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“All people are born as originals but many die as photocopies.” – Carlo Acutis
The Salesians believe that young people are called to be saints and can achieve holiness even as youth. Don Bosco held up one of his boys at the Oratory in Italy as a model of holiness. His name was Dominic Savio. Dominic achieved a high level of virtue and expressed a real charitable heart when he died at 15 years of age in the 1800s. Don Bosco published a little book about Dominic about a month after he died.
One hundred years later, Dominic was still remembered and was canonized. In fact, today (May 6th) is St. Dominic Savio’s feast day.
Don Bosco challenged the young to an ordinary standard – HOLINESS. It seems like only a few young men and women even bother to aim for that standard these days. A personal relationship with God is ignored by many people in our secular world. A desire to grow in virtue is replaced by a desire to “get stuff” and enjoy selfish gratifications. It’s interesting to see how so many adults (parents, teachers and coaches) only challenge young people to the ordinary standard of being decent. Telling young people to “try to be a bit more respectful” or to “try to stay out of serious trouble” is a minimalist goal. Maybe they themselves no longer have the desire for a deep relationship with God.
We need young people who desire God. Parents and educators can also do better at challenging kids to go higher – Excelsior! Holiness is not an exception for one in a million youth. It is rather God’s call for every young person. Are there any young people left in the world who will take on the challenge of holiness like Savio did? Certainly, there are! There is one who did it rather recently and was beatified. His name was Carlo.
At Archbishop Shaw High School in Marrero, Louisiana, one of our household saints is Dominic Savio. Another of our household saints is Carlo Acutis. I’d like to tell you a little bit about Carlo in this article.
A Boy Named Carlo
It was only 31 years ago Carlo Acutis was born. Now he is Blessed Carlo Acutis. He was born in London on May 3, 1991. His family moved to Milan. He grew up like a normal boy of his generation. His parents were hardworking but practiced little religion. Even though his family taught him Christian values and he attended Catholic schools, they did not go to church often.
God worked in the boy Carlo’s heart. At the age of 7 he received First Communion. He made a personal plan of life. From age 12 until his death he made the following serious commitments and kept them. One was to attend daily Mass, another to pray the Rosary every day, another to go to Confession frequently, yet another to go to Eucharistic Adoration.
Carlo was involved in all the types of things that a boy of his age would normally do. He just learned to do them all with the Love of God! (and perhaps even more). He studied and helped his friends. He played football and video games. He played the saxophone and went with friends to the movies. In all these activities, he still found time to help the poor and needy. None of his extra charity or devotions were “pushed” on him by his parents.
Carlo had hobbies. He surfed the web. He was a great lover of technology. He started a webpage on Eucharistic miracles, which is still up all these years later. He wanted to be an evangelizer/missionary and he firmly believed in using social media to preach, teach and encourage spirituality. As far as love for the Eucharist – he went to Mass every day. Most kids are tired in the morning and the last thing they do is go to Mass before school starts at 7:30 am. Going to Mass spurred him on to work to make Jesus known to everyone. Another famous phrase of his was: “The Eucharist is my highway to heaven.”
Bottom Line: Carlo stepped up to God’s call. His obsession was to become a saint and speak to everyone about holiness.
Bl. Carlo Acutis died on October 12, 2006. Let’s pray that you and I and more young people strive to become saints like Dominic and Carlo did.
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