The promises of God

The great promises of God prepare us to welcome the vocation that He has thought of for us: the story of Ignazio Beghi.

Beghi Pagani Barrani Dimensioni Grandi
From left to right: Ignazio Beghi, Matteo Pagani and Giovanni Barrani during the celebration for the diaconate and priestly ordinations of last year.

When I told the director of the laboratory in Zurich where I was worked that I was going to leave my doctoral work because I wanted to become a priest, she, without getting frazzled, asked me a single question: “How is it that you have worked this year with such passion if you were not actually interested in having a scientific career?”. Her question immediately made me think about the year that had just passed. Never as in those months had I enjoyed the work of research, but it was also true for my desire to be with my friends, to give myself to build up our community, to speak to everyone about the beauty of Christian life. He was right. Without knowing it, she had grasped the point.

The first time that the thought of the vocation crossed my mind was when I was still a child. During the years of middle school, thanks to a friendship with Fr. Agostino, a priest from my city, I was beginning to more profoundly discover the faith that my family had transmitted to me. One day-I must have been around 12 years old-, when I was saying my prayers, for the first time, this thought came into my head: “How beautiful would it be to give all of my life to Jesus!”. I do not remember what was on my mind at the time. I told nobody about this new dialogue that had begun with God because it was something very precious that I didn’t want to waste. This intuition, discrete and tenacious like a little seed, fell on prepared soil, as only God knows how to do, with great promises.

This thought came into my head: “How beautiful would it be to give all of my life to Jesus!”

The first had arrived from my parents who had given me a promise of a good in life in a very simple and quotidian way: they had always surrounded me with friends. In fact, I grew up in a family of the Movement of Communion and Liberation and it has been a great gift to have been part of this people from a young age.

In my high school years, when I met the friends of GS, I discovered that their same friendship was also being given to me. I began to understand that all of the beautiful things that we were living together were born from the faith. Even if I did not yet understand the connections very well, it was clear that without Christ none of it would have been possible. And so, the face of that Jesus to whom I had, as a child, desired to give my life, began to appear more clear and more fascinating.

The intuition from all those years ago was emerging again in the horizon with greater strength but I did not want to give it credence since I was afraid to lose something. In an attempt to squelch that persistent thought, I took advantage of my time at the university to throw myself head first into studies that I was very passionate about, hoping that time would finally cancel out this idea. I worked hard to get good grades in the hope of continuing my studies abroad. But something in this project, which seemed like it would go smoothly, left me unsatisfied. I knew well what it was. A few months before graduating, Fr. Antonio, known by all as Anas, was named chaplain of Bovisa, the university where I studied. I finally decided to speak with him about what had been agitating in my heart for a while. I perhaps was expecting great words that would resolve everything. Instead, he, with great peace, suggested to me to simply look at points in my life in which I was happy. With this indication from him, I went back to finish university, first in Lausanne, then in Zurich. I began simply to give space to the most profound desires that I had. I saw that while my projects appeared evermore small, my life was being filled with passion and new gladness. So much so that my boss realized that there was something new in my work. When the heart rests on the promises of God, life flowers, in all of its aspects. Little by little, I began to see that long string of fulfilled promises that are like a constellation through my personal history. I had no reason to fear losing something following that invitation made to me as a child: today I know that it was the greatest promise ever made to my life.

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