Day 70. A Great Grace
It is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
With his baseball cap turned backwards to the wind the young man gave a shout and pumped hard on the pedals of his bike, accelerating across the parking lot and down the hill away from his summer job at the local ice cream store. The July humidity had given way to an ocean breeze and the air was pleasantly cool for the first time in a week. Not much was happening on this quiet Thursday night in small town New England.
The biker zigzagged down the road like a moth dancing in the glow of a streetlight. His enthusiasm was high. “Mel loved me!” Mel, Mary Ellen, was the attractive captain of the high school cheerleaders and his co-worker. He knew he had been “on” tonight. Every joke was just right and every wisecrack got a laugh. Not only Mel but everyone had enjoyed him. The customers were entertained and his buddies who stopped by roared. Everybody loved the man who seldom escaped the painful press of his own insecurity.
Banking sharply onto Broad Rock Road, he turned his attention to the steep hill that made the ride home more than a casual effort. He downshifted to a comfortable gear, bent forward over the handlebars and began the winding ascent. He pushed and puffed his way slowly to a level stretch where the road took a slight bend to the left and continued upward.
Finding a comfortable rhythm, he returned to thoughts of himself. He pictured a future in entertainment – up on stage somewhere or maybe appearing on a late-night TV show. The crowds would love him. He imagined being recognized whenever he went out in public.
At the next bend there came a short, steep section where the road turned fully to the north and ran in a straightaway along the western boundary of a Catholic youth camp. In the moonlight, he saw the old shrine – an outdoor chapel to Our Lady built into a hill; used more for play (a perfect sledding site) than for prayer in the years of his youth.
A new thought came to him, lifting the cloud of conceit: “There is nothing I have that has not been given.” His gifts were just that – gifts given to him by a loving God. With the turn in the road came a change of heart and the grace of a new gratitude that dawned with sudden clarity.
With a final push he crested the hill and, shifting gears, burst into a frenzy of pedaling, hurtling home at top speed. The wind rumbled in his ears as pools of light from passing street lamps flitted beneath his wheels.
Into the driveway he sailed, stopping with a squeal of the breaks inches from the garage door. He knew his father would be inside watching the end of the Red Sox game.
But tonight he didn’t go in.
Leaning his bike against the side of the house, the young man walked across the street and ducked under a chain at the entrance to an open field. The full moon hung like a silver disk in the night sky clothing the landscape with blue serenity.
He looked up and examined the moon. A perfect circle. Bright, crisp, clear. Its shape suggested a completeness and fullness that mirrored his sense of gratitude. Total self-gift.
“To whom much is given, much is expected.” Somewhere he had heard this, or read it. Maybe in the Bible, he thought. Tonight it held a new meaning.
“You have given me all I have,” he prayed, “You have made me all that I am. I offer myself back to you completely, Lord. I don’t know what this means, but I give you myself…all of myself, for whatever purpose you see fit.” With one final glance at the night sky he headed home and thought no more about his prayer.
Eight years later the same man was seated at a banquet in honor of those, he among them, who had made their first simple vows of consecrated chastity, poverty and obedience in a religious community. Perfectly framed in a window high in the wall behind the head table was a full moon. He saw and remembered, for the first time since he had spoken it, the prayer in the field. Total gift. He had not realized the meaning of his prayer or the significance of the grace of gratitude he had received. Now he understood.
The following day he knelt at Mass as the priest elevated the host. Again his heart was moved as he recognized the perfect circle of the host. Crisp, clean, complete. Total gift. His own offering, he realized, was a love response to the love-gift of Christ. His heart was filled with joy. “Thank you Lord. Thank you for leading me to make this response to your perfect, total self-gift.”
What then is the right response to the gift of Christ’s love? What will I offer him of my life? Will he have the leftovers or the lion’s share? My crumbs or my crown? Such are the central questions of this final stage of the Novena.
Novena Prayer
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.
Let us Pray: Blessed Pier Giorgio, despite your daily struggles, you found peace by fostering your own well being in work, study and play; in prayer alone and with others; in silence and in song, in laughter and in serious conversation with friends. Guide me to that inner peace which will enable me to share peace with others.
Blessed Pier Giorgio, I ask for your intercession in obtaining from God, Who is our peace, all the graces necessary for my spiritual and temporal welfare. I confidently turn to you for help in my present need:
(in your own words, ask for the Lord to give you greater gratitude for the graces and gifts you have received from him.)
A Book of Prayers in Honor of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, by Rev. Timothy E. Deeter
Make it My Own
Daily Discernment Workbook
WORLD VIEWS
1. What Profit?
We turn now in our novena to the subjects of self-gift, discernment and vocation. Having considered the Mall and the Temple as two ways of arranging our relationships, we can gain insight when we apply what we learned to the call to serve God. The following chart compares two stories of men who pursue a vocation to priesthood. To the outside observer, they may have many similarities, especially in the early stages. Over time the differences become clear.
In the example of the first priest (the Mall model) what need do I identify at each stage of his life?
A. In high school the need he’s meeting seems to be…
B. In college the need is…
C. After college the need is…
D. In seminary the need is…
E. In the parish the need is…
F. Years later the need is…
None of these needs are invalid, only insufficient. Why are they not enough to enable this man to fulfill the demands of priesthood?
The example of the second priest (the Temple model) is not someone we’d pick out as a likely candidate for a life of service, at least not in the early going. What qualities emerge over time that reveal a better set of motives? List at least three.
SAINTS SAID IT
2. The Evil of Ingratitude
It seems to me in the light of the Divine Goodness…that ingratitude is one of the things most worthy of detestation before our Creator and Lord, and before all those creatures capable of his divine and everlasting glory, out of all the evils and sins which can be imagined. For it is a failure to recognize the good things, the graces, and the gifts received. As such, it is the cause, beginning, and origin of all evils and sins. On the contrary, recognition and gratitude for the good things and gifts received is greatly loved and esteemed both in heaven and on earth…
St. Ignatius of Loyola, letter to Fr. Simón Rodrigues, 1542
Do I live my life like a disgruntled customer? How often do I find myself grumbling ungratefully and complaining about my own troubles while ignoring the wealth of God’s blessings? Examples?
What practical steps can I take to make my daily life a “living thanksgiving”?
A QUOTE TO NOTE
3. The Total Gift of the Eucharist
In contemplating the Holy Eucharist we see the total, nothing-held-back love of Jesus for us. Author Hubert Van Zeller describes the extent of God’s love.
Love is God’s gift to us in the Holy Eucharist. This is because God is Love and He gives Himself to us. When we read that our Lord “loved His own to the end” we are to understand not only that He loved His own till the end of His life but, and more significantly, to the furthest possible limit. He could not have given to man a greater gift than that which was Love Itself. In Holy Communion we receive the All. God in His entirety comes to man.
Dom Hubert Van Zeller, The Inner Search, Sheed and Ward Inc. 1957
I take a moment to prayerfully recall the last time at mass I saw the priest elevate the host at the consecration. Placing myself back in this scene, I offer, in my own words, my thanksgiving to Jesus for what he has given me in this holy sacrifice.
[I may choose to write in my journal if I need more space.]
Conclude with
“Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be.
World without end, Amen.”
[1] Letters Papers from Prison, 1953, 1997, Simon and Schuster