Devotional: Novena to Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

Because of the death of Pope Francis in May, the canonizations of both Blessed Carlo Acutis and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati were postponed, and now are scheduled together for September 7^th.  Of the two, the one closer to my heart is Bl. Pier Giorgio. 

 

Born in 1901 to a wealthy family that was not particularly devout, Pier Giorgio defying expectations became devout as a child and continued into adulthood.  He became a Lay Dominican, secretly helped the poor, and continuously evangelized both by example and by conversation.  He started religious associations and politically supported the Catholic social doctrine.  He went to school to become a mining engineer where his ambition was to help the poor, hardworking miners.  He loved reading the Bible, Catholic theology, and literature.  You can see how many commonalities I have with him to make him endearing to me.

He was an outdoorsman and a mountain climber, and one of his favorite expressions was "Verso l'alto.” which means to “toward the top.”  There is a pun there with the literal meaning to climb to the top of the mountain while the analogous meaning being to climb to heaven.  Pope St. John Paul II dubbed him the “Man of the Beatitudes” because he embodied them all.  He was at the center of a wonderful group of friends who he loved, spiritually guided, and enjoyed coordinating activities and fun.  To some he has been mentioned as the patron saint of friendship.  I certainly treat him as such and entrust in him the spiritual wellbeing of all my friends.

Pier Giorgio died young at the age of 24.  He contracted polio by being in the company of needy people and died after a very short period.  His day of passing was on July 4^th, 1925, which means that this will be the 100^th anniversary of his passing.

You can read much more about him and his life at the website devoted to him, Frassati.  

On the website you will find a novena prayer, and if you start the novena on Wednesday, June 25^th—tomorrow as per the posting of this piece—you will finish the ninth day on July 3^rd, and final tenth on his feast day, July 4^th.  The novena fittingly centers on the beatitudes.  Here is the novena.

Day 1

Jesus says: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

 

Pier Giorgio responds: “The faith given to me in Baptism surely suggests to me that of yourself you will do nothing; but if you have God as the center of all your actions, then you will reach the goal.”

 

We pray: Blessed Pier Giorgio, teach me true poverty of spirit. Help me understand that God cares for me; and that He asks me, in return, to care for others, especially those in need. Guide me to make choices in my life which will show a preference for service of God and neighbor, rather than accumulating financial wealth and social advantage for myself. Give me a special love for the poor and the sick. (Repeated each day)

 

Blessed Pier Giorgio, I ask for your intercession in obtaining from God, Who is the Lover of the poor, all the graces necessary for my spiritual and temporal welfare. I confidently turn to you for help in my present need: (mention your request.)  (Repeated each day)

Day 2

Jesus says: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

 

Pier Giorgio responds: “Our life, in order to be Christian, has to be a continual renunciation, a continual sacrifice. But this is not difficult, if one thinks what these few years passed in suffering are, compared with eternal happiness where joy will have no measure or end, and where we shall have unimaginable peace.”

 

Repeat the last two paragraphs.

Day 3

Jesus says: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

 

Pier Giorgio responds: “With violence you sow hatred, and you harvest its bad fruits. With charity, you sow peace among men – not the peace that the world gives, but the true peace that only faith in Jesus Christ can give us in common brotherhood.”

 

Repeat the last two paragraphs.

Day 4

Jesus says: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

 

Pier Giorgio responds: “What wealth it is to be in good health, as we are! But we have the duty of putting our health at the service of those who do not have it. To act otherwise would be to betray that gift of God.”

 

Repeat the last two paragraphs.

Day 5

Jesus says: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”

 

Pier Giorgio responds: “St. Paul says that “the charity of Christ urges us.” Without this flame, which should burn out our personality little by little and blaze only for other people’s griefs, we would not be Christian, let alone Catholic.”

Repeat the last two paragraphs.

Day 6

Jesus says: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

 

Pier Giorgio responds: “I beg you to pray for me a little, so that God may give me an iron will that does not bend and does not fail in His projects.”

 

Repeat the last two paragraphs.

Day 7

Jesus says: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.”

 

Pier Giorgio responds: “I offer you my best wishes – or, rather, only one wish, but the only wish that a true friend can express for a dear friend: may the peace of the Lord be with you always! For, if you possess peace every day, you will be truly rich.”

 

Repeat the last two paragraphs.

Day 8

Jesus says: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

 

Pier Giorgio responds: “To live without faith, without a patrimony to defend, without a steady struggle for truth – that is not living, but existing.”

 

Repeat the last two paragraphs.

Day 9

Jesus says: “Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.”

 

Pier Giorgio responds: “We who by the grace of God are Catholics must steel ourselves for the battle we shall certainly have to fight to fulfill our program and to give our country, in the not too distant future, happier days and a morally healthy society. But to achieve this we need constant prayer to obtain from God that grace without which all our powers are useless.”

 

Repeat the last two paragraphs.

On the tenth day, it is recommended you pray the Litany of Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati.

Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy. Christ, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

 

God our Father in heaven, have mercy on us.

God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.

God the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.

Holy Trinity, One God, have mercy on us.

 

Holy Mary, pray for us.

All the angels and saints, pray for us.

 

Blessed Pier Giorgio, pray for us. (Repeat after each invocation.)

Loving son and brother,

Support of family life,

Friend of the friendless,

Most Christian of companions,

Leader of youth,

Helper of those in need,

Teacher of charity,

Patron of the poor,

Comfort of the sick,

Athlete for God’s kingdom,

Conqueror of life’s mountains,

Defender of truth and virtue,

Opponent of every injustice,

Patriotic citizen of the nation,

Loyal son of the Church,

Devoted child of the Madonna,

Ardent adorer of the Eucharist,

Fervent student of the Scriptures,

Dedicated follower of St. Dominic,

Apostle of prayer and fasting,

Guide to a deep love for Jesus,

Diligent in work and study,

Joyful in all of life’s circumstances,

Strong in safeguarding chastity,

Silent in pain and suffering,

Faithful to the promises of Baptism,

Model of humility,

Example of detachment,

Mirror of obedience,

Man of the Beatitudes,

 

Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

 

Pray for us, Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

 

Let us pray: Father, You gave to the young Pier Giorgio Frassati the joy of meeting Christ and of living his faith in service of the poor and the sick. Through his intercession, may we, too, walk the path of the Beatitudes and follow the example of his generosity, spreading the spirit of the Gospel in society. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Our entire Province of Lay Dominicans have been asked to pray this novena this week.  You don’t have to be a Lay Dominican to pray it.  If you want to entrust your friends to a patron saint of friendship, I think it would be a good idea.

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati pray for us.

Sunday Meditation: The Mystery of Christ’s Body and Blood

Last week we celebrated the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity.  This week we follow it up with the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, otherwise known as the Solemnity of Corpus Christi.  This feast was inspired by a Norbertine canoness who was later canonized as St. Juliana of Liège.  She had visions of Eucharistic adoration and was able to convince her local bishops to institute a local feast on the Body and Blood of Christ.  One of those bishops would eventually become Pope Urban IV.  In 1264 Pope Urban instituted the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ as a universal feast for the Church.  He asked Thomas Aquinas to compose the liturgical prayers for the new feast.  In addition to the prayers, Aquinas composed some of the most beautiful hymns on the Eucharist that we sing even today.  That’s the short version of how the feast came about.  If you want to read the entire history from St. Juliana to Pope Urban to St. Thomas Aquinas, this article at The Pillar is the most comprehensive.  

For the Gospel on this feast in Year C, we read from St. Luke’s version of the feeding of the five thousand. 

 

Jesus spoke to the crowds about the kingdom of God,

and he healed those who needed to be cured.

As the day was drawing to a close,

the Twelve approached him and said,

"Dismiss the crowd

so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms

and find lodging and provisions;

for we are in a deserted place here."

He said to them, "Give them some food yourselves."

They replied, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have,

unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people."

Now the men there numbered about five thousand.

Then he said to his disciples,

"Have them sit down in groups of about fifty."

They did so and made them all sit down.

Then taking the five loaves and the two fish,

and looking up to heaven,

he said the blessing over them, broke them,

and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.

They all ate and were satisfied.

And when the leftover fragments were picked up,

they filled twelve wicker baskets.

   ~Lk 9:11-17

 

Fr. Geoffrey Plant provides a thorough understanding of the Solemnity’s significance. 

 

So the key takeaway is that Christ’s exhorting us to “remembrance” of His institution of the Eucharist is not just a recall to memory.  It is the making present of a past event, which in this case is the Last Supper’s institution of the Eucharist, the sacrifice at Calvary, and the Resurrection of our Lord.

The pastoral homily comes from Fr. Patrick Briscoe O.P. from Our Sunday Visitor. 

 

Are you satisfied when you receive the Body and Blood? 

 

Sunday Meditation: They all ate and were satisfied.

 

For the hymn, it is tradition to sing the Corpus Christ Sequence between the second reading and the Gospel.  Here in the original Latin composed by St. Thomas Aquinas.  

 

Here are the first few stanzas.

 

Lauda Sion Salvatórem

Lauda ducem et pastórem

In hymnis et cánticis.

 

Quantum potes, tantum aude:

Quia major omni laude,

Nec laudáre súfficis.

 

Laudis thema speciális,

Panis vivus et vitális,

Hódie propónitur.

 

Quem in sacræ mensa cœnæ,

Turbæ fratrum duodénæ

Datum non ambígitur.

You can find all the lyrics with their translation at the Wikipedia entry I linked above.

If you wish to hear it in English, this chant is well done.

 

 

Sunday Meditation: The Mystery of God’s Being

We closed the Easter season with the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday, and we return to Ordinary Time with the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity.  How fitting.  We have known the Father; we have met the Son; we have received the Holy Spirit.  Now we put them all together to understand—or at least intuit—the mystery of God’s being.  For the reading in Year C, we hear Jesus words at the Farewell Discourse from the Gospel of John on how the Holy Spirit will lead the apostles.

 

Jesus said to his disciples:

"I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.

But when he comes, the Spirit of truth,

he will guide you to all truth.

He will not speak on his own,

but he will speak what he hears,

and will declare to you the things that are coming.

He will glorify me,

because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.

Everything that the Father has is mine;

for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine

and declare it to you."

   ~Jn 16:12-15

Instead of a homily today to explain the Trinity, I want to present an episode (“The Persons of the Trinity”) from Aquinas 101, the Dominican Friar set of lectures on the Catholic faith as explained by St. Thomas Aquinas.  Here Fr. Dominic Legge O.P. explains the Trinity as the “mystery of God in Himself.”

 

Contemplating the Trinity, as Fr. Dominic explains quoting St. Thomas, “elevates our spirits so that our minds get some glimpse of the highest truth.”  So I hope you sit back with the Trinity today and absorb the concept with joy.

 

For the pastoral homily, I return to Fr. Peter Hahn.

Fr. Hahn quotes Pope Francis: “The word mercy reveals the very mystery of the most Holy Trinity.  Seeing the Father who only wants to forgive his wayward children, the Son in the His ultimate and supreme act of His love on the cross which offers to us the forgiveness of our sins, and the Holy Spirit dwelling in the heart of every person looks sincerely into the eyes of his brothers and sisters on their shared path of life.”

 

Sunday Meditation: “When he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.”

 

How about this Catholic classic for today’s hymn, which I bet you sung at Mass today, “Holy, Holy, Holy.”

 

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!

Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.

Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty!

God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!

 

Have a blessed Sunday with the Trinity and Happy Father’s Day.

 

In Memoriam: Dr. Water Brueggemann

I was saddened to find out that last week on June 5^th Dr. Walter Brueggemann, the Protestant theologian, teacher, and scholar of the Old Testament passed away.  From the obituary titled, “Died: Walter Brueggemann, Scholar of Prophetic Imagination,” by Yonat Shimron of the Religious News Service in Christianity Today: 

 

Walter Brueggemann, one of the most widely respected Bible scholars of the past century, died on June 5 at his home in Michigan. He was 92.

 

The author of more than 100 books of theology and biblical criticism, Brueggemann was professor emeritus of Old Testament studies at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, until his retirement in 2003.

 

His specialty was the Hebrew Bible and especially the Hebrew prophets, and his books were aimed primarily at clergy and church leaders. But through sermons, Brueggemann’s concepts, have become familiar to many churchgoers.

I was introduced to Walter Brueggemann by a Protestant friend of mine where she suggested I read Brueggemann’s most well-known work, The Prophetic Imagination.  I did just that and was quite drawn in, and had intended to write a post on it.  I had started that post but had to set it aside.  The theme of my post was going to be a rebuttal to Dr. Brueggemann, a rebuttal not in any Catholic/Protestant disagreement but on his social reading of the Old Testament.  To put it succinctly, Brueggemann is on the socially liberal side of the church divide in a sort of 1970s sympathy with religious church activists.  In the Catholic world, Dorothy Day would be a similar figure, as would I think Pope Francis. 

To be sure, I am not critical of social activists who live out the Gospel.  The world needs more people like Walter Brueggemann and Dorothy Day fighting for the poor, the under privileged, and the alienated.  You can read my memorial poston the passing of Pope Francis where I highlighted just that about him.  My disagreement with Brueggemann was over how he shoe-horned Old Testament history to support his social activist philosophy.  It was more of a conservative/liberal disagreement than a denominational one.  I found Mr. Brueggemann actually to be quite sympathetic to things Catholic.  In The Prophetic Imagination Brueggemann lists among his historical “three towering prophetic figures,” Bartolomé de las Casas  (the other two being Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King, Jr.), the Catholic priest and Dominican friar who defend the natural rights of the Native Americans in the 16th century from the rapacious New World explorers.  He is sometimes looked at as the first social activist of the modern world.  That a Protestant would even have known of de las Casas was a bit surprising to me; that he would list him as one of his three all-time heroes in history is heartwarming.

I had started that post on Brueggemann’s The Prophetic Imagination almost two years ago but I had to set it aside.  First, who am I to rebut an Old Testament scholar, and one of Walter Brueggemann’s stature?  I had read the OT but could I bring up OT history to support my argument?  I had to re-read major parts of the OT to find supporting warrants for my claims.  So I have been reading major parts of the OT for past two years.  And not too long ago I had determined I was ready to go back to that essay and challenge Brueggemann.  So yesterday I did a search for Brueggemann to see if he had been active in any way only to find he had died last week.  Well, he lived a good long life.  May he rest in peace.  I am now more determined than ever to write that essay!  I must admit that in my re-reading of the OT with Dr. Brueggemann’s thoughts in mind, I have found him to be more correct than I thought.  So my essay will not be so much a rebuttal but a qualification.  Enough on that.  Let’s get to a memorial for Walter Brueggemann.

###

Walter Brueggemann was born in Nebraska in 1933 to a pastor of the German Evangelical Synod of North America.  He went on to seminary himself and became a pastor himself (ordained in the United Church of Christ), and then a scholar and theologian.  Over his life, he was a renown teacher at Eden Theological Seminary and at Columbia Theological Seminary.  His Wikipedia entry says he wrote over 58 books (his obituary said over 100!) and hundreds of articles and commentary.  He was a giant in his field.  Since I am not really up on the nuances of Brueggemann’s thought I collected a number of short YouTube clips to capture his importance and give you a feel for the man.

This video recollection by this Jeremy Duncan at Commons Church summarizes the importance of Walter Brueggemann’s work.

 

I thought that he captured Brueggemann’s thought here very nicely.  You can see how a conservative might look askance at some of that but I think Brueggemann is more mainstream than appears. 

Here is an outline of his great work, The Prophetic Imagination.

 

Yes, you can see how this is solidly on the left side of politics, but I have to admit his connections with the Old Testament prophets are solid.  Wait for my essay qualifying his thesis!

There are so many YouTube video clips of Brueggemann for people to sample.  He became quite an internet celebrity in his old age.  Here is Brueggemann himself explaining how one should read the calls for vengeance in the psalms.  Notice his distinctive raspy voice and pizazz as an orator.

 

Isn’t that right!  His exegesis is traditional.  Perhaps his social implementation of the Gospel might be more radical, but so was Mother Teresa’s.  After watching a number of his interviews and video clips, Brueggemann began to feel grandfatherly to me.  Here he is delivering a sermon on Exodus but tying it into today’s society. 

 

That was really good.  Finally to end with just a single quote from The Prophetic Imagination, I pick this.

 

“It is the vocation of the prophet to keep alive the ministry of imagination, to keep on conjuring and proposing future alternatives to the single one the king wants to urge as the only thinkable one.”

Eternal rest onto you Walter Brueggemann, and may eternal light from the face of God shine upon you.   

Sunday Meditation: Pentecost Sunday

We close the Easter season with Pentecost Sunday.  There are several readings that one can choose from.  I am going to select this short one from John’s Gospel, chapter 14.  I found that as I surveyed the homilies, it doesn’t matter much which is the reading.  The homilists all preach on the descent of the Holy Spirit and what that means in you.  If you’re interested in the Jewish roots of the Holy Spirit, I included in last year’s meditation on Pentecost an explanation by Dr. Brant Pitre.  

In one of today’s possible Gospel readings, Jesus explains how on His departure the Father will send the Holy Spirit down.

 

Jesus said to his disciples:

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

And I will ask the Father,

and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always.

 

"Whoever loves me will keep my word,

and my Father will love him,

and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.

Those who do not love me do not keep my words;

yet the word you hear is not mine

but that of the Father who sent me.

 

"I have told you this while I am with you.

The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything

and remind you of all that I told you."

   ~Jn 14:15-16, 23-26

 

Fr. Joseph Mary of the Franciscan Capuchins in his A Simple Word podcast provides a great homily.

There is a lot of information in there, but that empty glove illustration is phenomenal.  You can think of the rest of the homily as the Holy Spirit being the hand that slides into us to do the will of God.  That is so memorable.

For the pastoral homily I turn to Bishop Robert Barron, who skips any explanation of the Holy Spirit’s descent—he’s probably done it repeatedly over the years—for an explanation of the fruits of the Holy Spirit.  For this Bishop Barron want you to turn to Galatians 5:22 on.  I’m going to quote it here for you to have handy.  I am going to highlight the nine fruits.

In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.  Now those who belong to Christ [Jesus] have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit.  Let us not be conceited, provoking one another, envious of one another. (Gal 5:22-26)

 

Now combining, Fr. Joseph Mary’s glove analogy with Bishop Barron explanation for the fruits, we can see that just as the hand goes into the glove so it can pick up the book, the Holy Spirit goes into us allowing us to perform these nine fruits.

 

Sunday Meditation: The Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything.

 

For the hymn, let’s turn to John Michael Talbot’s beautiful, “Come Holy Spirit.”

 

“For without your grace, all turns to ill.”