Walking with Saints March 2013
March 2013
Bl. PIER GIORGIO FRASSATI LIFE IN BRIEF Pier Giorgio Frassati was born in Turin, Italy on Holy Saturday, April 6, 1901. His father, an agnostic, was the founder and director of the liberal newspaper, La Stampa, and was influential in Italian politics, serving a term as senator, and later as Italy's ambassador to Germany. Pier Giorgio developed a deep spiritual life which he never hesitated to share with his friends. In 1918, he joined the St Vincent de Paul Society and dedicated much of his spare time to serving the sick and the needy. He decided to become a mining engineer so that he could "serve Christ better among the miners," as he told a friend. His studies, however, did not keep him from social activism. In 1919, he joined the Catholic Student Federation and the Popular Party, a political organization which promoted the Catholic Church's teachings. In 1922, he joined the Dominican Third Order, choosing the name Girolamo after his personal hero, the Dominican preacher and reformer of Florence's Renaissance. In late June 1925, Pier Giorgio was afflicted by an acute attack of poliomyelitis which doctors later speculated he caught from the poor and sick, whom he tended. Pier Giorgio bid goodbye to this world on July 4, 1925, at the age of 24.In 1989, Pope John Paul II visited his tomb and paid honour to him, calling him a man of the Beatitudes. The same Pope beatified him on May 20, 1990.
SHORT LIVED; ACCOMPLISHED MUCH! Although the Frassati family was well-to-do, the father was frugal and never gave his two children much to spend. Whatever little he had, Pier Giorgio gave to help the poor, even using his train fare for charity and then running home to be on time for meals in a house where punctuality and frugality were the law. When asked by friends why he often rode third class on the trains he would reply with a smile, "Because there is not a fourth class." When he was a child, a poor mother with a boy in tow came begging to the Frassati home. Pier Giorgio answered the door, and on seeing the boy's shoeless feet, gave him his own shoes. At graduation, given the choice by his father of money or a car, he chose the money and gave it to the poor. He obtained a room for a poor old woman evicted from her tenement, provided a bed for a consumptive invalid, supported three children of a sick and grieving widow. He kept a small ledger book containing detailed accounts of his transactions, and while he lay on his death bed, he gave instructions to his sister, asking her to see to the needs of families who depended on his charity. He even took the time, with a near-paralyzed hand, to write a note to a friend in the St. Vincent de Paul Society with instructions
Walking with Saints March 2013 regarding their weekly Friday visits. Only God knew of these charities; he never mentioned them to others. Once, during a Church-organized demonstration in Rome, he withstood police violence and rallied the other young people by grabbing the banner which the police had knocked out of someone else's hands. He held it even higher while using the pole to ward off their blows. When the demonstrators were arrested by the police, he refused special treatment that he might have received because of his father's political position, preferring to stay with his friends.
A SAINT FOR THE YOUTH OF THIRD MILLENNIUM What kind of a man was Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati? Perhaps to the popular conceptions of the world today, he was not the “stereotypical Christian”. He was an avid mountain climber and skier. A lover of music and arts, he frequented theatres and operas, and he could recite long parts of Dante by heart and would spontaneously begin to do so out loud. Beyond this, he was an engineering student, a political activist, and more than anything else, a most ardent and self-giving servant of the poor. When he died, his family was surprised to see more than 1000 poor persons at his funeral. Though he was a student, he had secretly been spending nearly all of the little money he would get from his parents and most of his time at the service the poor; all of this, he did without his parents approval, since they were against his life of devotion and service. He also enjoyed his time with his friends, who knew him as the life of every party and a major practical joker. Perhaps to many, the famous picture of an adventurous young man on a mountaintop with a smoking pipe in his mouth would not fit into the pattern of “a holy person”. But we see that all of the saints were varied so significantly from one another in that they might give fitting praise to the broad and rich mind of God, not blindly conforming to any singular, superficial mould. In all these activities, Pier Giorgio glorified God and also unhesitatingly proclaimed the faith, using every opportunity to share the love and knowledge of Jesus with his peers and the poor alike. His friends remembered Pier Giorgio as “an explosion of joy”. All the saints, varied as they were, nonetheless had the most fundamental things in common because each one of them without exception lived in a profound union with God that was fostered through an interior life of prayer and self-denial. In this sense, Bl. Pier Giorgio was no exception. As outward and active as he was, his activity was not in place of a rich interior life nor did it in any way diminish the intensity of his single-hearted love for God, which he fostered during long hours of prayer especially before the Blessed Sacrament. Sometimes he spent the entire night in Adoration. Concerning his interior life, Bl. Pope John II said about him: “The secret of his apostolic zeal and holiness is to be sought in the ascetical and spiritual journey which he travelled; in prayer, in persevering adoration, even at night, of the Blessed Sacrament, in his thirst for the Word of God, which he sought in Biblical texts; in the peaceful acceptance of life's difficulties, in family life as well; in chastity lived as a cheerful, uncompromising discipline; in his daily love of silence and life's ordinariness.”What a model for us Jesus Youth! Can we make the excuse that we are too busy with school/college/profession when we see before us plainly the fruitful life of this young student? Even the choice of his profession was made with a view towards doing mission among the miners. Can we say that we are prevented by our parents from doing good works when this young man endured daily the disappointment of his parents in him for this very reason? Indeed, it seems that it is so very often the case that we are prevented not by anything external at all but rather by our lack of conviction and unreserved faith! And this is one of the most important takeaways from Bl. Pier Giorgio for us in this Year of Faith: his perspective of eternity. To live each day, not for that day, but for our eternal destiny; this is the mark of a living faith. By his prayers and inspiration, may we gain both his faith and his destiny! Our Christian life has to be a continual renunciation, a continual sacrifice. However, this is not difficult, if one thinks what are these few years passed in suffering compared with eternal happiness, where joy will have no measure or end, and we shall have unimaginable peace. We should grasp faith strongly. Without it what would our whole life be? Nothing! - It would have been spent in vain.
Walking with Saints March 2013
Week I _1st -9th March_ Quote of the Saint "In God's marvellous plan, Divine Providence often uses the tiniest twigs to do good works... What would life be without acts of charity?" Prayer of the Saint (Prayer on act of Charity) O my God, I love you with my whole heart and above all things, Because You are infinitely good and perfect; And I love my neighbour as myself for love of You. Grant that I may love You more and more in this life, and in the next for all eternity.
Week II _10th -16th March_ Quote of the Saint “Prayer is the noble supplication which we lift up to the throne of the Most High. It is the most efficient means to obtain from God the graces which we need.�-From his speech to the Catholic Youth of Pollone, July 29, 1923 Prayer of the Saint (Pier Giorgio made his last climb on June 7, 1925. During the same, he asked his companions to join him in this prayer in memory of a friend who had died in a climbing accident.) "Out of the depths I cry to You, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive to my voice in supplication: If You, O Lord, mark iniquities, Lord, who can stand? But with You is forgiveness, that You may be revered. I trust in the Lord; my soul trusts in His word. My soul waits for the Lord more than sentinels wait for the dawn. More than sentinels wait for the dawn, let Israel wait for the Lord. For with the Lord is kindness, and with Him is plenteous redemption; And He will redeem Israel from all their iniquities."
Walking with Saints March 2013
Week III _17th -23rd March_ Quote of the Saint “To live without faith, without a patrimony to defend, without a steady struggle for truth, that is not living, but existing.” Prayer to the Saint (Let us pray to Blessed Pier Giorgio for nourishing our faith in Lord) Blessed Pier Giorgio, teach me silence in the face of personal humiliation and unjust criticism. But guide me to be courageous like you in standing on the side of God’s truth. Help me to be faithful to Him in all things, so that His Will may be done in and through my life. Show me how to persevere in the struggle for those things which are holy and honorable. Blessed Pier Giorgio, I ask for your intercession in obtaining from God, Who is the source of grace and truth, all the graces necessary for my spiritual and temporal welfare. I confidently turn to you for help in my present need: (mention your request.) Amen.
Week IV _24th -31st March_ Quote of the Saint "The faith given to me in baptism suggests to me surely: by yourself you will do nothing, but if you have God as the centre of all your action, then you will reach the goal." Prayer to the Saint (Let us pray to Blessed Pier Giorgio for the grace of complete surrendering) Blessed Pier Giorgio, help me to seek God’s righteousness, His plan for my life and for the salvation of the world. Show me the way to self surrender, so that I may desire nothing more than to be of service to the Lord and His Kingdom. Lead me to the table of love, where I will be satisfied.