands in Northern Europe? The answer is simple. Bishop Baines Squire Trelawny and Ambrose Philips de Lisle had asked him for help. Rosmini took this as a sign of Divine Providence and responded to their invitation and so sent some of his brethren to work in England. 

The leader of this group was Fr. Luigi Gentili, and he only among them was fluent in English. They came to a country where the Catholics were small in number. They had only been emancipated six years before, and they still lived in the shadow of the penal days.  Luigi Gentili brought to this sober Catholic community the warmth of Italian Catholicism, and especially the devotion to Our Lady.

For some years, the three of them helped Bishop Baines at the College of Prior Park.  And then in 1840 Luigi arrived here at Grace Dieu. He had been invited by Ambrose Philips de Lisle to be his chaplain and to minister to the handful of Catholics in the surrounding villages.

It was here, at Grace Dieu, that Gentili began to flourish both in his missionary zeal and in his preaching. But before I say anything about that I would just like to say a few words about the intellectual and cultural vitality that gathered here, at Grace Dieu, in those days.

Pugin, the father of Victorian Gothic, and two future Prime Ministers, Gladstone and Disraeli, and a host of others gathered here as guests of Ambrose Philips de Lisle.

However, it was not only the great and the good that absorbed Gentili’s energies. His charity was universal and it embraced the local poor. Mrs. de Lisle had already opened a school in this house for the local children most of whom were living in extreme poverty. It was to these villages that Gentili went to preach the Gospel with his magnetic personality and extraordinary energy. Many who listened to him were received into the Church, and some of their descendents are celebrating with us here today.

As Charles Wesley said 100 years before that time “ The world is my parish”.  This sentiment could also be said of Gentili.  Grace Dieu could not contain him. Neither could the new parish of Loughborough.  Father Founder gave Gentili the role of an itinerant preacher. For the remaining five years of his life he travelled the length and breadth of England and Wales preaching to thousands upon thousands of people.   

The Irish potato famine of 1840s had changed everything. Now in England there were vast numbers of Catholic migrants from Ireland living in the new industrial cities.

As far as I can discover, what Gentili actually said in the sermons, does not seem to have come down to us.  This should not surprise us as nearly all preaching is ephemeral. The vast majority of it, is only for the moment it is spoken. It rarely survives outside the context in which it was proclaimed. What has survived, however, is the eloquence of Gentili’s holy life. His listeners knew that his words welled up from a heart overflowing with the love of God and of his Divine Son Our Lord Jesus Christ. All who met Gentili realized that he was totally focused on the one thing necessary. This could be seen by such a wide variety of people, from the fresh faced young graduate of Oxford, William Lockhart and by Pugin, in his emotional turmoil.  Above all it was recognized by the poor. All of them saw in Gentili, a man who had deep compassion for their physical and spiritual welfare.

Zeal took Gentili in 1848, to Ireland, where he preached powerfully for some months. These months were the last flowering of his mission and his sanctity. He died in Dublin of typhoid. He was 47 years old. In his death his sanctity was recognized by the multitudes.

Recently, when I was over in Dublin, someone pointed out to me a death notice in the morning paper.  The final words of which read, “Father Gentili pray for me”.

And so to-day, 175 years after his arrival, and 162 years after his death, we ask Luigi Gentili, along with Blessed Antonio Rosmini, to pray for us as the new Gentili Province is inaugurated.

This new Province consists of the brethren living in New Zealand, USA Ireland and the UK. This will be a spiritual union between us. All of these parts have grown from the seed planted by Gentili in 1835.

The world has changed. New Zealand, USA, Ireland and UK have changed beyond all recognition in the last 175 years. If the Cistercians monks here with us to-day from Mount St. Bernard Abbey don’t mind, I will quote the moto of the Carthusians:

 “Stands the cross, the still point of the turning world.”

And so, it is to this cross, that the new Gentili Province, as all Christians, must look. Luigi Gentili was a tireless priest and evangelist. In a different context Ronald Knox wrote:

“Don’t let us be content to sit open mouthed in wonder at those giants of yesterday, asking how was it they managed to speed over the mountains, to spurn the hills in their impetuous apostolates.  They were not men of a different mould from ourselves. The message they carried within them was the same as ours. The wonder is rather that we with such examples before us are content to pick our way gingerly among the cart tracks apprehensive of the least stumble.”

Besides our lack of courage we also have to acknowledge our weaknesses, and our grave mistakes of  past, and  present.

Our religious family has faced many problems since its inception.  Lockhart wrote in the 1880s:

 “ The Institute of Charity is an armour clad vessel that has passed and re-passed the Dardanelles under the heaviest fire that would be brought to bear upon her.”

By the grace of God, the members of the Gentili Province will not only survive the difficulties that lie ahead but will fulfill the mission God’s Providence has destined for them. May we all be able to say with the psalmist:

“Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love endures forever”.

d then throw it into the sea.

I now know this was not an environmentally friendly thing to do, and maybe, even dangerous if the bottle broke and someone cut their feet on broken glass. But those long years ago, in our imaginations, that bottle would be taken by the wind and current to exotic places all round the world.

The image of a bottle being carried by forces outside itself, can be seen as a parable of Divine Providence,  which is the loving care of  God who brings us to the place where we are meant to be.

If  a bottle had been washed ashore in New Zealand in 1835 it would have arrived at the same time as H. M.S.  Beagle.  On board that ship was Charles Darwin. When he landed on the beach he played a game of cricket, a typically English thing to do.

 In that year 1835, the USA consisted of twenty four States. Between them they had a population of about 12 million people. The vast majority of whom, were descendents from Northern European Protestants and the descendents of Africans who were slaves. The Catholic population of the USA, at that time, was small and vulnerable.

In Ireland in 1835 there were about eight million people the vast majority of whom were Catholic and also extremely poor.

 Obviously I keep harking on about 1835 because in that year, on this day, the 15^th July, 175 years ago, a ship docked at in the heart of London at Tilbury.  Three foreign Catholic priests stepped ashore.  Unlike to-day it was dark and miserable. The mission they began then, is continuing to this day. The three of them belonged to a new Religious Order, called the Institute of Charity, which had been founded only seven years before by Blessed Antonio Rosmini. This Religious Order had not yet been approved by the Church, and consisted of only a handful of people.

What had inspired Antonio Rosmini to send his first companions to these lands in Northern Europe? The answer is simple. Bishop Baines Squire Trelawny and Ambrose Philips de Lisle had asked him for help. Rosmini took this as a sign of Divine Providence and responded to their invitation and so sent some of his brethren to work in England. 

The leader of this group was Fr. Luigi Gentili, and he only among them was fluent in English. They came to a country where the Catholics were small in number. They had only been emancipated six years before, and they still lived in the shadow of the penal days.  Luigi Gentili brought to this sober Catholic community the warmth of Italian Catholicism, and especially the devotion to Our Lady.

For some years, the three of them helped Bishop Baines at the College of Prior Park.  And then in 1840 Luigi arrived here at Grace Dieu. He had been invited by Ambrose Philips de Lisle to be his chaplain and to minister to the handful of Catholics in the surrounding villages.

It was here, at Grace Dieu, that Gentili began to flourish both in his missionary zeal and in his preaching. But before I say anything about that I would just like to say a few words about the intellectual and cultural vitality that gathered here, at Grace Dieu, in those days.

Pugin, the father of Victorian Gothic, and two future Prime Ministers, Gladstone and Disraeli, and a host of others gathered here as guests of Ambrose Philips de Lisle.

However, it was not only the great and the good that absorbed Gentili’s energies. His charity was universal and it embraced the local poor. Mrs. de Lisle had already opened a school in this house for the local children most of whom were living in extreme poverty. It was to these villages that Gentili went to preach the Gospel with his magnetic personality and extraordinary energy. Many who listened to him were received into the Church, and some of their descendents are celebrating with us here today.

As Charles Wesley said 100 years before that time “ The world is my parish”.  This sentiment could also be said of Gentili.  Grace Dieu could not contain him. Neither could the new parish of Loughborough.  Father Founder gave Gentili the role of an itinerant preacher. For the remaining five years of his life he travelled the length and breadth of England and Wales preaching to thousands upon thousands of people.   

The Irish potato famine of 1840s had changed everything. Now in England there were vast numbers of Catholic migrants from Ireland living in the new industrial cities.

As far as I can discover, what Gentili actually said in the sermons, does not seem to have come down to us.  This should not surprise us as nearly all preaching is ephemeral. The vast majority of it, is only for the moment it is spoken. It rarely survives outside the context in which it was proclaimed. What has survived, however, is the eloquence of Gentili’s holy life. His listeners knew that his words welled up from a heart overflowing with the love of God and of his Divine Son Our Lord Jesus Christ. All who met Gentili realized that he was totally focused on the one thing necessary. This could be seen by such a wide variety of people, from the fresh faced young graduate of Oxford, William Lockhart and by Pugin, in his emotional turmoil.  Above all it was recognized by the poor. All of them saw in Gentili, a man who had deep compassion for their physical and spiritual welfare.

Zeal took Gentili in 1848, to Ireland, where he preached powerfully for some months. These months were the last flowering of his mission and his sanctity. He died in Dublin of typhoid. He was 47 years old. In his death his sanctity was recognized by the multitudes.

Recently, when I was over in Dublin, someone pointed out to me a death notice in the morning paper.  The final words of which read, “Father Gentili pray for me”.

And so to-day, 175 years after his arrival, and 162 years after his death, we ask Luigi Gentili, along with Blessed Antonio Rosmini, to pray for us as the new Gentili Province is inaugurated.

This new Province consists of the brethren living in New Zealand, USA Ireland and the UK. This will be a spiritual union between us. All of these parts have grown from the seed planted by Gentili in 1835.

The world has changed. New Zealand, USA, Ireland and UK have changed beyond all recognition in the last 175 years. If the Cistercians monks here with us to-day from Mount St. Bernard Abbey don’t mind, I will quote the moto of the Carthusians:

 “Stands the cross, the still point of the turning world.”

And so, it is to this cross, that the new Gentili Province, as all Christians, must look. Luigi Gentili was a tireless priest and evangelist. In a different context Ronald Knox wrote:

“Don’t let us be content to sit open mouthed in wonder at those giants of yesterday, asking how was it they managed to speed over the mountains, to spurn the hills in their impetuous apostolates.  They were not men of a different mould from ourselves. The message they carried within them was the same as ours. The wonder is rather that we with such examples before us are content to pick our way gingerly among the cart tracks apprehensive of the least stumble.”

Besides our lack of courage we also have to acknowledge our weaknesses, and our grave mistakes of  past, and  present.

Our religious family has faced many problems since its inception.  Lockhart wrote in the 1880s:

 “ The Institute of Charity is an armour clad vessel that has passed and re-passed the Dardanelles under the heaviest fire that would be brought to bear upon her.”

By the grace of God, the members of the Gentili Province will not only survive the difficulties that lie ahead but will fulfill the mission God’s Providence has destined for them. May we all be able to say with the psalmist:

“Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love endures forever”.