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Hello, most Reverend Father.
I am a boy who, whenever he can, tries to attend Holy Mass even on weekdays (sometimes I happen to go there even for three days in a row); however this is not understood/ accepted by my parents, who do not listen to my motivations (“I find it normal and I go there peacefully and happily”, “it is my free choice” or “it is the duty of a faithful to attend Holy Mass ”) and often, especially during the past year, they get angry and accuse me of rigidity or sectarianism.
Consequently, it happens that when asked “Did you go to Mass today?” I answer no, lying to avoid the burden of facing long discussions: am I erring in my duty to bear witness to Faith? Am I ashamed of Our Lord?
However, I see their slow passage from a dull hatred to an increasingly mild curiosity in asking me to account for…
Best regards
Dear,
1. Although some find it strange, nevertheless the daily participation in the Eucharist is quite natural.
Just as the body is nourished every day, so those who are accustomed to nourish their soul with God feel it is necessary to attend Mass as much as possible, even daily.
2. For those who consider religion simply as a set of obligations, among which there is also participation in Mass on Sundays and feast days, daily participation is incomprehensible and for a boy it could be a reason for family discussions.
3. Thank God there are quite a few young people who have recently started to attend Mass every day.
This is what I have seen in our Church especially for a few months now.
I would be happy if it were a universal phenomenon.
4. I am not going to report the motivations of St. Thomas, of St. Francis (who was not a priest) or of Pier Giorgio Frassati on the daily Eucharist.
I limit myself to re-presenting the beautiful testimony of a boy, Carlo Acutis, who died at 15 in 2006.
From an early age he felt an attraction for the Mass.
5. The aunt says: “He asked me to take him to Mass, because when there was “that thing” there was plenty of peace.
He felt something beautiful and saw that people were somehow getting better, as if they were changing for the better.
It was the same people that he, a sunny child, met on the street and always greeted, but there in the church the atmosphere was different”.
6. Made his First Communion at the age of 7, because the Bishop had found him prepared, he was burning with the desire to receive the Lord.
The mother superior of the Romites of Perego, in Brianza, tells: “Composed and quiet during the time of the Holy Mass, he began to show signs of impatience as the time to receive Holy Communion approached.
He looked at the Host, emanated a smile, his eyes became shining with joy.
With Jesus in his heart, after holding his head in his hands he began to move, as if he could no longer sit still.
It seemed that something had happened in him, something known to him alone and too great for him to contain”.
7. All this did not come from the family.
His mom would later say: “I come from a lay family, of rationalistic publishers, not against the Church but not real believers either.
We have to be honest, we weren’t people of much religious practice.
Sometimes we went to Mass, almost out of duty, in the great feasts of Christmas and Easter and then for some weddings.
It was Carlo who brought us back to feel the beauty of faith.
I was not an example at first, but Carlo was the spur for me to embark on a journey of faith and to deepen what I had never studied.
I had studied finance and law, with the myth of secular culture, and my faith was zero.
Carlo was a savior for me. Through him I rediscovered the wonders of faith”.
8. After that First Communion, Carlo would never miss the daily appointment with Mass and a short Eucharistic adoration before or after the celebration.
His childhood meditations on the Eucharist are as simple as they are profound.
He said: “In front of the sun we tan, but in front of the Eucharist we become saints”.
He often repeated: “You go straight to Heaven if you receive the Eucharist every day!”.
More than once he said these words: “Jesus is very original, because he hides himself in a little piece of bread, and only God could do such an incredible thing”.
9. I would like to say more about this boy who seems almost being fixed by the Lord at the age of 15 to be proposed as an example to our children today.
But the time has come for me to answer your question. What to answer to your parents when they ask you where you have been, fearing (!) that you have been to Mass?
You can answer without fear of telling a lie that you have been with friends or schoolmates if among them there was someone who does what you do.
10. And if one day they saw that these friends are the ones you find in the Church and among them mainly Jesus, tell them too that it is He who makes you feel better, who transforms you, who communicates so much peace to you.
Also say that this peace is going to reach them too in some way through the presence of Christ and Heaven within you.
Also say, bearing your beautiful witness, that through the daily Eucharist Jesus fills you with many graces and that you bring these graces also to your family, without them noticing.
So keep it up.
I am convinced that you can no longer do without meeting Jesus every day and being together with Him.
It is the light of Heaven that enters your life every day.
I thank you for this beautiful testimony that you have offered us, without wanting to.
I wish you well, I remind you to the Lord and I bless you.
Father Angelo
Translated by Chiara P.
Reviewed by David