S. Andrew Avellino, first biographer of Blessed Paul Burali
HUMILITY
He was a great friend of poverty and humility. Of these two virtues he always gave clear evidence even when he was a layman.
Let’s talk about humility. When he held the office of Royal Councillor, I often saw him walk to the Council with only one servant, who would lead a white nag after him for the return journey.
Every Saturday he would come to St. Paul’s Church for confession to Father Don Giovanni Marinoni: if by chance his confessor was absent, he would stand with great humility secluded in a nook, sometimes waiting for him until 1 a.m. during the winter.
Early on Sunday morning he would come for communion, attend Mass, and return to his home.
Having entered that he was in the monastery, he always manifested extreme modesty and considered himself “vile” and was not at all pleased, when signs of esteem were expressed to him. Which often occurred between him and me.
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Prayer
O God, who manifested in Blessed Paul Burali the multiform and admirable ways of your call to Christian perfection, grant us the comfort of his heavenly protection to follow you wholeheartedly. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
(there is a small silence to ask for the grace that each person carries in his heart)
Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be
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Thought of Blessed Pablo Burali:
“And if all men in the world need the virtue of humility, much more the Prelates and especially the Ecclesiastics, who, the greater they are, the greater and more dangerous is the account they have to render.”
Q. P . R . D.