It so happens that Carlo Acutis is remembered by the Church on October 12, right in the middle of the month traditionally dedicated to the Rosary.
For those accustomed to looking at life and events with a gaze that begins above and aims high, it is clear that coincidences do not exist, but rather God’s plans, which are sometimes genuine works of embroidery, as the Servant of God Father Dolindo Ruotolo liked to call them.
And one such work of embroidery is what connects Carlo Acutis, who will be proclaimed a saint in 2025, to the Virgin Mary and the Rosary.
“We used to pray the Rosary together”
In the preface to the book The Shortest Ladder to Heaven, written for us by Father Michele Munno, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro recalls several important episodes that bear witness to this bond: “Carlo loved the prayer of the Rosary: an ancient prayer that was renewed every day on his lips; a prayer he learned and loved from earliest childhood, as Beata Sperczynska, the very young nanny who chose to care for him in Pompeii - a place Carlo loved and near which he spent his summer holidays - testified. She looked after him for three years, that is, until the child was six years old. The bond with Carlo, however, lasted until the end. She testified: ‘There was love at first sight between Carlo and me… Our relationship remained intense until his death… We used to pray the Rosary together, and this is not usual for a child, and he was proud to show his schoolmates, when I accompanied him, the Rosary as a sign of firm faith, and yet he was a child!… I remember that the Rosary was the daily prayer, every evening, so much so that it often happened that in the morning, when making the bed, we would find the Rosary among the sheets because he had fallen asleep while praying it.’”
And again, “as for the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin, our Blessed was a true apostle.” Rajesh Mohur, a young man who worked as a domestic servant in the Acutis household, recalls: “In the evening, after dinner, before going to bed, he would come and get me in the kitchen and take me to his parents’ bedroom, and we would all pray the Rosary together. Carlo wanted me to be there too for that moment of prayer to Our Lady shared by everyone.” Thanks to Carlo’s example, Rajesh - originally from the Mauritius Islands and a Hindu - chose to be baptized.”
“Not me, but God”
This is one of Carlo’s famous phrases, and it is not difficult to imagine that he learned it and lived it precisely by following Mary’s example, who, with her “Here I am,” chose God, renouncing herself. Father Michele Munno writes: “Carlo could only desire to resemble Mary. He consecrated himself to her several times, from when he was very young. He prayed the Rosary every day, seeking to make his heart beat in unison with that of the Mother of Jesus. He called her ‘the only woman in his life’. Carlo acknowledged this with clear simplicity: ‘Who more than the Virgin Mary can teach us to enter into intimacy with the three persons of the Most Holy Trinity, since she is the Mother of Jesus? Surely God will never deny her anything, since she is the creature he loves more than any other.’
For Carlo, praying the Rosary was ‘the most gallant appointment of his day’, an appointment during which ‘the only woman in his life’ showed him Jesus! Let us ensure that this month and in those to come, the Rosary also becomes for us an appointment with the Mother who loves us and leads us to her Son.
