Blessed Carlo Acutis, born in London, May 3, 1991, but raised in Milan and died of leukemia aged 15, October 12, 2006, will be canonized this year or the next (the Vatican City will announce the date within months). He was an ordinary boy whose extraordinary deeds and wisdom has enchanted the world. Every saint’s story is a love story; between that saint and humanity and between him and God.
This story snugly fits that analogy. Carlo Acutis evokes a captivating image; a young fella who adorns jeans, T-shirts and sneakers, whose major work was surfing the internet. How Carlo navigated the problems which upend youngsters today making them turn their backs against God and even purposeful life to embrace drugs, promiscuity, lack of respect for parents and authority, and found a path that led him to God, is deeply felt by believers and non-believers.
Carlo Acutis’s love affair with God began early in life. He received the Eucharist daily. On receiving his First Holy Communion Carlo at age seven, he wrote in a notebook that day, “Being always united to Jesus.
That is my life plan.” From that day he attended Mass daily and adored the Eucharist daily. So, he had a love affair with the Eucharistic Christ, the God in the midst of us, with his Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity present in the Sweet Sacrament of the Altar.
Yet, when the Church declares someone a saint, it is because they have lived the Christian virtues to heroic levels, especially prudence, justice, faith, .