Pier Giorgio Frassati. An avalanche of life, upward Imagine a young man in early twentieth-century Turin, born into a very wealthy family, but who preferred moldy attics and the corridors of the Cottolengo, and the homeless people he met in the streets. A boy with exuberant vitality, a true “avalanche of life,” as a friend described him. His name was Pier Giorgio Frassati, a young man from Turin who, a century after his death, is preparing to be proclaimed a saint on September 7, 2025. His brief but luminous life was a passionate testimony to a motto that guided him: “Toward the heights.” This phrase referred not only to his passion for Alpine peaks, but also to the compass of his entire life, constantly directed toward God. “… It was as if the sun had entered” Born into an environment where faith was often reduced to precepts, Pier Giorgio was a mystery of grace, emerging as a cheerful, exuberant, and authentically religious personality. In 1913, after enrolling at the Istituto Sociale dei Padri Gesuiti, his religious horizons broadened. There he learned to place the Eucharist, the daily encounter with Jesus, at the center of his spiritual life: “He spoke of Our Lord and the Eucharist with indescribable enthusiasm. He, who was so cheerful, became someone else when he spoke about spiritual matters. Indeed, when he came into my room, it was as if the sun had entered,” said Father Lombardi, his spiritual director. Friendship: a bond toward eternity Who would not have wanted Pier Giorgio as a friend? Cheerful, good-natured, and always available, he was the “ringleader” of his group, the “Società dei Tipi Loschi.” This association, founded during a mountain outing in 1924, was a place of shared joy and faith. These young Catholic university students called one another by eccentric nicknames, such as “Robespierre” (Pier Giorgio himself), but behind the jokes and mountain trips lay a deep desire to live the faith together, supporting one another through prayer and reminders of God’s presence. Pier Giorgio believed that the surest bond among the “Tipi Loschi” was faith, “the one powerful bond” that unites “all the Tipi Loschi on this earth and in the next”. His capacity for friendship was extraordinary: he saw a friend in everyone he met, from the gardener to the poor person, from the maid to the stationmaster. For him, friends were clear evidence of God’s existence, a gift that could not exist without a Creator. The mountain and the soul: “Toward the Heights” For Pier Giorgio, the mountain was not merely a sport. It was a place to “go and find God at the summit,” where “to contemplate the greatness of the Creator in that pure air.” It was a climb that purified the soul. An iconic photograph depicts him on a mountain, with the words “Upward” written in his own hand, a summary of his life as a journey toward the absolute, toward God. Tireless Apostle of Charity Pier Giorgio’s heart beat for the poor. His charity was not simple activism, but the natural expression of a life centered on Jesus. “Jesus visits me with Communion every morning and I give it back to Him in the humble way I can: visiting His poor.” His entire life was marked by charity. He was an enthusiastic member of the Conferences of Saint Vincent, visiting four or five families a week, bringing baskets of food, clothing, and even elegant outfits for Baptisms or First Communions. He never used a car to deliver the packages, but went on foot, by bicycle, or by tram, always with great respect for people’s dignity: he took off his hat in the homes of the poor. His sister Luciana testified that he was “poorer than the son of our gardener,” because everything he received ended up in the pockets of those in need. The Last “Upward”: Polio and Eternal Joy The Holy Year of 1925 was a true and genuine Via Crucis for Pier Giorgio, marked by suffering and sacrifices, until the sudden onset of illness: suffering from fulminant polio, his initial symptoms were ignored, mistaken for fatigue or rheumatic pain, while at home all the attention was focused on his grandmother, who was dying in those very days. As his body gave way, Pier Giorgio continued to want to study and pray. When the diagnosis finally came, it was too late. On the evening of his death, at 4:00 a.m. on July 4, 1925, he found the strength to cry out: “Will God forgive me, will He forgive me? O Lord, forgive me, forgive me.” “Jesus wants you with Him, Jesus loves you,” the priest beside him told him. A legacy of abundant life “We must never merely get by, but live,” Pier Giorgio used to say; let us follow his example to become avalanches of life and avalanches of faith, capable of illuminating the path of those beside us. DOWNLOAD THE BOOK EXCERPT Pier Giorgio Frassati. An avalanche of life, upward https://hikamika.com/ https://www.drbobbymullins.com/ toto 4d toto slot 4d site martoto https://www.lpm-suam.com/
