Jan 6 Andre Bessette

Jack and Thom
Good Morning, I love you

All saints lead us to Jesus. Because of a unique devotion, some saints lead us to Jesus by a circuitous route. Some are devoted to Mary. Some to the Sacred Heart. Others have charisms that help us find God, say in nature, in the poor, in children. St Andre Bessette had a devotion to St Joseph.

I too have an affinity for St Joseph. He’s my confirmation patron (because I could not spell Christopher and was too scared to ask. Fortunately for me; Christopher may not be a saint after all.) He’s also the middle name of your grandfather and uncle. Try any of Filias’ books, I have several, for comprehensive and meditative bios of Joseph. Read meditatively the Scriptural passages with Joseph in them. Joseph qua holy man. Joseph qua husband. Joseph qua father [not stepfather – wrestle with that mystery for a while. Mary tells Jesus, your father and I have been looking for you. He answers: don’t you know I’m suppose to be about my Father’s business? Then He went home with them; and was obedient to them.]. Joseph the worker [May 1st: a day that lives in my infamy – first as May Day – for the communists and for the May Crowning of Mary, not to mention the feast of Joseph the Worker. I made my biggest mistake on a May first.]

But I digress from St Andre Bessette, who was canonized just this year. He got a front page headliner story in the Columbia. Of course the Knights would highlight this new saint. A North American. A man’s man with a devotion to St Joseph. A holy man for each of us to emulate.



January 6
Andre Bessette b. 1845 d. 1935 c. 2010


When Alfred Bessette came to the Holy Cross Brothers in 1870, he carried with him a note from his pastor saying, "I am sending you a saint."

Alfred? The naming process is holy and possessive as well as submissive. Upon taking vows it is not uncommon for a religious to take on a new name – like we do at Baptism and Confirmation, not to mention during those moments in our lives when we wish to redefine ourselves. [one reason the woman takes the man’s surname? Let’s have that discussion another time.] Alfred took the name Andre. I don’t know why. I am sure it is in the cause for his canonization. It wasn’t in any of the stories I read about him; so, I suppose it wasn’t deemed important by the writers. I think they missed something.

Holy Cross Brothers? Dems the ones at Notre Dame. I miss our pilgrimages to the Golden Dome – to and/or from Grandpa’s house we went to South Bend on a pilgrimage for this humble Subway Alum indoctrinating his sons. I hope you have a comparably meaningful destination for your annual pilgrimage. A place to rejuvenate your being, your relationship with God, your ties to our greater Catholic, cultural, family communities.

1870 Montreal. Not the cosmopolitan city it is today – a place I recommend you go visit if only for a pilgrimage to the St Joseph oratory ‘built by’ St Andre Bessette. When we, i.e., your father’s first nuclear family, lived in Portland we had many friends and neighbors from Quebec and Montreal. We became friends with them in part because we went to the same Church – not many Catholics in Portland but all the French Canadians were also Catholic. These friends were the connection that drew me to make the drive through God’s country to Quebec and then Montreal. There are many reasons to go places – friends, I’ve found, are the best reasons.

The pastor sent the Holy Cross Brothers a saint. Why would the recipients of such a gift be so unbelieving? Why did none of the Apostles believe the women when they returned from the empty tomb? Why did they not believe it was Jesus the first time He appeared to them? Why do our religious not believe that a saint can be sent to them, a man they did not form, a man they did not know – referred by a priest, not a Holy Cross father. I believe Lord, help my unbelief. And help the unbelief of my sons and my Church.

Chronic stomach pains had made it impossible for Alfred to hold a job very long. Since he was a boy he had wandered from shop to shop, farm to farm, in his native Canada and in the United States, staying only until his employers found out how little work he could do.
Imagine what life was like for St Andre Bessette as a teenager and young man – the life of your most recent memories. He was on his own, looking to find his way in the world, to survive. No one gave him an education or an SUV. He was not blessed with resources or talents that God gave you; but use your imagination. But he kept on truckin’. People hired him. That says something about his qualities as a person – Integrity? Gentleness? Reliability? Holiness? What made person after person, strangers, hire this itinerant? …. Then stop the tape. At twenty five. The young man can’t hold a job. He shuffles from place to place, county to county, country to country. He’s illiterate. What do you foresee for him?

Know that at any moment in your life, it is impossible to predict where it will go. No matter how well or how poorly things are going for you in the moment. So long as you are following God’s will you know that you are on the right path, going in the right direction, and all will be Good.

This itinerant illiterate approached the Holy Cross Brothers out of desperation. Or from the wisdom of his pastor? The hand of the Holy Spirit? What place does this, dare we say, young bum, have with the haughty Holy Cross Brothers? Maybe in Her sense of humor, the Holy Spirit sent Andre Bessette to the Holy Cross Brothers because they needed him more than he needed them?

For Andre Bessette believed that this was the place he should have been all along. …. Not uncommonly, during periods of our lives, some longer than others, we wander through life, seemingly on task, on goal, driven or drifting but without the sense of belonging we seek. We fell that ‘this is good’, ‘it could be better’, but ‘It’s not quite it’. Then – in a place, at a time, with the right people – the people though whom Jesus finally is able to touch us – we know that we belong. When that happens, Deo Gratias! Give thanks to God every day. Wake up in the morning singing His praises. Go to bed each night breathing a sigh of gratitude. And, never stop discerning God’s will for you. Stay where you have found the essence of your soulmate – because it will be your soulmate, the Holy Spirit imprinted on your soul, touching your heart, telling you ‘this is da place!’

The Holy Cross Brothers took him into the novitiate but soon found out that as hard as Brother Andre wanted to work, he simply wasn't strong enough. And what did the good Brothers do? They asked him to leave the order. But Andre Bessette begged a visiting bishop to intercede. Was Andre Bessette desperate for three squares and a roof over his head? Was he so worthless and such a big drain that he should be shooed away? What kind of chutzpah did he have to get a visiting bishop involved? Which hand do you want to play here? What does this incident tell you about yourself? About your becoming a better Catholic? What else does this cameo show you? One of the reasons we learn the lives of the saints is to let their stories inform our own lives. Let this interlude help you penetrate the mystery of the Holy Spirit.

The visiting bishop promised that Andre Bessette would stay and take his vows. And the plot continues….
After his vows, Brother Andre was sent to Notre Dame College in Montreal (a school for boys age seven to twelve) as a porter. We are blessed with several saints who served their religious community as porter – can you name a couple? Think Jesuits for starters. This most humble of services – kinda like the Walmart Greeters (just think, each one of those are a saint in the making). You don’t have to be literate to be a porter. You don’t have to have an iron stomach. You do have to have a loving, kind heart for everyone: for whomever comes to the door – each one is Jesus.

At the Notre Dame College, his responsibilities were to answer the door, to welcome guests, find the people they were visiting, wake up those in the school, and deliver mail. Brother Andre joked later, "At the end of my novitiate, my superiors showed me the door, and I stayed there for forty years."

In 1904, Andre Bessette surprised the Archbishop of Montreal by requesting permission to, build a chapel to Saint Joseph on the mountain near the college. The Archbishop refused to go into debt and would only give permission for Brother Andre to build what he had money for. What money did Brother Andre have? Nickels he had collected as donations for Saint Joseph from haircuts he gave the boys. Nickels and dimes from a small dish he had kept in a picnic shelter on top of the mountain near a statue of St. Joseph with a sign "Donations for St. Joseph." He had collected this change for years but he still had only a few hundred dollars. Who would start a chapel now with so little funding? [Think Francis of Assisi.]

We don’t have in the bioblurbs why Andre Bessette had an affinity for St Joseph. What moved him to put the statue of St Joseph on the mountain? How did this illiterate itinerant connect with
St Joseph? How do we connect with anyone? Common ground. Common heart. Common relations. Camaraderie. Was it a common connection with Jesus? Mary? The trials of a man sent to Bethlehem then to Egypt the to Nazareth then to Jerusalem to be the father of our Lord?

Andre took his few hundred dollars and built a small wood shelter only fifteen feet by eighteen feet. He kept collecting money and went back three years later to request more building. The wary Archbishop asked him, "Are you having visions of Saint Joseph telling you to build a church for him?" Brother Andre reassured him. "I have only my great devotion to St. Joseph to guide me."

In our persistence, we will be questioned. The more Quixotic our quest, the more we are questioned. Not unlike the persistence of a father with his sons. Have great devotion to a good man. Let that devotion guide you. Let that devotion motivate you. Let that devotion be great enough to be worthy of that man you follow. Your best choice is Jesus. Andre Bessette got there through his devotion to St Joseph. You might pick a John or Thomas or Kenneth or William or Uriel or Joseph….

The Archbishop granted him permission to keep building as long as he didn't go into debt. He started by adding a roof so that all the people who were coming to hear Mass at the shrine wouldn't have to stand out in the rain and the wind; …and finally a place where Brother Andre Bessette and others could live and take care of the shrine -- and the pilgrims who came - full-time.
Through kindness, caring, and devotion, Brother Andre Bessette helped many souls experience healing and renewal on the mountaintop. There were even cases of physical healing. But for everything, Brother Andre thanked St. Joseph.

This all happened in early twentieth century Montreal. There are pictures. There are testimonials. There are stories handed down generation to generation. Brother Andre Bessette did heal souls and bodies. Go figure! This illiterate itinerant twenty-five year old was the cause of the building of one of the most beautiful, huge oratories in the world. Pilgrims come from all over the world to express their devotion to St Joseph and give thanks to St Andre Bessette. No telling where God is leading you. Don’t fight it. Discern his will. Be devoted to a person, a belief, a cause so much greater than yourself (think humility). Be the cause of the healing of souls, the building of basilicas!

The Basilica of St Joseph is still not finished. But like the roofless chapel that Andre Bessette started with, the pilgrims come, the Holy Cross Brothers greet them – in the spirit of St Andre Bessette, the Holy Spirit touched their souls and heals their bodies.
Despite financial troubles, Brother Andre never lost faith or devotion. I bet that the financial challenges, even the onset of the Great Depression, were the least of St Andre Bessette’s headaches. How many unbelievers and naysayers do you think swirled around him? How many people do you think scoffed and told him to give it up, stop wasting your time and our money? How often do you believe everyone but Andre Bessette believed that the Basilica will be built? I bet it was not the building that was the source of his persistence. People came. He opened the door – to the roofless chapel, to the infinite love in his soul.

As long as he lived, the man who had trouble keeping work for himself, would never have stopped working for God. So long as you are working for God, you are on the right path and you will not be unemployed or unsuccessful. Brother Andre Bessette started with what he had. Not much by any objective, external standard. But there is no measure for love and devotion – you know that by the experiences of love you have had so far. Small steps, the little way, plod along, persist with God’s grace and your unique spirit….

I love you,
Dad
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