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Dearly beloved Father Angelo, 
Reading your response the other day was truly comforting, because I felt they were words guided by the Holy Spirit… they left great joy in me for the whole day.I therefore write to you again, hoping not to disturb you, to ask you other doubts and questions to which I cannot find satisfactory answers given my great ignorance.
Reading the stories of the Saints I am amazed and fascinated, I feel truly small in front of their greatness and even smaller trying even to imagine the greatness of God.
I would really like to be like them, I would really like to be Holy but I don’t know where to start, I don’t even understand how to understand what the plan that the Lord has in store for me.Sometimes I repeat the meaning of my name as if it were a prayer, in the hope of receiving an answer, but I recognize that perhaps I am guilty of impatience and that it is only God who chooses the way and time to respond.
Another doubt concerns the Sacrament of Communion.
I believe I am not worthy of receiving the body of Christ because I cannot marvel and cry with joy in having Jesus in my hands.

I know that it is the body of the Savior (or at least I think I know it) but why then am I so numb when I receive it within me? When the moment of communion arrives I almost feel as if I have too little time available to become aware of the gift I am about to have… 

What can I do Father?


The last question concerns the salvation of the souls in Purgatory. The fact that there are souls that cannot be saved except through our help makes me happy and at the same time overwhelmed with responsibility, because as Jesus says: “love your neighbor as yourself”, if I deserved purgatory, I would hope with all my heart that someone comes to my rescue, so I feel the responsibility and duty to help them.

I know that the Holy Mass and the prayer of the Rosary are powerful means to help them, but reading some things said by the (alleged) mystic Maria Simma, there are other ways, for example by offering moral and physical suffering, such as fasting, but not I know if there are other types of suffering to which our body can be subjected, I often read about saints such as St. Catherine of Siena, St. Clare and St. Francis of Assisi and many others who used tools such as the cilice; I’m not saying I want to use it, even if, hypothetically speaking there wouldn’t be any problems at all if it were for the souls in purgatory, but if possible I would like some clarity on the matter because I’m very ignorant, you can also see it from the somewhat confused way in which I explained myself.

I greet you with a big hug, thank you for what you do every day, I look forward to your answer!

Priest’s Answer

Dear Samuele,
1. you tell me about the amazement and fascination you feel for the saints and would like to be like them. What about this desire? The answer comes from God himself who, through Saint Paul, said that it is He “the One who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work” (Phil 2,13).
The general call to holiness already expressed in the Old Testament: “Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Lv 19,2) and renewed by Christ with other and more significant words: “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5,48) e “Be merciful, 

as (also) your Father is merciful.” (Lc 6,36) resonates in you like a more specific and urgent call.

2. Saint Dominic Savio, after hearing a meditation by Saint John Bosco on holiness in which it was repeated that being holy means being perfectly happy, immediately made the resolution to be holy and not to be happy until he became a saint.
You too therefore ask the Lord to become holy by repeating your beautiful name in the form of an invocation, as you are already doing. Samuel means: “My name is God”, or also “the one implored by God”.
Transferred to your life: “Lord, make me become perfect and merciful as you are”; “May I be the gift of God implored by so many!”.

3.Furthermore, I suggest that you incessantly ask the Lord what the priest Eli suggested to Samuel when he twice heard a mysterious voice calling him.: “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening” (1 Sam 3,9).
I am sure that the Lord will not be deaf to this invocation of yours.

Instead, try to be ready to grasp the answer.

4. The second question you asked me is also of particular importance: how to best prepare yourself to welcome the Lord in Holy Communion. A well-attended Mass is already an excellent preparation for Holy Communion.
And yet we can and perhaps we must also do something else. Because it is read in the Holy Scripture: “Before making a vow have the means to fulfill it; be not one who tries the Lord.” (Sir 18,23).
For now I suggest you do what I proposed on Ash Wednesday as a Lenten commitment to the faithful who attend our church: read one point a day from the fourth book of the Imitation of Christ.

The Imitation of Christ is a classic of Christian spirituality.

The fourth book is entirely dedicated to Holy Communion. It consists of 18 chapters or small chapters. Each chapter is divided into several points.
Well I suggest you read a point (not a chapter) before leaving home and going to Mass.

In those words you will hear Jesus speaking to you and helping you to welcome his presence and his saving action in your heart with the most holy devotion. You will find help to participate better in the entire Holy Mass.

5. Furthermore, to experience your Communion with the Lord intensely, do not settle for the few moments of silence that occur before the final prayer.

Return to what the Lord came to give you and tell you with your personal prayer.

I particularly suggest the prayer of the Holy Rosary which is like an extension during the day of Holy Communion.

To me, it is like that.


You will realize that there is nothing more beautiful than reviving Communion, or rather the fusion of hearts between Jesus Christ and each of us.

In this way Communion begins to become the highest and most fruitful moment of your entire day.

6. The last question in your email concerns the salvation of the souls in Purgatory.

Also in reference to this desire of yours, I repeat what I wrote to you at the beginning of the email: “it is God the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work” (Phil 2,13).” 
I am happy with your desire to help them.
Other times I have had the opportunity to remember the preciousness of suffrage and communion with the souls in Purgatory.

St. Thomas says that suffrage for the souls in Purgatory is one of the most illustrious acts of Christian charity. And he gives five reasons for this.

The first, because the greatest good which is God himself is given to the souls in Purgatory. The second is an act of spiritual charity, which lasts eternally, unlike material charity which ends with the completed act. The third, because it is charity that is given to people who use it well, while the charity that is given to beggars is not always used well.
The fourth, because the souls in Purgatory can in no way help themselves. The fifth, because the souls in Purgatory are very grateful.

7. The souls in Purgatory can also be helped with the offering of our actions and suffering.
When Saint Catherine of Siena learned that her father was destined for Purgatory at the time of his death, she was very sorry and asked God to give her permanent suffering rather than her father spending even a single moment in that place of purification. The Lord granted her wish and she immediately felt a pain in her side that accompanied her for the rest of her life.
This pain was meritorious for her father, but it was undoubtedly meritorious for her too.
So continue like this. You too will deserve a lot for yourself and will be able to benefit from a particular heavenly blessing.

I bless you, wish you all the best and remember you in my prayers.
Father Angelo