Full-size in front of us, as we enter the Cathedral, stands Carlo Acutis. It is only cardboard, but with that smiling photograph, his invisible presence is that much more tangible to all of us who are assembled. Carlo Acutis is in heaven, but this Friday evening under the vaulted ceiling of Mary Queen of the World Cathedral, he shares heaven with us.

A full hundred people have gathered here to pray, to venerate his relics by the altar and to adore the Sacrament. The congregation are listening to a selection of the stories of Eucharistic miracles collected by this Italian youth sharing with us his experience of the nearness of God, but above all we are captivated by the miracle of his blessed young life.

“This week, the third of May, it was Carlo’s birthday,” says Louise Normandeau. She adds, laughingly: “so I said, ‘Let’s go, Carlo, we’re going to a restaurant for dinner!” In partnership with the diocesan Centre for Marriage, Life and the Family, Louise gave a presentation of the life of Carlo Acutis on the evening of May 6. Carlo would have been 31 years old this month. The beatified young Italian from Milan was the only child of an affluent family. That circumstance did not prevent him from learning all through his brief life about generosity and caring for those less fortunate. As for instance that one day, Louise recounts, when he took his allowance money to buy a sleeping bag for a homeless man in the street.

“My highway to Heaven is the Eucharist!”

Carlo’s babysitter talked frequently with the boy about Jesus, and his deep devotion to our Lord led him to take his first Communion at seven years of age. And from that moment on, he attended Mass every day. The Eucharist was for him a fundamental conviction and, speaking of the adoration, he said, “when we bathe in Jesus’ sunbeams, we become holy.” Even during vacations, he continued taking Communion all his life, right until the end!

The Mule of Rimini and other jewels among the miracles

Louise Normandeau reproduced the panels for this Exhibition of the Eucharistic Miracles which the blessed Carlo created before his death. During the years from age 11 to 15, he was busy doing his internet research on the 132 miracles that occurred in connection with the Eucharist. One of these is the story of the starving mule from Rimini that, rather than rushing to the pail of oats that had been brought for it, instead prostrated itself before the Holy Sacrament. This is actually the first of the miracle stories that Carlo discovered (he was on vacation at the time), and it became his inspiration for the idea of the entire project. There are also several miracles that he collected from across the centuries in which consecrated wafers were transformed into actual flesh and actual blood.

Then came the day, when he was 15 years old, that he received the terrible diagnosis of leukemia. His Exhibition had not been launched, but in the peaceful assurance that he was bound for heaven, Carlo passed away. Today that Exhibition has been translated into 15 languages and is criss-crossing the entire planet. It was on display at Mary Queen of the World Cathedral until May 13. For everyone, and especially for so many of us who do not know the stories of these miracles produced by the Holy Eucharist, his legacy is a veritable treasure trove.

Blessed Carlo Acutis, pray for us.