Today, we have this special Sunday Mass. I would like to highlight a young man who created the first ever International Eucharistic Display, that contains 158 documented Church approved miracles.
Carlo Acutis was born on May 3rd, 1991, in London, England, to devout Catholic parents. His family soon moved to Milan, Italy, where Carlo spent most of his life. From an early age, Carlo exhibited an extraordinary devotion to the Eucharist and a profound love for the Virgin Mary. He attended Mass daily and had a deep understanding of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. At the age of 7, he wrote “To always be close to Jesus, that’s my life plan.”
In addition to his strong faith, Carlo had a keen interest in technology and computer programming. He used his skills to create a website cataloging Eucharistic miracles from around the world, a testament to his desire to share his faith with the world. Despite his remarkable piety, though, Carlo was an ordinary teenager in many ways. He volunteered at a church-run soup kitchen, helped the poor in his neighborhood, assisted children struggling with their homework, played saxophone, soccer, and video games, and loved making videos with his dogs and cats.
However, his life took a dramatic turn when he was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 15. Throughout his illness, Carlo remained remarkably resilient, offering his suffering to God and drawing strength from the Eucharist. When he was dying he said, “I’m happy to die, because I’ve lived my life without wasting even a minute of it doing things that wouldn’t have pleased God.”
He died on October 12, 2006, at the age of 15. His life, though brief, left an indelible mark on those who knew him and countless others who have since learned about his story.
Before he died, he developed on the computer and printed his large International Eucharistic Display that travels from parish to parish. Just think about that for a moment, he did that when computer technology was still developing and all before before the age of 15.
Blessed Carlo Acutis was beatified in 2020, and was to be canonized on Divine Mercy Sunday, last week, but since the pope died, the canonization will take place on another date.
The miracle attributed to his intercession occurred in 2022 when a Costa Rican woman named Valeria, who fell from her bicycle at 4 a.m. on July 2, 2022, and suffered a serious head injury. Even after emergency surgery removing part of her skull to reduce severe intracranial pressure, doctors warned her family she could die at any moment.
A friend of the young woman’s mother began praying to Blessed Carlo the same day, and the mother went to Assisi and prayed at Carlo Acutis’ tomb on July 8 – the same day the young woman began to breathe on her own again. She slowly recovered basic mobility, and a CT scan showed the hemorrhage was gone.
Blessed Carlo said, “When people sit in the sun, they become tan, “but when they sit before Eucharistic Jesus, they become saints.” Above all, he was impassioned by Jesus; and since he was very good on the internet, he used it in the service of the Gospel, spreading love for prayer, the witness of faith and charity toward others.
I personally had prayers answered through Blessed Carlo’s intercession. After I had surgery in Tulsa several years ago, and was in the hospital, a nurse came to my room to give me medicine, but she first needed to record it on the computer, which was located in every patient room. She attempted to turn on the computer multiple times, but it wouldn’t work. She left and said she would be back in a few minutes. Knowing Blessed Carlo was a computer expert, I prayed, “Carlo Acutis, please turn this computer on!” About 15 minutes later, the nurse returned, and said, “Thank you for turning on the computer. How did you do it?” I said, “I never touched it. I prayed to a young man, who died by the name of Carlo Acutis, and now it’s working. He got it working.”
The Eucharistic miracle display he created has many miracles approved by the Church. For example in the 1200’s the miracle of St. Clare watching Midnight Mass in her room when she was too sick to attend Mass. And when Muslims were attacking Assisi and enter the monastery of nuns founded by St. Clare, she went the wall surrounding the cloister and as she held up a Host in a monstrance, a ray of light shone out of the Host, scaring the Muslims, who ran away.
Another miracle in the 1200’s, was St. Anthony of Padua, who asked a farmer, who didn’t believe Jesus was present in the Eucharist-- to not feed his mule for three days and then come to St. Anthony with his mule and the mule’s favorite grain. Three days later, the man with the mule and the grain returned. While St. Anthony was holding the Eucharist and while the owner of the mule held the grain, the mule walked up to the Eucharist and bowed down on its front knees in adoration of the Sacred Host. Due to this miracle, the man believed in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.
In 750 AD, at Lanciano Italy, during Mass, when a priest was having doubts about the Eucharist, as the priest elevated the Host above the altar, the Eucharist partially turned to flesh and blood drops fell from the Host. The miracle can still be seen today in a reliquary.
On January 31, 1906, on the small island of Tumaco, off the shore of Columbia, at 10 o’clock in the morning, there was a violent earthquake. All the inhabitants of the village ran to the church and begged the pastor, Fr. Gerardo Larrondo, to lead a procession with the Blessed Sacrament. The sea was rising in a giant wave and had already engulfed part of the beach. Fr. Gerardo quickly consumed the small Hosts in the ciborium. He called out to his people: “Let us go, my people. Let us go toward the beach, and may God have pity on us.” The people marched with the priest crying out to God. When Fr. Larrondo reached the beach with the monstrance he courageously went to the water’s edge, as the wave came rushing in, he calmly raised the Sacred Host and traced the sign of the Cross over the water. The wave hesitated, paused and backed off. The entire area was destroyed by the tidal wave, but didn’t touch the area where the priest and the people had gathered, while he held Jesus in the Host.
My dear friends, and young people. Imitate a 15 year old saint, Blessed Carlo Acutis. Come to daily Mass, come to Eucharistic Adoration, live your life of charity by helping others and ask Carlo Acutis for his heavenly help. Have his desire his desire, “To always be close to Jesus, that’s my life plan. Live your life doing everything to please God, not wasting a minute. Come often to Jesus in Eucharistic Adoration, and trust the words of Blessed Carlo, “When people sit in the sun, they become tan, “but when they sit before Eucharistic Jesus, they become saints.”
And remember Carlo said, “the Eucharist is the highway to heaven”.
So if you want to go to heaven, if you want to become a saint, receive Jesus as often as possible in Holy Communion and adore Him every week in Eucharistic Adoration and live a life of charity helping others.
Blessed Carlo Acutis, pray for us, who have recourse to thee.
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