Carlo the Millennial Saint
a phone-free pilgrimage
Last week, I watched a documentary about the millennial saint, Carlo Acutis - AKA “God’s Influencer.” The documentary detailed the ways that Carlo understood the power of technology and social media and used it intentionally to spread his message about Jesus. He enjoyed playing video games but limited this activity to one hour per week so as not to become addicted, showing tremendous insight from a young child.
The documentary, Carlo Acutis: Roadmap to Reality, also follows a group of teenagers from North Dakota as they embark on a pilgrimage to various sacred Catholic sites in Italy. The catch: they left their smartphones back home in America.
I loved watching the teens transform as time went on. At first they were anxious about being separated from their favorite digital appendage. But as the days went on, they quickly forgot about the digital lives they’d left back home and were able to lean more deeply into their real-life experiences and the relationships with the people around them.
At the end of the trip, as they were reflecting on their phone-free trip, one of the students commented: “If we’d had our phones, our meals definitely wouldn’t have been as loud!” Without their phones to distract them, they were able to be fully present with the world around them, which meant a lot of banter and joking — common teen behavior but more rare now that phones have become their primary mode of communicating.
Also, without their phones to transport them into another reality, they were able to connect more deeply with their faith as they visited the sacred sites. The clergy-people planning the pilgrimage knew what they were doing!
I am not a religious person but I would certainly call myself a spiritual person. And one of the things that the smartphone robbed me of was that connection to my spiritual self. With all the noise and external connection available at my fingertips, it was hard to listen to my own inner voice and tend to that quiet spirit. I won’t say it’s impossible, but the distraction of the phone makes it harder.
Our spiritual selves and our religious faith don’t remind us to pay attention with the ding of notifications. It’s only is staying present in the moment and with ourselves that we can truly tap in.
Have you ever taken a trip and left your smartphone at home? Tell us about it in the comments!
This is wild! Super interesting.
For a few months every year, I'm probably camping in places that only have occasional cell signal. I get used to getting really focused checking and responding. It's a lot better than having it available all the time. I do notice being more relaxed and present when the airplane mode is on! 🧡
I would love to watch this documentary, Carmella -- how/where did you see it? On the website I see it's streaming on something called Credo starting at the end of the month but I don't see how to watch it before that.
Just got back yesterday from a camping trip at an International Dark Sky Park in VA -- low light pollution so people come from all over to see the stars. We had an amazing night sitting in a field and looking at the constellations, but it was strange to sit with the fact that there's no escape from the satellites in the night sky. There are so many of them, and they disrupt the shape of the constellations like hundreds of trickster stars.