Brothers and sisters of the Charismatic Renewal, good evening everyone.
I am pleased to send you this brief greeting underlining that Charles, even though he was not part of the Charismatic Renewal, he had the opportunity to participate in some of your Masses, to meet people belonging to the Charismatic Renewal. My husband followed a long period of time a prayer group that was part of the Charismatic Renewal. Charles truly lived what is the new life in the Spirit, your charisms, what is the main thing that characterizes you, this new life in the Spirit that led him to become an apostle as you do, to bring Jesus into the world.
He did it like Moses standing in front of the Burning Bush. Charles did it through Eucharistic adoration, which he did every day, or before or after Mass, he participated every day in Holy Mass since he made his first communion at the age of 7. He used to say that the Eucharist is the highway to heaven, because he truly lived this union with Christ through the Eucharist. Bringing this missionary spirit, precisely because he was docile to the action of the Holy Spirit, led him to take initiatives, including this exhibition on the Eucharistic miracle that was hosted in the 5 continents, just think in the United States he went beyond 10 thousand parishes, we are talking about distant continents such as India, Africa, Asia, we are talking about Australia, Europe, Latin America, Brazil, but above all, he wanted people to understand that Christ is truly and truly present in the Blessed Sacrament, he said that we are much more fortunate than those who lived 2 thousand years ago next to Jesus, because they were however prevented from seeing Jesus by space by time, it was difficult to approach Jesus, while we are enough go down to the nearest church under the house and we have Jerusalem under the house. Carlo used to say that we have Jerusalem with us. Here Carlo lived this constant presence in his life, he said that from a geological, astronomical point of view, since the incarnation of Jesus, the earth is always the same, but from a supernatural point of view it is no longer the itself, because the earth is cohabited by the Holy Trinity. And this fact that our little planet is cohabited by the Holy Trinity is something extraordinary. From a supernatural point of view it is really no longer the same planet and therefore Charles just perceived this. He lived all the things he did he did with Jesus, in Jesus and for Jesus.
Carlo, had an ordinary life as we can think that almost all young people today have, but precisely because he managed to put Jesus in the first place in his life, God in the first place, his life has become extraordinary and that is what we are called to do everyone, to become extraordinary too, holy as the Lord wants us to be. God has always thought of a unique and unrepeatable project for each of us, a project of holiness, it is up to us to put it into action.
Then Charles obviously brought this docility to the Spirit precisely because he received Jesus who gives himself to us through the most holy sacrament, he also led him to become an instrument of evangelization, with the poor with the weakest, to give himself to others, he helped the homeless person to road, he brought food he organized himself, he volunteered, he made sites for the parish for the Jesuits with young people. He has made other exhibitions, for example the one on angels and demons, hell, heaven and purgatory, the apparitions of the Madonna and the appeals of the Madonna. He also had a strong Marian devotion which is something that also characterizes you who are part of the Charismatic Renewal, this love for the Madonna, he said that the recitation of the rosary was there the greatest appointment of his day.
Carlo was above all this spirit of love that he had for Jesus, this great love, he wanted everyone to love Jesus, the Eucharist, everyone to understood the importance of the Eucharist, because he said that in the end there are kilometer lines in front of a rock concert or in front of a football match or an influencer, as they are now in fashion, but in front of the tabernacle we often see that there is emptiness. This was what Carlo wanted to really understand that Jesus is truly present. He said not me but God, not self-love, but the glory of God. When he received communion he said: Jesus take a seat, make yourself as if you were at your house precisely because he emptied himself of himself and filled himself with God. Carlo said that conversion is nothing more than a process of subtracti,on minus me to leave room for God. This was the battle with himself, he said that it is good for man to win a thousand battles if he is then unable to win himself with their own corrupt passions.
To conclude, I want to quote the phrase that Pope Francis quoted several times in his “Cristus Vivit” which is the closing document for the Synod of young people, where a chapter dedicated to Charles says “all are born original, but many die photocopies” and certainly in order not to die as photocopies, Charles entrusted himself to the sacraments, which Jesus deserved for us with his death on the cross, which are the effective signs of his grace. Above all, the Eucharist and confession and above all prayer; this union with Christ, with the Holy Spirit who truly moved him in so many actions in so many things, and it is this that I wish you all to be more and more bearers of Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit in order to be the outstretched hands of Christ in this world.
I greet you, I assure you of my prayers and I ask you for prayers for the canonization of Charles.
