The Doctor is In

A deeper understanding of the spirituality of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati can be gained by taking a look at the saints who most inspired him. They are hardly lightweights when it comes to Church teaching! In fact, three of his favorites are now recognized as Doctors of the Church: St. Catherine of Siena, St. Thomas Aquinas, and St. Augustine whose feast we celebrate today.

If you own a copy of the Letters of Blessed Frassati, you may have noticed that his writings take on a much deeper spiritual tone in the last year of his life. This shift coincides with more serious challenges confronting him. He was finally nearing the end of his studies and was reflecting more often on the ways his everyday life was about to change.  His sister's marriage and departure from the home left him alone to deal with the state of his parents' troubled marriage. 

At the end of 1924, he wrote to his best friend Marco, "these days I alternate my arid studies with the most beautiful readings of St. Augustine; my soul has never till now experienced so forcefully such infinite pleasure, because through those powerful Confessions one feels a little of the joy that is reserved for whoever dies in the Sign of the Cross." 

It's hard to believe that the autobiography of St. Augustine made Pier Giorgio - who was already doing so much good at age 23 - feel that he had somehow been squandering his youth! But he continues in his letter to Marco:

"Today I bitterly regret having wasted my time and to have waited till this advanced age to savor such pure joy."

The timing of his reading of the Confessions of St. Augustine coincided with another significant internal struggle for Pier Giorgio - the sacrifice of his love for Laura Hidalgo. Perhaps this is why St. Augustine's recognition that the true lover of his soul was Christ may have specially consoled Pier Giorgio.

A few days after writing to Marco, he writes to his friend Isidoro, "I felt the truth of St. Augustine’s words when he says: “Lord, our hearts do not have peace until they rest in you;” in fact, foolish is he who pursues the joys of the world because these are always fleeting and cause pain whereas the one true joy is that which Faith gives us, and our beloved companions particularly by this bond will always stay united even if life’s contingencies hurl us very far from each other. Thus she (he is referring to Laura) will always be for me a good friend who, having known her in the most dangerous years of my life, will have helped me to keep on the right path toward the Goal."

We can't know Pier Giorgio's heart, of course; but, from his writings we know he experienced "immense happiness, a profound joy" that had been eluding him for some time and which he attributed to reading St. Augustine.  He affirms this a couple of weeks later in another letter to his friend Isidoro. In the end, it was from having immersed himself in the writings of St. Augustine, that Pier Giorgio's soul was caught up to a new level of otherworldliness.

I would like ...to take as a maxim the saying of St. Augustine:  “Lord, our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

Faced with difficulties and trials in our own lives, we can find much consolation and inspiration from the lives of the saints. These holy men and women who have gone before us and have successfully overcome all sorts of struggles are sure and steady guides on the path to eternal joy.

St. Augustine and Blessed Frassati, pray for us.

Verso l'alto!  ///cmw