Since we are travellers and pilgrims in the world, let us ever ponder on the end of the road, that is of our life, for the end of our roadway is our home (St Columban, 8th sermon).
Showing posts with label Blessed Carlo Acutis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blessed Carlo Acutis. Show all posts
In the countries where this blog is read the Solemnity of Corpus Christi is celebrated on Sunday 22 June rather than on Thursday 19 June, the Thursday after Trinity Sunday being the traditional day.
Readings(Jerusalem
Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,)
Readings (English
Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland)
GospelLuke 9:11-17 (English Standard
Version, Anglicised)
At that time: Jesus spoke to the crowd of the kingdom of God
and cured those who needed healing. Now the day began to wear away, and the
Twelve came and said to him, ‘Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding
villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, for we are here in
a desolate place.’ But he said to them, ‘You give them something to eat.’ They
said, ‘We have no more than five loaves and two fish — unless we are to go
and buy food for all these people.’ For there were about five thousand men. And
he said to his disciples, ‘Make them sit down in groups of about fifty each.’
And they did so, and made them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and the
two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then he broke
the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And they all
ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up, twelve baskets of
broken pieces.
I've told the story here before of a German woman I met in Canada in 1997. I was visiting Irish friends and through them was invited to give a talk to a prayer group. After the talk I was having coffee with the woman who had gone to Canada from Germany in her younger days. She was a Lutheran then. For a long time she had been thinking of becoming a Catholic but could not take the final step. One weekday afternoon she felt unsettled about this and went for a walk. She happened to be passing a Catholic church and went in to pray. While she was there, a group of teenage boys, around the same age as Blessed Carlo Acutis above who died aged 15, who came into the church went up to the front, genuflected before the Blessed Sacrament, knelt down and prayed silently for a few minutes. Then they got up, genuflected again and went out.
That was the moment of grace for the woman that led her to decide to become a Catholic. God spoke to her through a group of teenage boys whom she didn't know and who, quite possibly, hadn't even noticed her.
Blessed Carlo and Blessed Pier Giorgio had many things in common, though they were born 90 years apart. Both were Italian, though Carlo was born in England but grew up in Italy. Both grew up in affluent families but their parents were not particularly devout Catholics.Yet both from their childhood had a sense of God's love for them and an awareness of the poor whom they helped from their pocket-money and from befriending them. They also developed a life of prayer centred on the Holy Eucharist. Carlo from his young days would visit the Blessed Sacrament on his way to and from school and befriend beggars he met on the way.
Pier Giorgio sometimes spent the whole night in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament during his university days.
Both Pier Giorgio and Carlo died within days of a very painful serious illness being diagnosed, In Pier Giorgio's case polio, which he probably got from a poor woman whom he had been visiting, and in Carlo's case leukaemia.
These two young men truly believed in the presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, body, blood, soul and divinity. They took to heart the words of Jesus in today's Communion Antiphon:Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him(John 6:37). So did the teenage boys in Canada whose quiet faith led the German woman to the Catholic Church and faith in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, the reality that today's feast celebrates.
There is a wealth of material online about these two young men on. The video below is one I have watched a number of times. Each time it has uplifted me and drawn me into prayer.
Carlo Acutis Web Missionary (Original version with subtitles)
Traditional Latin Mass
Second Sunday after Pentecost
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 06-22-2025 if necessary).
GospelMatthew 28:16-20(English Standard
Version, Anglicised)
Now the eleven
disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed
them.And when they saw him they worshipped
him, but some doubted.And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.Go therefore and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,teaching them to observe all that I have
commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the
age.”
Benedictus sit Deus Pater, Unigenitusque Dei Filius, Sanctus quoque Spiritus, quia fecit nobiscum misericordiam suam.
Blest be God the Father, and the Only Begotten Son of God, and also the Holy Spirit, for he has shown us his merciful love.
This is also the Offertory Verse in the Traditional Latin Mass on Trinity Sunday.
Twelve years ago around this time I gave a retreat to a group of Canossian Daughters of Charity in the Philippines. They included four novices and seven professed Sisters, including one from Malaysia. Their foundress, St Magdalene of Canossa bequeathed to the Sisters the mission of 'making Jesus known and loved above all'. This comes from a stance of standing at the foot of the Cross with Mary.
During my talks
each morning I shared many stories of individuals who had made Jesus known to
me, usually with no awareness that they were doing so. Some were persons I
knew. Some are now dead. Some I met only once in passing, never learning their
names. Most were poor. I know that my stories triggered off similar memories
among the Sisters of people who had made Jesus known to them as the Sisters in
turn had made him known to those they were serving.
I
see this in the context of the Communion of Saints, the angels and saints in
heaven, the members of the Church on earth, the souls in purgatory. The story
of creation tells us that we are made in the image of God. But what the author
of that first account of creation didn't know is that God is a Community of Three
Persons. Made in God's image, we are made to be in community with others.
Jusepe
de Ribera's painting of the Holy Trinity above, like a number of other
paintings, shows the dead Christ. The expression on the face of the Father
shows suffering. It is very similar to the face of the father in
Rembrandt's The Return of the Prodigal Son, painted about
thirty years later. I don't know if Rembrandt was familiar with de Ribera's
painting.
The Blessed Trinity call us into the circle of their life through suffering. We know the suffering of Jesus. Some of the great artists show to us something of the suffering of the Father.
One of the stories I told involved two persons I met only once, a mother and her daughter aged about 13 or 14. When they first approached me outside a retreat house in Cebu City on the morning of Holy Thursday 1990. I made an excuse that I was only visiting. While inside I saw the two of them sitting on the steps. The daughter had her head on her mother's shoulder. Clearly, they were tired and hungry. When I was leaving I gave them enough to buy breakfast. The young girl looked at me with the most beautiful smile I've ever seen and said to me, Salamat sa Ginoo! 'Thanks to the Lord!' She wasn't thanking me but inviting me to thank the Lord with her and her mother for his goodness. Through her hunger and tiredness she had come to know something of God's bountiful love, the love of the Father that Rembrandt reveals so powerfully.
As I reflect on this incident now, 34 years later, I see it in the light of today's Second Reading, Romans 8:14-17. St Paul writes, For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God . . . When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness. That young girl was led by the Spirit of God to thank the Father for having provided her and her mother with breakfast that day, for having listened to their prayer, Give us this day our daily bread. And she invited me as her brother in Christ to do the same. Without being aware of it she was celebrating the reality of the Holy Trinity.
And she has been calling me into the life of the Holy Trinity for all those year. I've no idea what became of her. I went to the Philippines in 1971 to do my part in making disciples of all nations and have baptised many in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. But that young girl, and many others like her, have been constantly teaching me to observe all that I have commanded you and assuring me in the name of Jesus, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
Benedictus sit Deus
This is Mozart's setting of today's Entrance Antiphon, composed when he was twelve.
On Thursday 23 May Pope Francis cleared the way for the canonisation of Blessed Carlo Acutis. He died from leukaemia at the age of 15. He was a computer 'geek', a skill which he used to be a 'web missionary', as the title of the video below states. If you google his name on YouTube you will find a number of videos about him, most of them short. The one below is just over 30 minutes but is very comprehensive, showing many aspects of his life as seen by others, young people of his own age who were friends of his, and others, young and older, on whose life Blessed Carlo had a huge influence, some while he was alive, others who came to know about him after his death, people drawn closer to Jesus Christ because of him. I've watched the video a number of times and each time it has been a prayerful experience, of being closer to God and with a sense of wonder at how the Blessed Trinity invites us into eternal life.
Young people can draw us into the life of the Holy Trinity, as did the 13- or 14-year old girl in Cebu City with me, as does the 12-year-old Mozart with his setting of Benedictus sit Deus, as has Blessed Carlo Acutis been doing before and after his death. Mozart and Blessed Carlo are known internationally, the young girl known only by her family and neighbours. We never know who may be drawing us into the eternal life of the Blessed Trinity.
Blessed Carlo, pray for us!
Blessed Carlo Acutis
Traditional Latin Mass
Trinity Sunday
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 05-26-2024 if necessary).
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19; Gospel).
GospelMatthew 13:44-52 [Shorter version: 44-46] (English Standard Version
Anglicised, India)
Jesus said to his disciples:
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field,
which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all
that he has and buys that field.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in
search of fine pearls,who, on finding one pearl of great
value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
[“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that
was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind.When it was full, men drew it ashore and
sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad.So it will be at the close of the age.
The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteousand throw them into the fiery furnace. In
that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
“Have you understood all these
things?” They said to him, “Yes.”And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the
kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his
treasure what is new and what is old.”]
Last weekend I preached at all the Masses in a parish in Dublin, asking for the financial and spiritual support of the people for the work of us Columban missionaries. I told the story of a 14-year-old girl - I'll call her 'Maria' - whom I met in a home for girls run by Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family in Metro Manila about 15 years ago. Maria suffered from asthma and her family had been living on the streets. Her father was a blind beggar. Maria's question to me still reverberates after all the years: How can I offer my life to God?
After one of the Masses a man told me of a seriously ill 11-year-old boy he had visited in a hospital in Dublin who wondered why so many people do not see children as capable of being saints. The boy was offering his suffering for others, uniting it with those of Jesus. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church (Colossians 1:24).
Blessed Carlo Acutis, an English-born Italian raised in Milan, is one of the patrons of World Youth Day this coming week. From a very young age he found delight in visiting churches, knowing that Jesus was present in the Blessed Sacrament. This led his parents to return to the practice of their faith.
As a teenager Carlo became an expert at the computer and developed a website devoted to Eucharistic miracles. He was also a very sociable being. I don't think he was present at World Youth Day in Rome in 2000 but he surely took to heart these words from the homily of Pope St J0hn Paul II at the closing Mass on 20 August [emphases added]: To celebrate the Eucharist, 'to eat his flesh and drink his blood', means to accept the wisdom of the Cross and the path of service. It means that we signal our willingness to sacrifice ourselves for others, as Christ has done.
Our society desperately needs this sign, and young people need it even more so, tempted as they often are by the illusion of an easy and comfortable life, by drugs and pleasure-seeking, only to find themselves in a spiral of despair, meaninglessness and violence. It is urgent to change direction and to turn to Christ. This is the way of justice, solidarity and commitment to building a society and a future worthy of the human person.
This is our Eucharist, this is the answer that Christ wants from us, from you young people at the closing of your Jubilee. Jesus is no lover of half measures, and he does not hesitate to pursue us with the question: 'Will you also go away?' In the presence of Christ, the Bread of Life, we too want to say today with Peter: 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life' (Jn 6:68).
Dear friends, when you go back home, set the Eucharist at the centre of your personal life and community life: love the Eucharist, adore the Eucharist and celebrate it, especially on Sundays, the Lord’s Day. Live the Eucharist by testifying to God’s love for every person.
In today's Gospel Jesus tells us: The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls,who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Young Carlo while still a child found the one pearl of great value: his Catholic Christian faith received as a gift from God through baptism within which he found Jesus present in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and in the Blessed Sacrament.
One of the extraordinary things about Carlo, who in so many ways was ordinary in the best sense, was his influence on adults, bringing his parents back to the faith and bringing a young man from India, Rajesh Mohur, a Hindu employed by his family, to the Catholic faith. Rajesh talks about this in the video below. Flavio Bergamo, an adult who learned through the internet about Carlo some years after the teenager's death, was a middle-aged man who had fallen away from the faith for many years. He tells in the video below how the young teenager brought him back to the faith.
Carlo died within a week of being diagnosed with leukaemia. Most of the people who attended his funeral Mass were people his parents didn't know, some of them immigrants working as caretakers in buildings whom Carlo got to know by name while walking to school.
The video below is just over 30 minutes in length but I urge you to take the time during the next few days to watch it. I have just done so, not for the first time. It is really time with the Lord Jesus. Among other things, it shows us that as followers of Jesus we are called to be persons of joy, not with silly 'smileys' on our faces but with the joy in our hearts that only Jesus can give, He who said to the Apostles at the Last Supper: These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full (John 15:11).
May the young people gathering in Lisbon this week draw closer to the Lord Jesus and may they be inspired by the life of Blessed Carlo Acutis who is not just a patron of youth but the patron of computer programmers.
Traditional Latin Mass
Eighth Sunday After Pentecost
The Complete Mass in Latin and English ishere. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 07-30-2023 if necessary).
And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers" (Luke 19:45-46; Gospel).
Readings(Jerusalem Bible: Australia,
England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,
Scotland, South Africa)
GospelMatthew 5:1-12a (English
Standard Version Anglicised)
Seeing
the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples
came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
“Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed
are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed
are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed
are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed
are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed
are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed
are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
“Blessed
are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven.
“Blessed
are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil
against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is
great in heaven.”
To activate the English subtitles click on the 6th icon from the right at the bottom of the screen.
I asked a friend, a teacher, to look at the video above and to share her comments with me. Her first comment was, He is so ordinary! She added that she wanted to look at it again and to reflect on it more deeply. My friend's reaction was similar to what Fr Will Conquer MEP, the young French priest in the video, said: Carlo is really an ordinary saint.
Technically, Blessed Carlo, who was born in London, England, but grew up in Milan, Italy, is not yet a saint in the sense of one who has been canonised. But on the Solemnity of All Saints the Church honours all those who are in the presence of God, that great multitude of 'ordinary saints', some of whom, most likely, each of us knew personally. Father Will quotes St Teresa of Kolkata, Mother Teresa: Not
all of us can do great things but we can do small things with great love. All Saints' Day is when the Church honours all those now with God who have done such.
I had read a little about Carlo before his beatification but it was only when a local parish priest here spoke enthusiastically about him in a Zoom meeting that I decided to learn more about him.
The most striking thing for me watching the video is Blessed Carlo's deep personal relationship with Jesus, especially through the Blessed Sacrament. Father Will notes: First
Communion was a real encounter with Christ. Carlo was nourished by the
Eucharist every day and it is this friendship with Christ in the Eucharist that
would nourish his life. His mother Antonia says, For
him his day was to meet Jesus at Mass . . . For him, it was obvious that Jesus is really present wherever there is a tabernacle. She quotes her son, We
have the Real Presence of Jesus in the tabernacle and no one is queuing up. His strong sense of this and his desire to be with Jesus in adoration before the tabernacle reminds me of his French namesake Blessed Charles de Foucauld, the French hermit-priest who lived in the Sahara among Muslim nomads and who will be canonised some time in 2021. Through his daily hours of adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in his hermitage he discovered himself as 'the little brother' of the Muslims among whom he lived knocking on his door for help.
Young Carlo used to say, The Eucharist is my highway to heaven.
Another striking thing about Blessed Carlo, who was an only child of wealthy parents, was his respect for others, especially those who were poor. His school friends recalled his friendliness with persons such as the school caretaker. He brought meals to homeless people with Capuchin brothers and, with his pocket money, bought sleeping bags for some of them. This for me came from the deep relationship he had with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. In this he reminds me of another handsome young Italian born years before Carlo and who died suddenly at the age of 24, Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati whom St John Paul II called 'A Man of the Beatitudes'.
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati shortly before his death in 1925
The young Carlo - and he never became old enough to be anything but 'the young Carlo' - had and continues to have a profound influence on adults. He mother says that he was like 'a little Saviour' to her and helped her and her husband Andrea to become active Catholics again. The family's parish priest had great wisdom too when, after Carlo's First Holy Communion, he asked Antonia to become a catechist.
Most striking of all for me is how Rajesh, the immigrant from India who worked with the family, speaks about Carlo. His best friend was Jesus, he says. He used to accompany Carlo to kindergarten and often went to the local park, sometimes with the family dog, Carlo bringing a frisbee to throw for the dog. Sometimes they went to McDonalds. Rajesh shares that the only person who treated him with respect was this young child. (I'm sure Carlo's parents did too). This reminds me of the story I mentioned last week of the homeless Dublin alcoholic who testified that the only person who ever looked up to him was Frank Duff, founder of the Legion of Mary.
Rajesh goes on to say, I
valued him more than my teacher because everything he said was really joyful
and touched my heart . . . Such a young child could be a role model in my life.He
was a true teacher for me which is why I converted from Hinduism to
Christianity.
Carlo was a 'geek', as Father Will describes him, the first saint in heaven with an email address. He was a missionary 'geek' who asked himself, How
can I share my greatest passion with my friends? Father will says, His greatest passion was Jesus in the Eucharist. In order to share this passion he set up a website about all the Eucharistic miracles he could find out about. He used Google and Wikipedia for research. His work is now being carried on by others.
Father Will says in the video, For
me Carlo is a new kind of missionary of this unknown continent, the sixth continent
that needs to be evangelized. Carlo is part of a pioneer generation. This echoes the message of Pope Benedict XVI for World Communications Day 2009, the title of which was New Technologies, New Relationships. Promoting a Culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship. I'm not sure if Pope Benedict had heard of Carlo at that time. Yet the last paragraph of the Pope's message could have been written with Carlo in mind. I've emphasised some parts.
I would like to conclude this message by addressing myself, in particular, to young Catholic believers: to encourage them to bring the witness of their faith to the digital world. Dear Brothers and Sisters, I ask you to introduce into the culture of this new environment of communications and information technology the values on which you have built your lives. In the early life of the Church, the great Apostles and their disciples brought the Good News of Jesus to the Greek and Roman world. Just as, at that time, a fruitful evangelization required that careful attention be given to understanding the culture and customs of those pagan peoples so that the truth of the gospel would touch their hearts and minds, so also today, the proclamation of Christ in the world of new technologies requires a profound knowledge of this world if the technologies are to serve our mission adequately. It falls, in particular, to young people, who have an almost spontaneous affinity for the new means of communication, to take on the responsibility for the evangelization of this 'digital continent'. Be sure to announce the Gospel to your contemporaries with enthusiasm. You know their fears and their hopes, their aspirations and their disappointments: the greatest gift you can give to them is to share with them the 'Good News' of a God who became man, who suffered, died and rose again to save all people. Human hearts are yearning for a world where love endures, where gifts are shared, where unity is built, where freedom finds meaning in truth, and where identity is found in respectful communion. Our faith can respond to these expectations: may you become its heralds! The Pope accompanies you with his prayers and his blessing.
Pope Benedict was not telling young people that they were the 'future' of the Church but rather they were its now, with a special responsibility to bring the Good News to others because of their knowledge and skills as citizens of 'this digital continent'.
A young woman towards the end of the video says, Carlo
told us: 'The goal of my life is to always be united with Jesus.' And this
touches me a lot because it reminds me of what is essential: always being in a
heart-to-heart [relationship] with Jesus. This echoes the recently-canonised St John Henry Newman whose motto as a cardinal was, Cor ad cor loquitur - Heart speaks to heart.
Blessed Carlo, who died at 15, reminds me of a saint long before the time of the internet and who died at 105, St Anthony the Abbot. St Athanasius writes of him: And so all the people of the village, and the good men with who he associated saw what kind of man he was, and they called him 'The friend of God'. Some loved him as a son, and others as though he were a brother.
The life of this young man who was so joyful because of his closeness to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament embodies the sixth beatitude in today's Gospel and the Communion Antiphon: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. He understood the opening words to today's Second Reading (1 John 3;1-3): See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.
Blessed Carlo invites us to thank God for the saintly people who have crossed our path. And I would suggest using the video above for prayer. I do believe that God is speaking to us through Blessed Carlo and especially through this video. And with lockdowns in so many countries we have time to reflect and to pray - and to discover for ourselves how the internet can be a tool to bring Jesus to others and to see is as a tool that can bring us closer to one another in these strange time.
Extraordinary Form of the Mass
Traditional Latin Mass (TLM)
This Sunday, 1 November, is also the Feast of All Saints in the calendar that uses the TLM.
The complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 11-01-2020, if necessary).
Epistle: Revelations (Apocalypse) 7:2-12; Gospel: Matthew 5:1-12.
Authentic Beauty
Authentic beauty, however, unlocks the yearning of the human heart, the profound desire to know, to love, to go towards the Other, to reach for the Beyond.
