Lessons we can learn from Carlo Acutis

-

 My takeaways from the life and canonization of Saint Carlo Acutis.





There is a canonized saint who liked Nutella.

That is amazing.

On September 7th, 2025, Pope Leo XIV canonized Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati. Both Carlo and Pier led holy and inspiring lives, but there's something about Carlo's story that resonates with me personally as a young Catholic living in the 21st Century.

Just to give you a 411 on Carlo's life in case you don't know about him:
  • He was born on May 3rd, 1991
  • He was Italian and lived in Milan with his parents
  • He had a passion and talent for computer programming
  • He died of leukaemia on October 12th, 2006
What I find inspiring about Carlo's life story is how...regular and relatable it is. He went to school like most kids. He wasn't that good at soccer (me too!). He liked playing video games. I mean...the man had a GameCube. 

Yet Carlo was a really good kid. He wasn't perfect, but who is? One of his teachers remembers that he sometimes didn't hand in his homework on time. We've all been there.

Carlo was kind to his friends and he stood up for his schoolmates when they were bullied. He gave food to homeless people. He didn't start a non-profit charity or win a Nobel Peace prize; he just did what he could to be the best Carlo that he could be.

He was a big fan of technology, but he used it in moderation. He decided to utilize his affinity for coding to build a website dedicated to cataloguing Eucharistic miracles (I'll include the link at the end of the post). He realized that life was more about just him.

The fact that there's a saint who wore sneakers, like me and who had a computer, like me, is just so inspirational. Carlo's canonization shows that even today, with all the chaos and wild stuff that's going on in the world (although wild stuff has been a part of the equation since the dawn of humanity), we can be good people and have a positive impact on the lives of others. Carlo's story shows us in the modern age, it is possible to be holy and be a regular human being.

I think that's pretty cool.

Carlo's website: https://www.carloacutis.com/en/association/libri

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My 25 Predictions for the next 25 years: From 2025 to 2050 (Part I)

-
Image
 Nuclear fusion, lab-grown beef, trillionaires...and more! Bonjour, tout le monde. It's 2025. We're halfway through the 2020's and a quarter-way through the 21st Century. In my opinion, life on Earth is still a bit...normal. Now, that's not a bad thing. Life's good for a lot of people. I'm grateful for life. But I'd have imagined that 2025 would feel more...futuristic. Where are the lunar bases? Where are the flying skateboards? Yes, we've had a few major developments over the past few years, such as the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the public sphere, but it would be cool if we got some more futuristic technology or development. I thought I'd write a post with 25 things I think will happen by 2050. Now, I'm not a scientist. I mean, * ahem* I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Economics, so I'm  technically  a  social  scientist  (who cares?) , but my predictions don't have much empirical evidence to support them...
Read more

Are exams fair?

-
Image
People aren't always equal and neither are exams, apparently. Exams are a frustrating but important part of academic life. They serve as a (sometimes inaccurate) assessment on the skill level and understanding of students in a particular field, and are also important for admission to a lot of educational institutions, particularly at the tertiary level. With the current state our world is in, the university entry process has been changed radically. For one, a lot of people didn't do exams in the first place. A-Levels and GCSE's (General Certificate of Secondary Education) were cancelled in the UK altogether, with students' grades being determined by ‘teacher assessment’: things like homework, tests and students' predicted grades. Exams were carried out in most countries outside the UK (like my own country, Kenya), so we had to suffer through all the hassle of examinations.  So results day pulled around and the UK saw a record in A-Level results, with 44% of students...
Read more