Mar 12th - Luigi Orione

Psalm 16 tells us "For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor let your devout one see the pit." (Psalm 16:10) which renders in the Greek (as we can see later in Acts) "because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld, nor will you suffer your holy one to see corruption." (Acts 2:27)
These passages remind us Christians of the nature of the Resurrection, and the promise of our own bodily resurrection. Sometimes though, we get a foretaste of the meaning of this: a saint, when exhumed for reasons of the canonization cause or for the transfer of relics, is found to be intact, not corrupted by the normal process of death and decay.
This can be a little freaky, especially to those of us who are not so used to death and its effects. We see the embalmed body, perhaps, but we do not see the peace of death upon it. It is often stiff and different than the person we knew when they were alive.
There is a sense, if you have ever visited an incorruptible, that they are merely asleep, peaceful and relaxed. That is the image of death we need to hold on to, as Paul says: those who sleep in Christ (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:18 ; 1 Thessalonians 4:14).
Luigi is one such incorruptible. He is the founder of several congregations and orphanages. As their founder, he traveled the world overseeing them. He devoted his life to the poor, abandoned, and homeless, mentored by none other than Don Bosco. In poor health himself, he was cured at Bosco's funeral, enabling him to serve whole for so many years, and then to remain whole even in death.
May we, during this time of Lent as we contemplate the Resurrection and our own, strive for incorruptibility.

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Without Prayer nothing good is done. God's works are done with our hands joined, and on our knees. Even when we run, we must remain spiritually kneeling before Him.

-- attributed to the saint