Celebrating the birthday boy

It's Bl. Pier Giorgo Frassati's birthday today. Every year his niece has a special birthday gift idea for Bl. Pier Giorgio, and for this Year of Faith, she is urging us to renew our baptismal promises. There is a whole ceremony available for it, but I'd just like to share this quote from Bl. Pier Giorgio that his niece includes in her packet:

“Every day that passes by convinces me all the more how bad off the world is, how much misery there is and unfortunately good people are suffering while we who have been given many graces by God have, alas! paid Him back so poorly. It’s a terrible admission which torments my brain, every now and then while I am studying I ask myself: shall I go on trying to lead a good life?  Will I have the good fortune to persevere to the end after all? In this tremendous conflict of doubts the Faith given to me in Baptism suggests to me with a sure voice: “By yourself you can do nothing, but if you have God as the centre of every action of yours you will at last reach your goal” and I’d like to be able to do precisely that and to take as a maxim the saying of St. Augustine: “Lord, our heart is restless until it rests in you.” (to I. Bonini,15.1.1925)

Timely, for sure!

Happy birthday, Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati! Thank you for your continued prayers and witness.