Born as Francesco Possenti in the city of Assisi, in the year 1838, and raised in Spoleto, St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows experienced in his youth the seduction of the vanities of the world, being known by local society as an elegant young man, fond of parties, theater, and dancing. However, divine grace pursued him relentlessly, until, during a Marian procession, upon fixing his eyes on the sacred image, he heard interiorly the Blessed Virgin tell him that worldly life was not for him and that he should enter religious life. Responding promptly to this call, he entered the Congregation of the Passionists at the age of eighteen, assuming the name that would consecrate him for eternity. His spiritual work was not based on great apostolic deeds or foundations, but on the heroic living of the rule in its entirety, on extreme interior and exterior mortification, and on the most burning devotion to the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Sorrows of Mary Most Holy. He transformed his life into a holocaust of love in the small things of daily monastic life, reaching a very high degree of contemplation and union with God in a very short time. Consumed by tuberculosis, he surrendered his soul to God in 1862, at twenty-four years of age, with a heart overflowing with joy at going to meet his Sorrowful Mother, later becoming the patron saint of Catholic youth.
🎵 Introit (Sir 11, 13 | Ps 72, 1)
Oculus Dei respéxit illum in bono, et eréxit eum ab humilitáte ipsíus, et exaltávit caput ejus: et miráti sunt in illo multi et honoravérunt Deum. Ps. Quam onus Israël Deus his, qui recto sunt corde!
God rested His gaze upon him with goodness, elevated him from his humiliation and raised his head. Many marveled because of him and praised God. Ps. How good God is towards Israel and all those who have an upright heart!
📜 Epistle (1 Jn 2, 14-17)
Caríssimi: Scribo vobis, júvenes, quóniam fortes estis, et verbum Dei manet in vobis, et vicístis malígnum. Nolíte dilígere mundum neque ea, quæ in mundo sunt. Si quis díligit mundum, non est cáritas Patris in eo: quóniam omne, quod est in mundo, concupiscéntia carnis est, et concupiscéntia oculórum, et supérbia vitæ: quæ non est ex Patre, sed ex mundo est. Et mundus transit et concupiscéntia ejus. Qui autem facit voluntátem Dei, manet in ætérnum.
Dearly beloved: I write to you, young men, because you are strong and the word of God abides in you and you have overcome the wicked one. Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, and this is not of the Father, but is of the world. Now, the world passes away and with it, its concupiscence; but he who does the will of God, abides forever.
📖 Gospel (Mk 10, 13-21)
In illo témpore: Offerébant Jesu parvulos, ut tángeret illos. Discípuli autem comminabántur offeréntibus. Quos cum vidéret Jesus, indígne tulit et ait illis: Sinite párvulos veníre ad me, et ne prohibuéritis eos: tálium enim est regnum Dei. Amen, dico vobis: Quisquis non recéperit regnum Dei velut párvulus, non intrábit in illud. Et compléxans eos et impónens manus super illos, benedicébat eos. Et cum egréssus esset in viam, procúrrens quidam genu flexo ante eum, rogábat eum: Magíster bone, quid fáciam, ut vitam ætérnam percípiam? Jesus autem dixit ei: Quid me dicis bonum? Nemo bonus, nisi unus Deus. Præcépta nosti: Ne adúlteres, Ne occídas, Ne furéris, Ne falsum testimónium díxeris, Ne fraudem féceris, Hónora patrem tuum et matrem. At ille respóndens, ait illi: Magíster, hæc ómnia observávi a juventúte mea. Jesus autem intúitus eum, diléxit eum et dixit ei: Unum tibi deest: vade, quæcúmque habes, vende et da paupéribus, et habébis thesáurum in cœlo: et veni, séquere me.
At that time, they brought little children to Jesus, that He might touch them. The disciples, however, harshly rebuked those who brought them. Seeing this, Jesus was indignant and said to them: Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them: for of such is the Kingdom of God. Amen, I say to you: Whoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, shall not enter into it. And embracing them, He laid His hands upon them and blessed them. As He continued on His way, someone came to Him and, kneeling before Him, asked Him: Good Master, what shall I do to obtain eternal life? Jesus said to him: Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery; do not kill; do not steal; do not bear false witness; do not defraud anyone; honor your father and your mother. He answered Him: Master, I have observed all these things from my youth. Jesus, looking at him with love, said to him: One thing is lacking to you. Go, sell whatever you have and distribute it to the poor, and you will thus have a treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.
✝️ The renunciation of the world and spiritual childhood
Today's liturgy finds its reading key in the Introit, which proclaims the action of grace upon the soul willing to empty itself: "God rested His gaze upon him with goodness, elevated him from his humiliation". This benevolent gaze of God is the same that Jesus casts upon the rich young man in the Gospel. The Lord's loving gaze demands a radical response that consists of spiritual childhood and voluntary poverty. St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows perfectly understood that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who make themselves "little ones", renouncing material securities to depend exclusively on the Father. Unlike the rich young man who drew back from the invitation to perfection because he possessed many goods, St. Gabriel abandoned a life of prestige to embrace the austerity of the cross, finding in it an ineffable joy. Evangelical littleness is not immaturity, but the supreme wisdom of one who throws oneself into the arms of Providence. "He who embraces voluntary poverty and spiritual littleness loses nothing, but acquires the very author of all goods" (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 186, a. 3).
This spiritual elevation, however, presupposes a fierce combat against earthly attractions, as the Epistle exhorts. The strength of youth of which St. John speaks does not reside in physical vigor, but in the capacity to overcome the three roots of sin: the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life. St. Gabriel waged this combat in his own flesh, mortifying his senses and will so that the "love of the Father" would dwell fully in his soul. The vanity of the world, which once fascinated him at the parties in Spoleto, became for him something empty and fleeting, surpassed by the perennial contemplation of the sorrows of Mary and the Passion of Christ. The world and its illusions pass away, but the will of God remains eternally rooted in the heart of the saint. "He who loves the world does not have the love of the Father, for the love of God and the love of the world cannot cohabit in the same soul" (St. Augustine, Treatise on the Epistle of St. John, Tract. 2, 14).
Thus, the response to the loving gaze of Christ demands the total purification of the affections. The space left by the renunciation of pride and ephemeral pleasures does not become a void of sadness, but is immediately filled by the inheritance of the Kingdom of God. St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows teaches us that to follow Christ closely means to sell the riches of selfishness and to take refuge in the school of the Cross, where the soul, purified of all worldly stain, achieves true freedom. He who embraces the detachment prescribed in the Epistle becomes, by grace, the child described in the Gospel, upon whom God perpetually rests His gaze.