The greatest risk in life is to waste it by not seeking to follow God’s plan, Pope Leo XIV said at the canonisation of two young laymen of the 20th and 21st centuries – St Pier Giorgio Frassati and St Carlo Acutis. Source: OSV News.
“Sts. Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis are an invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to squander our lives, but to direct them upward and make them masterpieces,” the Pope said yesterday.
“The simple but winning formula of their holiness,” he said, is accessible to everyone at any time. “They encourage us with their words: ‘Not I, but God,’ as Carlo used to say. And Pier Giorgio: ‘If you have God at the centre of all your actions, then you will reach the end.’”
Before canonising the first saints of his pontificate, Pope Leo greeted the more than 80,000 faithful who had gathered early in St Peter’s Square because he wanted to share his joy with them before the start of the solemn ceremony.
“Brothers and sisters, today is a wonderful celebration for all of Italy, for the whole Church, for the whole world,” he said before the Mass.
“While the celebration is very solemn, it is also a day of great joy, and I wanted to greet especially the many young people who have come for this holy Mass,” he said, also greeting the families of the soon-to-be saints and the associations and communities to which the young men had belonged.
Pope Leo asked that everyone “feel in our hearts the same thing that Pier Giorgio and Carlo experienced: this love for Jesus Christ, especially in the Eucharist, but also in the poor, in our brothers and sisters.”
“All of you, all of us, are also called to be saints,” he said, before leaving to prepare for Mass and paying homage to a statue of Mary with baby Jesus and the reliquaries containing the relics of the two young men.
The Pope said the new saints “cultivated their love for God and for their brothers and sisters through simple acts, available to everyone: daily Mass, prayer and especially Eucharistic adoration.”
FULL STORY
New young saints encourage faithful to live life to the full, Pope says (By Carol Glatz, OSV News)
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