Pier Giorgio and the Litany of Loreto

I've never been much of a believer in coincidences.  When things seem to happen for no apparent reason, I like to think of them as Holy Spirit nudges.  Some would call them "God-incidences."  Whatever term you prefer, here's one that I thought I would share.

At the beginning of this month dedicated to Our Lady, I asked my daily morning prayer group if we could add the Litany of Loreto to the end of our rosary.  We normally would have been praying in church, of course; and there, because of the tight timeline between Masses at our parish, we never had time to spare.  Now that we've been "meeting" online, we have more flexibility and I really felt inspired that we should start praying the litany.  Everyone agreed that we needed to invoke Our Lady's help even more and so we began to add the extra prayers.

On May 3rd, I received an email from a 20-year-old guy named Samuele who had found the FrassatiUSA website "some days ago" and wrote to share with me various impressions that Blessed Frassati made on him.  This wasn't the first encounter he had with Pier Giorgio but the first time he had been to our website.  He wrote, "I'm truly amazed because I discovered plenty of new things about Pier Giorgio that before I did not know."

At the end of his email, he said how he hoped one day we could meet and added that we would always be welcome in his city... Loreto, Italy.

So, an email from Loreto a few days after beginning to pray to Our Lady of Loreto might seem like a mere coincidence.  For me, it was confirmation that our prayers were necessary and were being heard.  The Holy Spirit and Our Lady knew and used the easiest way to get my attention -  by making a connection to Blessed Frassati!

If you aren't familiar with the story of Our Lady of Loreto and the Holy House, you might want to learn about it.  Many popes and hundreds of saints have journeyed there.  I cannot find in the letters of Blessed Pier Giorgio any mention of a visit to Loreto.  But it seems likely that he also would have gone at some point, given the location.

He was definitely familiar with this title of Our Lady.  When he gifted a rosary to his best friend Marco Beltramo who was in the Italian airforce, Pier Giorgio wrote:

I shall add a medallion of the Madonna of Loreto, so that the Virgin will protect you when you fly through the “vast kingdom of the winds.”

We also know that Pier Giorgio celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Loreto on December 10, 1924 - the last time he would have been alive to do so.  On December 9th, he wrote to Marco:

On the eve of the feast of the Madonna of Loreto, your Patron, I want to send you my best wishes for a wonderful day...

Interestingly, Our Lady of Loreto was only declared the patron of pilots during Pier Giorgio's lifetime -  in 1920 - by Pope Benedict XV.  Apparently, it had something to do with the devotion of World War I pilots. This year, we will mark the 100th anniversary of that papal proclamation. 

Needless to say, I was amazed to discover, in the process of writing this post, that we are currently in the middle of the Jubilee Year of Loreto which will end on the feast day on December 10th.  And with a decree in October 2019, Pope Francis offiicially added the feast day as an optional memorial to the Church calendar.  Coincidence? Nope.

The theme of this Jubilee Year of Loreto is "Called to Fly High." Three statues of Our Lady of Loreto are scheduled to make symbolic pilgrimages to various parts of the world including major airports on five continents. Wow! Given how devastated the air travel industry has been in recent months, it is a comfort to know that all those who work in aviation or travel by air are under the protection of this special patroness. 

When I asked my prayer group to add the Litany of Loreto to our daily rosary, I really had no idea about any of this.  If it weren't for the email from Samuele a few days later, I probably still would have no idea. Quite a bit more than a Holy Spirit nudge, I would say.  More like a shove!

Pentecost is just a few days away. May the Holy Spirit push you around all day long!  And may Our Lady of Loreto intercede for you in a special way throughout this Jubilee Year.  Fly high!

Verso l'alto!   ///cmw

p.s.  The Litany of Loreto is so powerful because it invokes Our Lady under 52 titles.  Click here and pray it now!