Sailing Along with Pier Giorgio

"I have only been on the sailboat a few times; first of all because there was not enough wind until now and then almost always during the free time from studying there was no wind but the other day we went sailing for a long time and I thought that you would have enjoyed it a lot."

So wrote Pier Giorgio to his Aunt Elena from the seaside town of Forte dei Marmi where he spent the first two weeks of the last August of his life. 

His aunt turned 50 that year. She had always lived with the family so they had a close relationship. Having 41 nieces/nephews of my own, the bond between Pier Giorgio and his aunt is meaningful to me.

Pier Giorgio shared her passion for sailing and, over the years, he made a point to send her a note from the beach. At age 14, from Alassio, he wrote:

"I’m so very sorry that you also were not able to be with us to go swimming.  Today ... there’s a good wind for sailing.  I might take a sailboat trip to the island of Gallinaria."

  Again from Alassio at age 16:

"Two or three days ago I went sailing in Mascardi’s Jole; it was fun speeding along except that it took on a lot of water.  Who knows how happy you would have been if you had been here!"

So often we think of Pier Giorgio climbing the mountains but, like most Italians, he spent quite a bit of time at the beach.  I can picture him out on the water enjoying the spectacular coastal scenery in that region.  When he got back to the shore, he would work on his tan and then give reports on it!

"We are already totally black," he wrote to his dad one year.  To his mother, "My back is all peeling because of that ointment and it was already very dark." Writing from Albisolla Marina, to his friend Antonio, "I've already been swimming a lot and I've already gotten very black."

What summer activities could be more normal than swimming and sailing and getting a suntan? And yet, this is what is so foundational to the spirituality of Blessed Frassati.  As Pope Saint John Paul II said to the young people of Rome in 2005, "Get to know him! The life of this "normal" young man shows that we can be holy by living our friendships, studies, sports and service to the poor in a constant relationship with God."

When I think of the life of Pier Giorgio and how easy it is to relate to him, I'm reminded of the quote attributed to St. Catherine of Siena, "All the way to heaven is heaven."  Why do we make holiness harder than it needs to be?  After all, God didn't make it impossible for us to find our path back to Him.  And it shouldn't be a miserable journey.

This is why I love the example of Pier Giorgio and the freedom his life gives us to live ours.  No need to overcomplicate things. We only need to stay in a constant relationship with God as he did. But this means 24/7 - not an hour on Sunday. 

And then we will have the wind at our backs and go sailing along - maybe taking on a little water here and there - until we reach those longed-for heavenly shores.  Hopefully, there will be a dark-skinned young Italian saint waving and waiting to catch our line.

Duc in altum and verso l'alto!   ///cmw