Chapter Three
1. “You have beautiful qualities”, began Father Pezzana, and “you could use them to do good”. The boy Piamarta was kind, swift and decisive: “Yes, I would like to become a priest, but I'm poor and I would not know how to do it”. “We will find a solution. Meanwhile, start to study. I will be your teacher.” Father Pancrazio Pezzana instructed. And he kept his word. He became John's teacher. Providentially, Father Pezzana had all the necessary qualifications, titles, and experience. He obtained all the books for young Piamarta and found a sponsor, an anonymous benefactress, who agreed to pay for his studies from beginning to end.
2. In the meantime, the political movement advancing the unification of the independent provinces of Italy was growing. Fierce passions ignited and revolts and demonstrations ensued including the famous “ten days” in which Brescia participated. In 1859 a few kilometers from the city the terrible battles of San Martino and Solferino were being fought with new lethal weapons which produced a frightful massacre. Thousands of injured refugees flooded the church in Brescia. Among the volunteers who came to assist was young Piamarta, generous and active like always, and by now eighteen years old. In this relationship with the wounded, he learned a little french and he grew in his humanity.
3. Generous and active, he had to face many difficulties. First, his studies were so demanding for him he was often afraid of not making the grade. Console yourselves students, young Piamarta had to sweat a lot at school. He had to earn his marks from the professors by an unwavering determination to succeed. He was not first in his class due to any lack of hard work. Instead, he had to read and reread, study and then review each book just to stay in the middle rank. He had a practical intelligence that lent more to concrete solutions than high philosophical or theological speculations. Nevertheless, he wanted to reach the goal at all costs, and if he needed to study, he studied. He always held firm to his intention of reaching the goal and had the good sense to pay the necessary price.
4. There were also other difficulties, the one of youth; he passed everything. He was afraid to be unworthy of the great ideal towards which he was going, and which sometimes seemed impossible to him, reserved for people better than himself. He felt far from what he wanted to be. One day he showed up at Father Pezzana's and told him he was in difficulty. “Do you like girls”, asked the priest. “Yes”, the boy answered, unarmed by the straight forward question. “Well, if Our Lord asks you, would you be willing to give up love for “The Love”? After long pause, “If He helps me, I will stay all in with Him”answered young Piamarta. Father Pezzana continued, “If the One-Who-is-Everything asks you for your little lot it is because He wants to give you His big lot”. “From that moment, it all seemed easier to me, I felt free, I felt like flying” the future Father Piamarta would later confide.
5. In the meantime, he became acquainted with a charming personality, a very nice saint and friend of young boys, Saint Philip Neri. Saint Philip Neri had lived in Rome three centuries before. Little by little John Baptist read his famous “maxims” and became acquainted with his way of doing things. Young John realized he was very small, like a dwarf in the presence of a giant. But he knew that if a dwarf jumps on the shoulders of a giant he can see further. “I would like to be like Saint Philip Neri, a Saint who could live with the young and make virtue pleasant and appealing to them.” Saint Philip Neri was one who permitted the young to be young, not encouraging them to be old in the spirit but helping them to face life with courage and joy.
2. In the meantime, the political movement advancing the unification of the independent provinces of Italy was growing. Fierce passions ignited and revolts and demonstrations ensued including the famous “ten days” in which Brescia participated. In 1859 a few kilometers from the city the terrible battles of San Martino and Solferino were being fought with new lethal weapons which produced a frightful massacre. Thousands of injured refugees flooded the church in Brescia. Among the volunteers who came to assist was young Piamarta, generous and active like always, and by now eighteen years old. In this relationship with the wounded, he learned a little french and he grew in his humanity.
3. Generous and active, he had to face many difficulties. First, his studies were so demanding for him he was often afraid of not making the grade. Console yourselves students, young Piamarta had to sweat a lot at school. He had to earn his marks from the professors by an unwavering determination to succeed. He was not first in his class due to any lack of hard work. Instead, he had to read and reread, study and then review each book just to stay in the middle rank. He had a practical intelligence that lent more to concrete solutions than high philosophical or theological speculations. Nevertheless, he wanted to reach the goal at all costs, and if he needed to study, he studied. He always held firm to his intention of reaching the goal and had the good sense to pay the necessary price.
4. There were also other difficulties, the one of youth; he passed everything. He was afraid to be unworthy of the great ideal towards which he was going, and which sometimes seemed impossible to him, reserved for people better than himself. He felt far from what he wanted to be. One day he showed up at Father Pezzana's and told him he was in difficulty. “Do you like girls”, asked the priest. “Yes”, the boy answered, unarmed by the straight forward question. “Well, if Our Lord asks you, would you be willing to give up love for “The Love”? After long pause, “If He helps me, I will stay all in with Him”answered young Piamarta. Father Pezzana continued, “If the One-Who-is-Everything asks you for your little lot it is because He wants to give you His big lot”. “From that moment, it all seemed easier to me, I felt free, I felt like flying” the future Father Piamarta would later confide.
5. In the meantime, he became acquainted with a charming personality, a very nice saint and friend of young boys, Saint Philip Neri. Saint Philip Neri had lived in Rome three centuries before. Little by little John Baptist read his famous “maxims” and became acquainted with his way of doing things. Young John realized he was very small, like a dwarf in the presence of a giant. But he knew that if a dwarf jumps on the shoulders of a giant he can see further. “I would like to be like Saint Philip Neri, a Saint who could live with the young and make virtue pleasant and appealing to them.” Saint Philip Neri was one who permitted the young to be young, not encouraging them to be old in the spirit but helping them to face life with courage and joy.
Traduzione a cura di Mary Levine e Matteo Toschi
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