Hajja Salesjana July-September 2022

This is a splendid and authoritative encouragement also for us to ask for Artemides Zatti to intercede for us to increase the number of good and holy vocations as Salesian Coadjutor Brothers. In this year dedicated to St. Francis de Sales, defender and promoter of the vocation of sanctity for all people, Artemides Zatti’s witness reminds us of what Vatican Council II states: “All the faithful, in every state and condition, are called by the Lord, each in his own way, to a sanctity whose perfection is the same as that of the Heavenly Father.” Francis de Sales, Don Bosco, and Artemides make their daily lives an expression of the Love of God, which is received and returned. Our Saints wanted to bring relationship with God into their daily lives and daily life into relationship with God. This is the proposal of “next-door sanctity” or of “middle class sanctity,” about which Pope Francis speaks with such great affection. The figure of Artemides Zatti is a stimulus and an inspiration for us to become signs and bearers of the Love of God for the young and the poor. As I wrote in the Strenna this year, “we, too, need to unfurl the ‘charism of the visitation’ as our heart’s desire to announce, without waiting for others to come to us, but by going into those places inhabited by so many and for whom a kind word, an encounter, and a respectful gaze can open up their horizons to a better life.” Artemides Zatti was a “man of the Visitation” who carried Jesus in his heart, recognizing Him and serving Him joyfully and generously in his ill and impoverished brothers and sisters. St. Artemdies Zatti, intercede for us all! THE DECISIVE MIRACLE The miraculous cure of a man stricken with an “ischemic right cerebral stroke complicated by a voluminous hemorrhagic lesion.” The event under consideration took place in the Philippines in August 2016. A neurosurgical examination suggested the need for an operation, which was made impossible due to the financial situation of the family. For this reason, they decided to bring their relative home so he might live out his final days there with his family. The dying man received the Anointing of the Sick and called his family and relatives to his side so he could say his “goodbyes.” Instead, on August 24, 2016, against every expectation, the patient called his relatives to say that he was fine and wanted to take a bath and begin to eat. He had been brought home to die, and, after just a few days, he was cured! This is thanks to the prayers of the man’s brother—a Salesian Brother—who had begun praying for a cure through the intercession of Br. Zatti during Vespers in his Community on the very day in which the patient had been brought to the hospital. But not only he—for this Salesian Brother invited his relatives to join together in prayer through the intercession of Blessed Artemides Zatti. 22 Lulju - Settembru 2022 hajja