Heading into Holy Week with Blessed Frassati

What a Lent! 

I almost have to laugh when I think of the fairly trivial sacrifices I was preparing to make back on Ash Wednesday.  Not being able to go to daily Mass and receive the Eucharist was definitely not on my radar! How about you?

In a very real sense it has been helpful that this time of somewhat forced isolation has coincided with the season of Lent. This 40-day journey presupposes having a spirit of penitence, fasting and withdrawal from the pleasures of the world.

Even without the ability to attend Holy Week services in person, I am so grateful for the rhythm of the Church year and the inner peace it provides.  We can put aside our earthly cares and focus our attention on the Lord's triumphant entry into Jerusalem, His institution of the priesthood and the Eucharist, His life-giving sacrifice on the cross, His deafening silence in the tomb and His explosion of joy on Easter Sunday.

I'm also grateful that Pier Giorgio will be journeying with us in a special way through the week.  On Monday, we mark his 119th birthday.  On Good Friday, we can make the Way of the Cross using meditations from his writings.  And, around 7 pm on Holy Saturday, we pause to remember that this was when he came into the world back in 1901. 

According to Luciana Frassati, the family had a tradition of spending all of Holy Week with their Ametis family (her mother's parents) at the home in Pollone.  They celebrated Easter together there and then returned to Turin on Monday.  Pollone is a small village and so it would have been a far quieter week compared to the busy lives they led in the city. 

When Pier Giorgio was 21, the rest of his family was away in Germany and he spent Holy Week alone for the first time.

Dearest Mama,
            Perhaps this is the first Easter that we are not spending together ... I’ll pray to God that He blesses you along with all of the others. 

                                                            Best wishes and kisses
                                                                           Pier Giorgio

He understood the feeling of being far from family at a special time and can be a source of consolation for those of us going through the same kind of thing.  I hope you will take advantage of the friendship he offers from Heaven in the coming week and beyond. 

I also want to wholeheartedly recommend joining the evening hour of prayer offered by the Frassati Fellowship of New York City.  It is open to all and is a special way to stay connected with others who share a love for the Faith and a devotion to Blessed Frassati. Hope to "see you" there.

"I would like for us to pledge a pact which knows no earthly boundaries nor temporal limits:  union in prayer."

Blessed Pier Giorgio, most Christian of companions, pray for us.

Verso l'alto!     ///cmw