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Saturday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Other Commemorations: Bl. Carlo Acutis
MASS READINGS
October 12, 2024
(Readings on USCCB website)
Mass Propers for Saturday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time:
Entrance Antiphon, Cf. Est 4:17: Within your will, O Lord, all things are established, and there is none that can resist your will. For you have made all things, the heaven and the earth, and all that is held within the circle of heaven; you are the Lord of all.
Alleluia Verse, Lk 11:27-28: Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.
Communion Antiphon, Lam 3:25: The Lord is good to those who hope in him, to the soul that seeks him.
COLLECT PRAYER
Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time: Almighty ever-living God, who in the abundance of your kindness surpass the merits and the desires of those who entreat you, pour out your mercy upon us to pardon what conscience dreads and to give what prayer does not dare to ask. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
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Blessed Carlo Acutis (1991-2006), a Catholic Italian teenager who died in 2006, was beatified on October 10, 2021 in Assisi. Acutis, a gamer and computer programmer who loved soccer and the Eucharist, has been the subject of interest around the world. Pope Francis referred to Carlo as a model of holiness in a digital age. Carlo’s life should teach today’s young people how to properly use and enjoy technology, including the internet and social media. His motto was “To always be close to Jesus, that’s my life plan.” On July 1, 2024, Pope Francis approved plans for the canonization of Blessed Carlo, the first “millennial” saint. No date has been set yet.
Bl. Carlo Acutis
Carlo Acutis was born May 3, 1991, in London though his family moved to Milan shortly after. From a young age, Carlo seemed to have a special love for God, even though his parents weren’t especially devout. His mom said she had been to Mass only for her First Communion, her confirmation, and her wedding but young Carlo’s unique and unexplained devotion led to her deep conversion. The priest promoting his cause for sainthood noted that Carlo “managed to drag his relatives, his parents to Mass every day. It was not the other way around; it was not his parents bringing the little boy to Mass, but it was he who managed to get himself to Mass and to convince others to receive Communion daily.” What an inspiration for a child to model faith witness to a family!
He had a gift for empathy and was known for defending kids at school who got picked on, especially disabled kids. Carlo loved soccer and video games. He tried to stay disciplined and only played games for an hour a week even though he really wanted to play much more. He also bought computer programming books and taught himself computer coding and animation. He had a great devotion to Mary loved to pray the rosary. He went to Mass and confession as often as he could.
He loved the Eucharist and was fascinated by Eucharistic miracles. He asked his parents to take him on pilgrimages — to the places of the saints, and to the sites of Eucharistic miracles. Using his research, he began creating what would eventually become a website to catalog and share the information with others. Carlo was concerned by people growing distant to the Church and the sacraments and desperately wanted to bring them back. On the site, he told people that “the more often we receive the Eucharist, the more we will become like Jesus, so that on this earth we will have a foretaste of heaven.”
At age 15, Carlo was diagnosed with an untreatable leukemia. He offered up his suffering for others coping with illness and said, “I offer all the suffering I will have to suffer for the Lord, for the Pope, and the Church.” Carlo died from his illness on Oct. 12, 2006. At his request he was buried in Assisi because of his love for St. Francis. His cause for canonization began in 2013 and he was designated “Venerable” in 2018. A healing miracle has been attributed to his intercession and he will be designated “Blessed” October 10.
His tomb has been opened and his intact body lies in repose in a glass tomb where he can be venerated by pilgrims until Oct. 17. He is displayed in jeans and a pair of Nikes, the casual clothes he preferred in life. The rector for the Sanctuary of Spoliation in Assisi, where Acutis’ tomb is located, called him a witness that holiness is attainable for teenagers. “For the first time in history we will see a saint dressed in jeans, sneakers, and a sweater,” the rector said. “This is a great message for us, we can feel holiness not as a distant thing but as something very much within everyone’s reach because the Lord is the Lord of everyone.”
Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino of Assisi said “Carlo is a boy of our time. A boy of the internet age, and a model of holiness of the digital age, as Pope Francis presented him in his letter to young people around the world. The computer … has become a way of going through the streets of the world, like the first disciples of Jesus, to bring to hearts and homes the announcement of true peace, that which quenches the thirst for the infinite that inhabits the human heart.”
—Excerpted from Little Flower Parish
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