LEAVES Website for May-June 2026 Issue
Excerpted from “Leaflets” column:
Dear friends of LEAVES. I have been looking for a text on the life of St. Carlo Acutis who was canonized by Pope Leo XIV in Rome this last Fall.
Not a long time ago, I found just what I was looking for in our chapel at Livonia, Michigan, a suburb of Dearborn Heights. I would like to share this text with you this month.
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Carlo Acutis was canonized a saint by Pope Leo XIV on the 7th of September 2025. The time between Carlo’s birth into eternal life and his canonization was almost as brief as his 15 years of life. In that short span, however, Carlo not only experienced “the life to the full’’ (Jn 10:10) that Christ came into the world to bring, but became a teacher to his parents, peers, the poor and now the whole Church.
He may already be the most famous 15-year-old to die.
He was born in 1991 in London. He was diagnosed with Leukemia in October 2006 and died just four days later.
While the more recent canonizations of Mother Teresa, John Paul II and John Henry Newman were all people quite famous during their life, few outside of Milan and Assisi would have known Carlo. But now, just 33 years after his birth, St. Carlo is perhaps touching far more people than any of those great saints did when they were 33. And he is just getting started.
Carlo had a precocious hunger for God: He prayed the Rosary every day from a young age; made his first Holy Communion a year early and then traveled regularly to Assisi; loved the saints; learned computers to design websites to spread his love of the Eucharist and Mary and to teach about angels and the four last things.
He came from a home that, as his mother Antonia has humbly said in various interviews, wasn’t even lukewarm to the Faith. By the time Carlo was born she said she had lived her life without wasting a minute on those things that do not please. Antonia had been to Church only three times in her life: The days she was baptized, confirmed and married.
Carlo, through his questions and zeal, eventually got her to take her faith more seriously.
He had an advanced awareness of the meaning of life and how to live well. “To be always united to Jesus is my program of life,” he declared.
In contrast to contemporary narcissism, he said that happiness comes from keeping “one’s face turned toward God and sadness comes from focusing your attention on yourself. Not I, but God’’ was his mantra. “Find God,’’ He stated, “and you will find the meaning of your life.’’
Carlo lived life with a certain urgency. “Every minute that passes,“ he said, “is one minute less to become like God,” and to become like God was his desire. “What does it matter if you can win a thousand battles, if you cannot win against your own corrupt passions?’’ he asked, “The real battle is with ourselves.’’
Right before he died, he said, “To have a long life doesn’t mean that this is a good thing. One can live a very long time and live badly.’’ He humbly confessed, “I am happy to die because I have lived my life without wasting a minute on those things that do not please God.”
Blessed Carlo had an ardent love for Jesus in the Eucharist. He lived a Eucharistic life, calling the Eucharist “my highway to heaven.” He attended daily Mass from the time he was seven and spent time each day in adoration. “The more Eucharist we receive,’’ he believed, “the more we will become like Jesus.”
He had a Eucharistic amazement, so fascinated by the Eucharistic miracles across the centuries that he went on an adventure to try to visit them all and to document them so that others could share his astonishment. It didn’t make sense to him that there would be huge crowds for soccer games and rock concerts but no lines before the tabernacle where God is present and lives among us? – Tracy Earl Welliver, MTS.
May you have a most interesting May and June meditating on this new saint – Fr. Michael Sheehy, C.M.M.
Excerpted from “Our Family Album”:
Change in Prayer
Regarding the Prayer to St. Gertrude the Great that appeared in the Nov-Dec issue of LEAVES: I was saying the same prayer myself. My husband John died January of 2022 on the feast of Our Lady of Hope (1-17-22). I decided to order the prayer to be put into our parish churches.
I received a note with my order saying the “Promises to free one or more souls from purgatory by the recitation of some prayer is prohibited by the Church” – Pope Leo XIII. Also, the revelation and prayer had been altered.
Revised Prayer to
St. Gertrude the Great
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.
Effective Wake-Up Call
A very long time ago our pastor gave a talk on the poor souls. He said that he did not count on us praying for him after he died. He said he counted on the poor souls. He said that he always had the first Mass of the day and used to tell them to get him up and they always did. He never had an alarm clock.
My parents were both in the hospital in 1970 and I thought: “How am I going to wake up on time?” I did as Father said and I woke up. I also do this now as I am hard of hearing and cannot hear the alarm and I wake up.
Thank you for LEAVES magazine, a wonderful magazine. I read it from cover to cover – Kathy B.
A Life of
Blessed Engelmar
There is available a booklet of the life of Bl. Engelmar Unzeitig, C.M.M. You may receive a free copy of it by sending a stamped (postage for one ounce), self-addressed envelope to us at: LEAVES, P.O. Box 87, Dearborn, MI 48121-0087.
I am sending a donation for prayers answered. I had a cancer scab removed from my nose. The hole was quite large. I prayed to the Sacred Heart, Ss. Therese and Jude and Fr. Engelmar. When it was all healed the hole was much smaller. The doctor was shocked at how much it had filled in. I enjoy LEAVES magazine! I am 84 years old. Love – Arlene S.
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Thanks to God, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Ss. Teresa, Jude, Francis, Ann, Michael, Raphael and Gabriel, Bl. Solanus, our guardian angels and Bl. Engelmar and all the LEAVES people, priests and missionaries. Pray for all souls in purgatory to be released. God bless us all – The Weavers.
Novena in Honor of
Abbot Francis Pfanner
Abbot Francis Pfanner founded Mariannhill Monastery, and 100 years ago its monks became the Congregation of Missionaries of Mariannhill. He was not only a great missionary, but also a holy man. The cause for his beatification has begun. We have available a novena in his honor and will send you a free copy of it when you send a stamped (postage for one ounce), self-addressed envelope to us at: LEAVES, P.O. Box 87, Dearborn, MI 48121-0087.
Hail Mary in May
It has been suggested that during the month of May, we pray a quick Hail Mary at the top of every hour of the day. It can be prayed aloud, silently or whispered, depending on your circumstances.
Prayer to
St. Joseph
Almighty God,
in your infinite wisdom and love
you chose Joseph to be the husband of Mary,
the mother of your Son.
As we enjoy his protection on earth,
may we have the help of his prayers in heaven.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
By St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690)
O Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ, I give myself and consecrate my person and my life, my actions, pains and sufferings, so that I may be unwilling to make use of any part of my being other than to honor, love and glorify Your Sacred Heart. This is my unchanging purpose, namely, to be all Yours and to do all things for the love of You, at the same time renouncing with all my heart whatever is displeasing to You.
I therefore take You, O Sacred Heart, to be the only object of my love, the guardian of my life, my assurance of salvation, the remedy of my weakness and inconstancy, the atonement for all the faults of my life and my sure refuge at the hour of death. Be then, O Heart of goodness, my justification before God the Father and turn away from me the strokes of His righteous anger.
O Heart of love, I put all my confidence in You, for I fear everything from my own wickedness and frailty, but I hope for all things from Your goodness and bounty. Remove from me all that can displease You or resist Your holy will; let Your pure love imprint Your image so deeply upon my heart that I shall never be able to forget You or to be separated from You. May I obtain from all Your loving kindness the grace of having my name written in Your Heart, for in You I desire to place all my happiness and glory, living and dying in bondage to You. Amen.
Grace
By Margaret Peterson
What does it take to grow in the Lord
What makes a soul to shine
With heaven’s own light that comes from above
Straight from God’s hand, divine?
It’s God’s holy grace, so freely given,
If you just ask, you’ll receive
In more than sufficient amounts of it,
More than you’d ever believe!
Our soul would be parched and dry without it.
How could we expect to be good
And kind and loving to those around us?
We couldn’t, though we knew that we should!
Don’t forget our sweet Mother Mary,
Though born in an ordinary place,
She rose to heights that never would have been,
Unless she was “full of grace.”
The People of God
By Bea Waltz
I took to the trail
In search of the Grail
When I came upon a human travail,
Victims locked in an invisible jail
I heard their cries,
I saw their eyes.
They are the People of God.
They reached out to me
With uncertainty,
Drenched in the stench of their poverty.
Is this what the world calls obscenity?
I heard their cries,
I saw their eyes.
They are the People of God.
In the quest for the Grail
I could not fail;
The Spirit brought me to the end of my trail.
I found the Lord in the midst of their wail.
I soothed their cries
And brightened their eyes.
The Grail is the People of God.
Eyes of Christ
By Margaret Buchicchio
His eyes caught mine today
In a way not done before,
Riveted, I should say,
In a way that made me sure.
His eyes cut through my brave façade
And pierced my fragile shell.
They held me like the gentle God
Who loves His children well.
I knelt at length before the cross
From which He gazed at me.
His agony was not a loss
But wondrous victory.
And pondering my sinful ways,
I’ll never understand
The treasure that His great love lays
In my unworthy hands.
I only know His love goes far
Beyond my human mind,
And nothing in this world can mar
What in His eyes I find.
Excerpted from “Leaflets” column:
Dear friends of LEAVES. I have been looking for a text on the life of St. Carlo Acutis who was canonized by Pope Leo XIV in Rome this last Fall.
Not a long time ago, I found just what I was looking for in our chapel at Livonia, Michigan, a suburb of Dearborn Heights. I would like to share this text with you this month.
+ + +
Carlo Acutis was canonized a saint by Pope Leo XIV on the 7th of September 2025. The time between Carlo’s birth into eternal life and his canonization was almost as brief as his 15 years of life. In that short span, however, Carlo not only experienced “the life to the full’’ (Jn 10:10) that Christ came into the world to bring, but became a teacher to his parents, peers, the poor and now the whole Church.
He may already be the most famous 15-year-old to die.
He was born in 1991 in London. He was diagnosed with Leukemia in October 2006 and died just four days later.
While the more recent canonizations of Mother Teresa, John Paul II and John Henry Newman were all people quite famous during their life, few outside of Milan and Assisi would have known Carlo. But now, just 33 years after his birth, St. Carlo is perhaps touching far more people than any of those great saints did when they were 33. And he is just getting started.
Carlo had a precocious hunger for God: He prayed the Rosary every day from a young age; made his first Holy Communion a year early and then traveled regularly to Assisi; loved the saints; learned computers to design websites to spread his love of the Eucharist and Mary and to teach about angels and the four last things.
He came from a home that, as his mother Antonia has humbly said in various interviews, wasn’t even lukewarm to the Faith. By the time Carlo was born she said she had lived her life without wasting a minute on those things that do not please. Antonia had been to Church only three times in her life: The days she was baptized, confirmed and married.
Carlo, through his questions and zeal, eventually got her to take her faith more seriously.
He had an advanced awareness of the meaning of life and how to live well. “To be always united to Jesus is my program of life,” he declared.
In contrast to contemporary narcissism, he said that happiness comes from keeping “one’s face turned toward God and sadness comes from focusing your attention on yourself. Not I, but God’’ was his mantra. “Find God,’’ He stated, “and you will find the meaning of your life.’’
Carlo lived life with a certain urgency. “Every minute that passes,“ he said, “is one minute less to become like God,” and to become like God was his desire. “What does it matter if you can win a thousand battles, if you cannot win against your own corrupt passions?’’ he asked, “The real battle is with ourselves.’’
Right before he died, he said, “To have a long life doesn’t mean that this is a good thing. One can live a very long time and live badly.’’ He humbly confessed, “I am happy to die because I have lived my life without wasting a minute on those things that do not please God.”
Blessed Carlo had an ardent love for Jesus in the Eucharist. He lived a Eucharistic life, calling the Eucharist “my highway to heaven.” He attended daily Mass from the time he was seven and spent time each day in adoration. “The more Eucharist we receive,’’ he believed, “the more we will become like Jesus.”
He had a Eucharistic amazement, so fascinated by the Eucharistic miracles across the centuries that he went on an adventure to try to visit them all and to document them so that others could share his astonishment. It didn’t make sense to him that there would be huge crowds for soccer games and rock concerts but no lines before the tabernacle where God is present and lives among us? – Tracy Earl Welliver, MTS.
May you have a most interesting May and June meditating on this new saint – Fr. Michael Sheehy, C.M.M.
Excerpted from “Our Family Album”:
Change in Prayer
Regarding the Prayer to St. Gertrude the Great that appeared in the Nov-Dec issue of LEAVES: I was saying the same prayer myself. My husband John died January of 2022 on the feast of Our Lady of Hope (1-17-22). I decided to order the prayer to be put into our parish churches.
I received a note with my order saying the “Promises to free one or more souls from purgatory by the recitation of some prayer is prohibited by the Church” – Pope Leo XIII. Also, the revelation and prayer had been altered.
Revised Prayer to
St. Gertrude the Great
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.
Effective Wake-Up Call
A very long time ago our pastor gave a talk on the poor souls. He said that he did not count on us praying for him after he died. He said he counted on the poor souls. He said that he always had the first Mass of the day and used to tell them to get him up and they always did. He never had an alarm clock.
My parents were both in the hospital in 1970 and I thought: “How am I going to wake up on time?” I did as Father said and I woke up. I also do this now as I am hard of hearing and cannot hear the alarm and I wake up.
Thank you for LEAVES magazine, a wonderful magazine. I read it from cover to cover – Kathy B.
A Life of
Blessed Engelmar
There is available a booklet of the life of Bl. Engelmar Unzeitig, C.M.M. You may receive a free copy of it by sending a stamped (postage for one ounce), self-addressed envelope to us at: LEAVES, P.O. Box 87, Dearborn, MI 48121-0087.
I am sending a donation for prayers answered. I had a cancer scab removed from my nose. The hole was quite large. I prayed to the Sacred Heart, Ss. Therese and Jude and Fr. Engelmar. When it was all healed the hole was much smaller. The doctor was shocked at how much it had filled in. I enjoy LEAVES magazine! I am 84 years old. Love – Arlene S.
+ + +
Thanks to God, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Ss. Teresa, Jude, Francis, Ann, Michael, Raphael and Gabriel, Bl. Solanus, our guardian angels and Bl. Engelmar and all the LEAVES people, priests and missionaries. Pray for all souls in purgatory to be released. God bless us all – The Weavers.
Novena in Honor of
Abbot Francis Pfanner
Abbot Francis Pfanner founded Mariannhill Monastery, and 100 years ago its monks became the Congregation of Missionaries of Mariannhill. He was not only a great missionary, but also a holy man. The cause for his beatification has begun. We have available a novena in his honor and will send you a free copy of it when you send a stamped (postage for one ounce), self-addressed envelope to us at: LEAVES, P.O. Box 87, Dearborn, MI 48121-0087.
Hail Mary in May
It has been suggested that during the month of May, we pray a quick Hail Mary at the top of every hour of the day. It can be prayed aloud, silently or whispered, depending on your circumstances.
Prayer to
St. Joseph
Almighty God,
in your infinite wisdom and love
you chose Joseph to be the husband of Mary,
the mother of your Son.
As we enjoy his protection on earth,
may we have the help of his prayers in heaven.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
By St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690)
O Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ, I give myself and consecrate my person and my life, my actions, pains and sufferings, so that I may be unwilling to make use of any part of my being other than to honor, love and glorify Your Sacred Heart. This is my unchanging purpose, namely, to be all Yours and to do all things for the love of You, at the same time renouncing with all my heart whatever is displeasing to You.
I therefore take You, O Sacred Heart, to be the only object of my love, the guardian of my life, my assurance of salvation, the remedy of my weakness and inconstancy, the atonement for all the faults of my life and my sure refuge at the hour of death. Be then, O Heart of goodness, my justification before God the Father and turn away from me the strokes of His righteous anger.
O Heart of love, I put all my confidence in You, for I fear everything from my own wickedness and frailty, but I hope for all things from Your goodness and bounty. Remove from me all that can displease You or resist Your holy will; let Your pure love imprint Your image so deeply upon my heart that I shall never be able to forget You or to be separated from You. May I obtain from all Your loving kindness the grace of having my name written in Your Heart, for in You I desire to place all my happiness and glory, living and dying in bondage to You. Amen.
Grace
By Margaret Peterson
What does it take to grow in the Lord
What makes a soul to shine
With heaven’s own light that comes from above
Straight from God’s hand, divine?
It’s God’s holy grace, so freely given,
If you just ask, you’ll receive
In more than sufficient amounts of it,
More than you’d ever believe!
Our soul would be parched and dry without it.
How could we expect to be good
And kind and loving to those around us?
We couldn’t, though we knew that we should!
Don’t forget our sweet Mother Mary,
Though born in an ordinary place,
She rose to heights that never would have been,
Unless she was “full of grace.”
The People of God
By Bea Waltz
I took to the trail
In search of the Grail
When I came upon a human travail,
Victims locked in an invisible jail
I heard their cries,
I saw their eyes.
They are the People of God.
They reached out to me
With uncertainty,
Drenched in the stench of their poverty.
Is this what the world calls obscenity?
I heard their cries,
I saw their eyes.
They are the People of God.
In the quest for the Grail
I could not fail;
The Spirit brought me to the end of my trail.
I found the Lord in the midst of their wail.
I soothed their cries
And brightened their eyes.
The Grail is the People of God.
Eyes of Christ
By Margaret Buchicchio
His eyes caught mine today
In a way not done before,
Riveted, I should say,
In a way that made me sure.
His eyes cut through my brave façade
And pierced my fragile shell.
They held me like the gentle God
Who loves His children well.
I knelt at length before the cross
From which He gazed at me.
His agony was not a loss
But wondrous victory.
And pondering my sinful ways,
I’ll never understand
The treasure that His great love lays
In my unworthy hands.
I only know His love goes far
Beyond my human mind,
And nothing in this world can mar
What in His eyes I find.