For this year’s Family Vacation I was asked to take part in the preparation of the kids activities. Within the group of moms involved in this we all shared one clear intention from the very beginning: that the kids would be protagonists of the vacation, rather than seeing these activities as a way of ‘taking care of the kids’ while the adults are doing their ‘serious’ things. As the work of preparation progressed, we decided to work on the lives of the saints as they related to the topic of freedom chosen for the summer vacations this year. While it was easy to pick Saint Francis for the little ones, we were undecided on whom to choose for the age group of late elementary to middle school, until we learnt that we might have an incredible chance to talk on the phone with the mother of Carlo Acutis on the last morning of the vacation.

I had known about Carlo Acutis since late 2020, when a friend got sick with leukemia and in the course of 2021 recovered, thanks to the intercession of Carlo. In 2022, his relics visited our school parish, and this spring, for my son’s First Communion, my mom gave him a graphic novel about Carlo that struck me for its effectiveness and simplicity. I was therefore determined to use this book as the base material for our conversation with the middle school kids during the vacation, but, besides being only one book, it was in Italian… Three nights before the start of the vacation, I found myself praying to Carlo while putting my kids to bed that he would help us with what to do about him with the kids at the vacation. The morning after, I sent a photo of the book to our group of moms planning the kids’ activities. After a couple of hours, in the early afternoon, one mom sent us the photo of the same graphic novel in English, saying that she had just found it at the Mother Cabrini Shrine, and she had bought it! Shocked that there was actually the same edition in English, we found it online and ordered a bunch in time for the vacation!

Once at the vacation, we read and discussed some parts of the book together, divided in one elementary group and one middle school group. I noticed at the first meeting of the middle school group how acquainted and interested with Carlo most of them were already, and how easily they came up with questions to ask his mom, in spite of the usual shyness and reluctance to speak that kids have at that age. The main point that kept coming up was how Carlo was a normal kid, but at the same time special because of his special relationship with God. All of them said they liked how Carlo was always ready to help his friends, to include everyone, and especially how he helped the homeless people he would meet on the street. A couple of episodes from his life they particularly liked were the one when he exchanged his new, cool sneakers with the old shoes of a guy at a shelter, and when he stayed up late at night to fix his friend’s computer.

On the morning of the third day, our community leader asked me if some kids would volunteer to give a brief presentation of Carlo Acutis to the adults on that night. I asked the middle school group, but without pushing them at all, because I knew they might feel embarrassed to speak in front of everyone. While walking down from the hike, I happened to hear some of the kids saying that they were rehearsing their presentation for that night, but I thought they were doing it mostly to pass the time while finishing the hike. In fact, they went up that night, completely on their own initiative, and gave a very detailed and extremely well-thought-out presentation, highlighting the episodes from Carlo’s life they loved the most.

The last morning of the vacation was the time scheduled for our call with Antonia Salzano, Carlo’s mom. Antonia had confirmed our call on the day before, requesting some of the questions from the children beforehand, but nothing was certain about the success of the call—she was going to take our call from the middle of the ocean while vacationing on her boat! And yet, not only did the connection work just fine throughout the entire call, but just a few simple questions prepared by the kids led to an intense half-an-hour conversation. How could his mother not be scared that Carlo approached the homeless on the street and dedicated so much time to help the poor? How did Carlo deal with his passion for technology and video-games without it becoming a dependence? And what were Carlo’s last words before dying? Antonia replied with an overflow of words in which she insisted on some very basic but at the same time essential concepts: that each of us is made to be united with God, and that all we should be worried about is to nurture this relationship; similarly, that everything we can do depends on God, and that all we should desire is that we leave space to God to do what He wants to do with us. She told us that Carlo was not scared about death because to him death was the encounter with his beloved; Carlo was very aware that all we need to fear is sin, and that eternity with God is what matters and what we are made for.

A couple of weeks ago I asked the moms to ask their children whether they liked the work on Carlo at the vacation, and what they remembered. Their answers were not only positive, but indeed beautiful: among them was how Carlo always helped people around him; how in front of something that seemed impossible like seeing many dolphins while out in the ocean on his boat, Carlo was sure that his desire would be listened to because he had great faith; and how he did not care what other people thought when it came to spreading the love of Jesus. One mom pointed out how helpful she found Carlo’s understanding and lived experience that the greatest battle in life is with oneself, and how he overcame his own demons out of love for Jesus. As for me, I am just so grateful to Carlo for taking the initiative of becoming our friend, and teaching us how to open ourselves to Jesus, first and foremost to Him as a living presence in the Eucharist.

Giulia, New York, NY