It was my pleasure to write about Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati’s second miracle for Word on Fire. His canonization hinges on the healing of a seminarian’s Achilles tendon tear—not the kind of injury that seems to call for a miracle.
Some ailments—a terminal cancer, a limb slated for amputation—offer no worldly source of hope. The sufferer requires either the grace of an improbable healing or the grace of knowing his or her pain is united with Christ’s. Gutierrez’s injury didn’t require a miracle—he had a clear, if arduous, path to recovery.
I find the miracle so moving because it is a sign of God’s (and Pier Giorgio’s) tenderness in small things. It is easy to divide our lives into two domains: the parts of our life we need God’s help for, and the bits that can (and maybe should) pass under his notice. Gutierrez’s miracle is an encouragement to lift every part of our day to God, not just the parts that obviously need his help. We don’t have to triage our needs and save only the big ones for God.
God’s grace is not rationed. You can ask for help in the small things without wearing out his patience with your most urgent needs. A habit of turning over the smallest and simplest parts of your life helps foster a lively conviviality in your prayer. If the day is a continuous conversation with God, it (hopefully) is more natural to ask for help with a persistent sin that makes you ashamed than if you were approaching God after a long silence with that heaviness on your heart.