Thought for the Day – 18 August – The Memorial of St Alberto Hurtado
” Hogar de Christo”
Hogar means “hearth” or “home.” Hurtado wanted to welcome the poor into “Christ’s home.”
From all accounts Hurtado was an intensely busy man. In 1946, he bought a green pickup truck to better bring at-risk children living on the street back to the shelters. He called them his patroncitos, his “little bosses.” In addition to his work with Hogar, his retreats and outreach to youth, he wrote several books and found the journal Mensaje, a Catholic magazine designed to highlight the social teachings of the church and which is still proudly published by the Chilean Jesuits.
Despite his hectic schedule, Alberto understood the need for the balance between prayer and work, striving to be a “contemplative in action.” On the one hand, the activist is the one who at every moment recognises “the divine impulse.” On the other, prayer should not encourage a “sleepy sort of laziness under the pretext of keeping ourselves united with God.” I like to think of him as the patron saint of multitaskers.
By the age of 50, though, Alberto seemed to his friends worn out. After a physician-ordered vacation, he returned to discover that he had pancreatic cancer. The end would come quickly and painfully. Yet during his suffering he was often heard to say, “I am content, O Lord, I am content.” He died at age 51.
His funeral, in the Church of St. Ignatius in Santiago, was filled with so many of the poor who venerated Padre Hurtado that many of his close friends had to remain outside. Alberto Hurtado was canonised by Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. All of Chile celebrated the man who the country’s president called one of Chile’s “founding fathers.”
In Santiago, near the original Hogar, is a shrine to Alberto, where many come to pray. Inside is his beat-up green pickup.
Let us too ‘build a home for Christ’!
St Alberto, Pray for us!
AnaStpaul 