DON’T FORGET: Next weekend, October 28, 29, and 30, we will hold our annual Solemn Eucharistic Devotions which will begin on Friday, October 28, with a special school Mass at 9:30 AM. Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament will continue on the main altar throughout the weekend, and we will have our Solemn Closing with Mass and Evening Prayer and a procession with the Blessed Sacrament on Sunday, October 30, beginning at 5 PM. Our homilist will be Fr. Joe Menkhaus, recently ordained Parochial Vicar at St. Bernadette Parish in Westlake. Those preparing to receive their First Holy Communion and Confirmation will also join in our procession to honor the Eucharistic presence of our Lord. Please make every effort to be a part of this special weekend of praise and prayer as we give thanks to God for the gift of Himself in the Holy Eucharist.
October 12 was the Feast Day of Blessed Carlo Acutis. Blessed Carlo is the first of the millennial saints of the Church. He was born on May 3, 1991, and died on October 12, 2006, at the age of fifteen from leukemia. Born in London and raised in Milan, Carlo’s wealthy parents were not particularly religious. Upon receiving his first communion at age seven, Carlo became a frequent communicant, making a point of praying before the tabernacle before or after every Mass. In addition to Francis of Assisi, Carlo took several of the younger saints as his models, including Bernadette Soubirous, Jacinta and Francisco Marto, and Dominic Savio.
At school, Carlo tried to comfort friends whose parents were undergoing divorce, as well as stepping in to defend disabled students from bullies. After school hours he volunteered his time with the city’s homeless and destitute. Considered a computer geek by some, Carlo spent four years creating a website dedicated to cataloguing every reported Eucharistic miracle around the world. He also enjoyed films, comics, soccer, and playing popular video games. Diagnosed with leukemia, Carlo offered his sufferings to God for the intentions of the sitting pope—Benedict XVI—and the entire Church. His longtime desire to visit as many sites of Eucharistic miracles as possible was cut short by his illness. Carlo died in 2006 and was beatified in 2020. Presiding at the beatification service, Cardinal Agostino Vallini praised Carlo as an example of how young people can use technology to spread the Gospel “to reach as many people as possible and help them know the beauty of friendship with the Lord.” His liturgical feast is celebrated on October 12.
REFLECTION: Carlo Acutis did not strive to become famous but rather to cooperate as generously as possible with God’s grace. That journey brought him many experiences, but they were all united by a burning desire to serve God and others as generously as possible. Blessed Carlo is an exceptional example for all of us, especially our young people. He was obviously a very blessed child who had a great love for Jesus in the Eucharist. His childlike example drew his parents back to the Catholic Faith. He was also gifted with a great knowledge of computers and as a young teenager catalogued all the Miracles of the Eucharist into a web site that is still used by many people today. You can check it out by going to http://www.miracolieucaristici.org/. This would be a particularly good web site to share with your children or grandchildren. There have been many Eucharistic miracles through the history of the Church and all of them are documented on this web site. These miracles are little reminders from God to us of exactly what the Eucharist is: THE BODY, BLOOD, SOUL, and DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. We all need to be reminded of this reality so that we can continue to grow in our knowledge of and devotion to Jesus truly present in this most wonderful sacrament.
SUPPORT OUR SCHOOL: As you have read in the bulletin and heard in the announcements before Mass, Sacred Heart School PTO will be holding their annual auction on Saturday, November 19. It will be a “shake, rattle, and roll” event to support our school. Please join us for the Sacred heart Sock Hop at the Memory Lane Event Center (456 College Street) here in Wadsworth. See the bulletin for more information on how to register. Catholic Education is very important in our culture today and is becoming even more important in light of all that is going on in some of our public schools. We must do everything in our power to make sure our children are hearing the truth, the truth of Jesus Christ, the only truth that there is.
