Pier Giorgio on EWTN and more

A great opportunity to learn more about Pier Giorgio is coming next week on EWTN. The mini-series "Sanctity Within Reach: Pier Giorgio Frassati" will air on three consecutive days: Thursday, July 2nd, Friday, July 3rd, and Saturday, July 4th at 6 o'clock p.m. EST. Wanda Gawronska, a niece of Pier Giorgio, is the featured guest and provides firsthand information about her uncle. This is a wonderful prelude to Pier Giorgio's feast day which takes place on the Fourth of July. Spread the word and tune in!

Last night in Rome, Wanda and I had a nice time speaking to a small group of seminarians from the U.S. and Canada. Afterward, we attended vespers with them. It is always special to hear men's voices lifted up in prayer and song. 

Tomorrow morning, the group of pilgrims will arrive in Rome and we will begin our trek through northern Italy in the footsteps of Pier Giorgio. A little rain may welcome them but a rainy day in Rome is better than a sunny day nearly any place else! 

On a totally unrelated note, two entertainment icons passed away in the U.S. recently. Both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson achieved enormous celebrity status in their own way. Their early deaths are sad on many levels. Reading about them here in Italy, a beautiful reflection of Pier Giorgio comes to mind. In one of his letters that I have read over and over and over, he wrote the following about death when he was just 22 years old:

"I have sometimes been ambitious. And for what? Just for death, this great mystery, the only just one which spares no one, which will dissolve this body of mine and in a short time will turn it into dust. But beyond the material body there is the soul to which we must dedicate all our energy, so that it can present itself before the Supreme Tribunal without fault or at least with little faults, so that after having served some years in purgatory it will be able to go up to Eternal peace. But how does one prepare oneself for the great Transition and when? Since one does not know when Death will come to take him away, it is very prudent to prepare oneself every day as if one is going to die that same day; and so from now on I will try to make every day a little preparation for death, so that I shouldn’t find myself unprepared at the point of death and have to regret the beautiful years of youth, wasted from the spiritual side."

Pier Giorgio challenges us to live and not just exist. Read John 10:10 today and strive for life in abundance. Verso l'alto!