Today is July 15, the Memorial of Saint Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church.
We read at Mass today, “But I am afflicted and in pain; let your saving help, O God, protect me; I will praise the name of God in song, and I will glorify him with thanksgiving” (Ps 69:29-20).
What’s so striking is the movement of this prayer — from sorrow to praise, from affliction to thanksgiving — all in a single breath. That’s the rhythm of the Christian life: suffering and trust held together by the grace of faith.
Today also marks the final reflection in our series on the interior life of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. And what better day to reflect on how suffering and faith were interwoven in his heart?
Frassati knew suffering intimately. He endured spiritual trials and deep anguish over the injustices of the world. In a letter to a friend, he wrote, “Imagine now, when my soul is going through this crisis, I had the misfortune of not believing… Life would not be worth a moment longer, and death alone would be the healer of all human suffering.”
Enduring amid adversity
Those are sobering words. And yet he did believe, and that belief changed everything. His faith gave shape to the pain. It gave purpose to the purification. In another letter, he remarked, “With every day that passes, I grow more and more convinced of how ugly the world is… and unfortunately, of how it is the good who suffer the most.”
So many of us know what he means. The good often suffer deeply not because God is indifferent but because, in his mysterious love, he calls the upright to be purified, to be conformed to Christ in a radical way. And the only way to endure that? Belief. Faith. The confidence that God is at work — even in the darkness.
If you’re going through a time of trial today, hear this: Blessed Pier Giorgio’s faith carried him. It gave him healing and consolation. And it can carry you too.
Let us pray,
Grant, we pray, almighty God, that, just as we celebrate the heavenly birthday of the Bishop Saint Bonaventure, we may benefit from his great learning and constantly imitate the ardor of his charity. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
