Blog - June 2013 RSS Feed

Have you ever felt like quitting?  Maybe an exercise program, a novena, a diet plan, music lessons, a sports team, college, a marriage, a job, the Catholic Church, life? 

God's timing is perfect. And so, I should not be surprised that Day Five of the novena this year falls on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul -- one of Pier Giorgio's name days.

A priest friend of  mine describes waking up each morning as "a mini-resurrection."  We should jump up and hit the ground running, he says, rather than hit the snooze button repeatedly.  (He's a morning person!) 

I've always enjoyed the story about when Pier Giorgio's university club hired a guy to repair their billiard table and do a few other things and then got cheated by him.

My mother died quite unexpectedly a few weeks before Christmas in 2002. Faithfully for nearly 11 years, my father has prayed daily at her grave. (The cemetery is not far from our house and it is his routine to stop by on the way home from Mass.)

I hope you've started the novena in honor of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati today.  Day One begins with a challenge that always stretches my faith: to be poor in spirit.