Everyday Saints

Today I am in Rome, attending the Canonization Mass of Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis, where Pope Leo XIV proclaims through his capacity as Vicar of Christ that these two men are officially members of the Heavenly Kingdom; in other words, Saints.

Both Frassati and Acutis died at a young age in Italy, but even in their short life, bore witness to Christ’s love. Pier Giorgio Frassati died at the age of 24 in 1925 after serving the poor and needy without concern for the personal cost to himself, including contracting polio, which resulted in his death. Carlo Acutis died at the age of 15 in 2006, after a battle with leukemia. Throughout his life, he showed a love for the Eucharist and the Lives of the Saints through involvement in his parish church. In the years before his death, he created a website to catalog the many Eucharistic miracles that have taken place throughout the world.

These Saints, and many others, lived very ordinary and simple lives that glorified God and helped share Him with those around them. They did not do extraordinary things, nor gain worldwide acclaim during their lives; instead, they focused on small acts for the community around them. One of my favorite saints, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, was much the same: she lived a quiet life devoted to God and her family, entered religious life, and passed away at 24 years old in 1897 after suffering from tuberculosis.

We too can be saints; we too, through our own little way and everyday life, can build up the Kingdom of God on earth through our devotion to God, and love for those around us. We are called, as was spoken of in the Gospel today, to carry our own cross and follow Christ as his disciple. Each of these three saints, Thérèse, Pier Giorgio, and Carlo, had immense struggles, particularly with their health, but they embraced the cross of their suffering and united it with Christ’s suffering on the cross.

Strive to follow the Way of the Cross as did the Saints, your forebears, each in their own way, and many through very small actions over the course of their lives. You are not too dissimilar to them. I encourage you to always look to the saints as guides to Heaven. If you do not yet have a devotion to a particular saint, research and pray that one who experienced similar things in life to you may be made known to you, that you may imitate them, who in turn imitate Christ.