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spiritual crisis

In August 1918, Luigi went through a difficult period. Maria
knew how to welcome and accompany her husband with tact and
delicacy.
«Dear Gino, [...] Jesus is so good and asks only one thing of us,
taking into account our weakness: that we yearn to be better. [...] As
ENGAGEMENT, MATRIMONY AND CHILDREN
long as this desire remains, and you keep Him ardently in your heart,
we are certain that we shall progress. [...] I will always support you,
I will comfort you, I will defend you from the insidious acts of your
enemy. I myself, from earth or from heaven, will present you to God
as something that is mine and He will always help you [...]. I will lend
you, therefore, my own faith; I will extend my hands to you, and you
will use all this to remain upright on the path» .
8
One of her children remembers this period as follows: «Our
father went through a moment of extreme spiritual crisis, linked to
the severe spiritual ascesis undertaken by his wife under the apostolic
impulse of Father Matteo... He allowed himself to be overcome by
a moment of discouragement and ended up being “afraid of God”,
almost as if He were a rival who, by encouraging his wife too high
up, would in a certain way take her away from him.... She helped him
to overcome this obstacle due to nature and to allow that he too be
attracted by the Spirit, in a love that has never become less but which
has found itself increased by the living presence of grace» .
9

luiGi’s spiritual testament

In November 1951, Luigi added these words to his spiritual
testament:
«I hope that God will grant me the grace of final perseverance
in this faith which I feel is so alive today, and which I try to preserve
with consistency in my thoughts and deeds, as I know and as I can» .
10
He died a month later, as the result of a heart attack.

8 Giorgio Papàsogli, Questi borghesi, op. cit., p. 90.
9 Beati Luigi e Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi (27/11/2017), <carlopaola.blogspot.com>.
10 Ibidem.