A visit of “grace”

Rome (Italy). On 14 October 2021,  Mother Ersilia Canta Community, of the Preprovince Mary Mother of the Church (RMC), seat of the Spirituality Course of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, welcomed Mrs. Antonia Salzano, mother of Blessed Carlo Acutis, for a brief visit.

The Community sees this moment as a ‘grace’.  It is not an everyday thing to be able to meet the mother of a young saint. Mrs. Salzano, happy to be able to meet sisters from so many countries, shared some thoughts on Carlo, recalling her son’s ‘secrets’ and ‘loves’, especially his love for the Eucharist and for Our Lady.

She described her son as a ‘modern’ saint, current, with whom young people feel in tune. In fact, Carlo Acutis had a great passion for information technology and the internet and believed that the web could become an instrument of evangelization and the dissemination of beauty and positive values. In his ardent love for the Eucharist, he used the means of information technology and the network to organize an exhibition of Eucharistic miracles that has now traveled around the world.

The motherly gaze of Mrs. Antonia is a privileged point of view to recount Carlo’s life in a book:

“Many people ask me what is the secret hidden behind the figure of my son Carlo, who in a few years has been able to win the friendship and affection of a multitude of people who ask for his intercession in prayer. Why is a mere boy, who died at fifteen, invoked all over the world? Why did the Church proclaim him blessed? What, in short, is the ‘mystery of light’ that accompanies him? Many have wanted to tell about Carlo, but it is not easy to be able to grasp the individuality of a person if one has not entered into a direct relationship with him. As Carlo’s mother, I wanted to try to write a book from my heart, to help his many devotees to know and love him.” (My son’s secret. Why Carlo Acutis is considered a saint)

The life of Carlo Acutis is concrete testimony of what Pope Francis talks about in the Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate,  next-door holiness. Holiness makes you more alive and more human.  It is “the most beautiful face of the Church” (GS, 9), and it is beautiful that it is a young Blessed to testify to this, as Cardinal Agostino Vallini emphasized in his homily on the occasion of the Beatification of Carlo Acutis, on 10 October 2020:

“He testified that faith does not distance us from life, but immerses us more deeply in it, showing us the concrete way to live the joy of the Gospel. It is up to us to follow, attracted by the fascinating experience of Blessed Carlo, so that our life too can shine with light and hope.”

To the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, educators of young people, Blessed Carlo Acutis teaches to accompany young people on their path of holiness and to show them a life fully directed to God and open to neighbor, especially to the poorest.