Divine Providence...Do You Believe?

Tomb of Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati

      God has shown me over and over and over and over (you get the point) in the past 12 years or so since I really began to take my faith life seriously that he is in charge and is involved in every single aspect of my life.  This entry will focus on a series of events which took place over the last year.
     It all began over an innocent travel weekend to Salamanca, Spain.  I went with two other guys from the College and we had a wonderful time relaxing, praying and spending time with the sister of one of the guys who was studying there.  The same seminarian also knew a group of religious sisters who are located in Madrid (where we flew in and out of).  On the "last" day of our trip, we visited the religious community before heading off in a rush to eat at T. G. I. Fridays before hurrying over to the airport to catch our flight.  We accomplished all of this, made our way to the airport, got rid of the bottle of wine we had purchased because we didn't want to check bags and made our way over to the security line.  The first of us made it through the security ticket check and as he was proceeding to go through security, the lady checking our tickets told him to wait as she noticed that our tickets were for Nov. 2nd (the next day), not Nov. 1 (today).  We smiled at her in disbelief and said, "no, we have to be back today, they have to be for today."  Well we were wrong, our tickets did not have to be for today as they were in fact for tomorrow.  After trying several different ways to get back to Rome and to the College on time (the cheapest option being about 600 Euro per person and not even a guarantee) we bit the bullet and called the College to let them know of our mistake and that we would be staying in Madrid for the night.
     As we had not planned to stay the night in Madrid we had no arrangements for a place to sleep.  We went back to the religious sisters that we had visited earlier to see if they could help.  They ended up getting us rooms at the seminary just down the road.  During our second trip to the house, we joined the sisters in a Spanish All Saints Day tradition.  On Nov. 1st, they put the names of many different saints in a bowl and everyone draws a name.  The name you pull is your saint for the following year.  We all took our turn drawing from the bowl and when it came to me I picked one Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati.  Now before this I had heard about Blessed Pier Giorgio...very little, but I had heard of him.  I knew he died young and that he was a very active outdoors type, but that was about it.  Thus began my relationship with this young man from Turin, Italy.

Cathedral of Turin where Bl. Pier Giorgio is buried

     The saints have an amazing way of coming into your life.  It seems at times they they will haunt/stalk/follow you around.  This is precisely what happened with Bl. Pier Giorgio.  Since this providential meeting in Spain he has appeared over and over again during the course of this year.  When I went back home for the summer I recalled the travel weekend story to a friend.  Having a devotion to Bl. Pier Giorgio herself, she loaned me a book about him written by his sister.  I then shared a quote from the book via Facebook and another friend saw it who also has a great devotion to Bl. Pier Giorgio.  In his generosity this friend mailed me two other books on Bl. Pier Giorgio, a whole slew of prayer cards and other information on him which were waiting for me at the College when I returned in September.  I have read one of the books and I have a Bl. Pier Giorgio prayer card in just about every book I am using at the moment.
     This past weekend was a travel weekend for us here.  I decided to travel with one other seminarian and we were going to make it interesting.  We made no plans and had no destination in mind.  We simply showed up to class on Friday with our bags packed and after they were done we headed to the train station to pick a random place to visit.  When we arrived we looked at the departure board to see where we would end up.  A train leaving in about 8 minutes heading where else but to Turin, the hometown of Bl. Pier Giorgio and the city where his remains are now located.  We bought our tickets, got on the train and we were off.  After booking a hotel from the train and waiting the 4+ hours it took to get there, we arrived in the city of the young Blessed.  I was beyond excited!  What were the odds that I would end up in Turin without planning it just 5 days before my "Year of Bl. Pier Giorgio" was over (it will be one year since my Spain trip on Nov. 1, 2012).

Memorial on the wall at Bl. Pier Giorgio's parish Church

     As Catholics, we believe that there is no such thing as luck.  Rather, our loving God and Father puts things into our lives when and how we need them in order to draw us closer to Himself.  God wanted to teach me something through the life of this young saintly man.  Bl. Pier Giorgio died at the age of 24 (NB: That is the same age at which St. Therese died) from polio.  During his short time on earth Bl. Pier Giorgio touched the lives of thousands of people.  This is evident in the pictures of his funeral procession where people from all over Turin gathered to say goodbye to their native son.  Maybe God wanted me to see that even people who seem insignificant can make a huge difference.  Maybe God wanted to show me that it is possible to suffer without complaining (in fact I'm sure this is at least part of the reason Bl. Pier Giorgio found me!).  Maybe God wanted to remind me to always be concerned for the poor.  It is likely that all of these reasons (and many more) played a part in my coming to know Bl. Pier Giorgio.  I pray that I will not overlook any aspect of whatever it is that God wants to teach me through the life of his servant Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati and I pray that you will take the time to get to know him too!

In Christ,
Patrick

Appealing to the Senses

     This is a little update to my previous post.  I wrote there about the appeal to the senses, especially that of sight in the Church.  This past weekend, I was blessed to be able to travel to Turin.  My main goal was to pray at the tomb of Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati who has been haunting me (in a good way) for the past year (full post to come with that story).  Another great gift of this trip was being able to spend time in the Cathedral where they house the Shroud of Turin, which many believe to be the burial shroud of Christ.  Though the shroud was not on display there was a picture hanging above the protective case where it is housed.  Praying in the presence of the shroud and gazing upon the image of Christ's face was an amazing and powerful experience for me.  I kept gazing up at the image and thinking about the quote from the last post, "We have seen God and we will never be the same!"  Wow!

In Christ,
Patrick

It Just Makes Sense!

     "We have seen God and we will never be the same!"  This statement was made by the priest chaplain for the University of Dallas campus here in Rome where I will be helping out for the next two years.  Father gave this statement as a one sentence summary to explain Christianity to someone who knew nothing about our religion.
     What I will try to focus on in this entry is that fact that we have SEEN God.  God, throughout the Old Testament period, revealed Himself in various ways to the people of Israel.  One way in which he did this is by revealing His holy name, which out of respect for our Jewish brothers and sisters we do not use in the Liturgy.  The Hebrews believed that knowing a person's name was a very intimate way of knowing someone, it revealed to the knower an intimate part of the person.  For God to draw close to his people in this way was a new and shocking thing.
     After several covenants and several failures on the part of man to uphold his end of the agreement, God chose to reveal Himself in an even more shocking way.  God the Father, sent his Son Jesus Christ in human form.  In Christ, we have seen God!  We truly can never be the same.
     In both instances, God revealed himself to man by appealing to man's senses.  The Israelites heard God's name and with the coming of Christ, men have seen God.  We are bodily creatures and we come to know things through the body.  This is explained by E. Schillebeeckx in his book Christ the Sacrament of the Encounter with God as follows:

"Because God loves man and has a sovereign respect for our earthbound humanity -for our reality as persons who in their own bodiliness live in a world of people and of things, and thereby grow to spiritual maturity - God always offers us the kingdom of heaven in an earthly guise. So he did in the Old Testament. So it was in the ephapax: the appearance once and for all of God the Redeemer in human shape. So, too, finally, does he continue to teach us in the sacramental Church which is the visible organ on earth of the living Lord."

We experience God through the senses, and we are also engaged through the senses.  This is why the Church uses beautiful music, incense, candles, flowers, beautiful church buildings, etc.

     As I said earlier, I want to focus on sight (having trouble so far, but stay with me!).  One day this past week I got out of class early and decided to fulfill one of my formation goals by making a holy hour in one of the churches in the city.  As it is my favorite church and I wanted to say prayers at a certain statue housed there, I decided to make my way over to the Basilica of St. Augustine.  As I sat before the tabernacle I took a moment to examine the paintings on the walls and ceiling.  I had never noticed two of them before, both of which depicted Mass being celebrated.  In the picture above, notice how there is a beam of light coming from the Cross (from which all the sacraments derive their power) through the host being elevated after it has been consecrated (transformed from ordinary bread into the body of Christ) and to the people attending Mass.  It shows the efficacy of the sacrament, i.e. it shows that we receive grace from the sacrament.  In the picture to the left you see the priest celebrating Mass and as he prays the words of consecration, in the background, angels are lifting people to heaven.  When I saw this, I was reminded of the IV Dialogue of Gregory the Great in which he recalls many pious events, one of which was the confirmation that loved ones had passed form purgatory to heaven after Mass had been celebrated for their intention (The IV Dialogue is a great and easy read for anyone who is interested!).

     Why do I bring up these paintings?  Because they moved me during my holy hour.  They reminded me of the power of the Mass and of the closeness of our God.  We can still see him anytime we go to Mass or adoration.  True, we can see God anywhere if we are open to his providence, but we can really, physically see him under the appearance of bread and wine.  Beautiful pieces of art, such as these two, along with all of the other things the Church utilizes (some were mentioned earlier) help us to enter into the mystery of the Trinity, God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit!

     Lastly, I will leave you with a verse from Scripture I came upon last night during my holy hour.  It comes from the Gospel of St. Matthew 6:22-23.  “The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be."  In a world that is filled with so many negative images, on TV, in movies, and in just about every advertisement around, this passage should strike a chord in us.  With what are we filling ourselves through the lamp of our body?  Are we constantly taking in things that lead us into darkness or do we take time to admire beautiful things that can lead us to contemplate the One True God?