I thought I’d use this 7 posts in 7 days challenge
to explain the picture I have as my background and why I chose it.
This picture depicts Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati mountain
climbing. And now, a little about Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati thanks to www.catholic.org:
He was born in Turin into a wealthy family, who owned a newspaper called La Stampa. Though an average student, Frassati was known among his peers for his devotion and piety.
He was dedicated to works of social action, charity, prayer and community. He was involved with Catholic youth and student groups, the Apostleship of Prayer, Catholic Action, and was a third order Dominican. He would often say, "Charity is not enough; we need social reform." He helped establish a newspaper entitled Momento, whose principles were based on Pope Leo XIII's encyclical: Rerum Novarum.
Despite his family's enormous wealth and power, Frassati's father was austere and never gave his children too much spending money. Frassati, however, donated most or all of his money to people he saw as more "needy" than him, and as a result he became accustomed to giving his train-fare to the poor and running back home or riding in third class.
Despite the many organizations to which Frassati belonged, he was not a passive "joiner"; records show that he was active and involved in each, fulfilling all the duties of membership. He was strongly anti-fascist and did nothing to hide his political views.
Participating in a Church-organized demonstration in Rome, he withstood police violence and rallied the other young people by grabbing the banner which the police had knocked out of someone else's hands. He held it even higher while using the pole to ward off their blows. When the demonstrators were arrested by the police, he refused special treatment that he might have received because of his father's political position, preferring to stay with his friends. One night a group of fascists broke into his family's home to attack him and his father, but Frassati beat them off single-handedly chasing them down the street.
Frassati died in 1925 of poliomyelitis. His family expected Turin's elite and political figures to come to offer their condolences and attend the funeral; they naturally expected to find many of his friends there as well. They were surprised, however, to find the streets of the city lined with thousands of mourners as the cortege passed by. Poor people from the city petitioned the Archbishop of Turin to begin the cause for canonization. The process was opened in 1932 and he was beatified on 20 May 1990. Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati's feast day is 4 July.Frassati was called Man of Eight Beatitudes by Pope John Paul II, who beatified him. (Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati)
I explained my purpose in choosing my title in my first post.
Living out vertical wildness is all about taking what we’re given in this life,
creation, man’s creation and taking full advantage of it and living a full
life, but without losing sight of our destination, heaven, eternity, union with
God. Christopher West continues on in “Fill These Hearts”:
“Recall the distinction we made previously between horizontal and vertical wildness. As “wild” as the horizontal variety might get, it is of its very nature limited. It loses all order in its hopeless and frantic search for infinite bliss in the realm of finite pleasures. Vertical Wildness, on the other hand, without losing order, loses measure because it launches us into infinity. Vertical wildness is a rock that-through much struggle, discipline, and a radical openness to divine grace-has found its true target, adjusted its trajectory, and thus it can launch with all its firepower without fear of missing the mark.”
We should take
initiative to live our earthly lives aimed heavenward. We should live the cross
(horizontal and vertical). When someone lives wildly in the horizontal/earthly
aspect of life they are overindulging in earthly pleasures and making them
their means and ends (1 Cor 6:9-10 "Or do you not know that
wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the
sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor homosexual
offenders, nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor
swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were."
See also: Gal 5:19-21, Ephesians 5:3-6, Revelation 22:12-16, Matthew 25:41-46) To
live vertically means to have God as our end, our destination, growing holier
and holier everyday with the hope of one day being in heaven with him for
eternity.
From what we know of Bl. Frassati’s life, he lived a
vertically wild life, a cruciform life. He was involved with the pleasures and activities of this
life being and outdoorsman skiing and mountain climbing, but he was also
involved in youth organizations and in politics. He wasn’t even afraid of
defending himself with his strength. And at the same time he was an extremely
devout Catholic man. Even though his parents weren’t devout he somehow found a
love for God seeking out Eucharistic adoration as a very young man. He was even
known to attend mass before or after his expeditions in the mountains. Many
people feel that they have to separate their faith life and their social life. With
the right destination in mind they can and should be integrated with the
vertical affecting how the horizontal is spent. Bl. Frassati is a great example
of this.
The quote on the picture says “Verso l’alto” which he wrote
himself. It is usually translated “to the heights”. Bl. Frassati lived a life
aimed towards the heights. Bl. Frassati ended up dying a month after this
picture was taken and the climb ended up being his last.
“Our life, in order to be Christian, has to be a continual renunciation, a continual sacrifice. But this is not difficult, if one thinks what these few years passed in suffering are, compared with eternal happiness where joy will have no measure or end, and where we shall have unimaginable peace.” – Blessed Giorgio Frassati
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