Fada Kempis: The Dragnet

LIVING SIBLINGS OF A SAINT

In our own time, we are blessed to know the younger siblings of saints, still in their youth, walking among us. The canonisation of St. Carlo Acutis shines as a radiant reminder to the young that holiness is not something outdated or distant, but a living call. It is not only about the sanctity of the soul, but also about transforming our world into something truer, kinder, and more beautiful.

How moving it was, then, to see Michele Acutis, Carlo’s younger brother, proclaim the Word of God at the very Mass where his brother was declared a saint. From the Book of Wisdom, his voice carried both the intimacy of family love and the universal hope that holiness is possible for every generation.

Carlo himself had already given his family a sign of hope. After his passing, he appeared to his mother in a dream, telling her she would once again become a mother. On the fourth anniversary of his death, when she was 44 years old, she welcomed twins, Francesca and Michele. That moment of new life, born from sorrow, now continues to unfold in the witness of a family forever marked by grace.

©Felix Uche Akam: 08.09.2025

Saint in Sneakers, Apostle of the Eucharist

He coded programs and played on his PlayStation. He laughed through awkward videos with his friends. He was every bit a son of his time- ordinary, familiar, and wonderfully alive. Yet within the ordinary spark of a teenager burned an extraordinary fire: a love for Christ that shaped his days, lifted his gaze, and stirred his heart to acts of prayer and charity.

Saint Carlo Acutis became a prophet of our own generation, proving that holiness is not reserved for the distant past or cloistered lives, but can be woven into the digital age, into youthful energy, into the very pulse of our world. His mission was simple yet timeless: to draw hearts back to the living Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, the hidden treasure that sustained his soul.

St. Carlo reminds us that sanctity is not about escaping the world, but about transfiguring it. In sneakers and with code at his fingertips, he carried a message more powerful than any algorithm, the radiance of Christ alive in the Bread of Life.

“The more we receive the Eucharist, the more we will become like Jesus.” – St. Carlo Acutis.

© Felix Uche Akam

A Kiss of Life.

How many still remember this image?

He was gone. Yes, dead. Suspended against the sky, lifeless, draped over a power pole. Four thousand volts (4000) had torn through him.
His heart was silent. His breath, gone. His body, still.

And then. From below, his comrade moved. Not with hesitation, but with desperation. He climbed, higher, higher, into the trembling air.
And there at the edge of life and death, he did the unthinkable.

One arm clung to his fallen brother; the other to hope itself. Lips pressed to lips. He breathed fire back into ashes. He fought gravity. He fought death.

A stranger, passing by, lifted a camera. And the world was given a miracle, a single frame, frozen in time. They called it: “The Kiss of Life.”

The photograph shook the earth. It claimed a Pulitzer Prize. But the greatest prize of all was this:

A heartbeat returned. A breath drawn once more. Yes… he survived. He lives.

May we meet the stranded not with hesitation but with desperation that breathes a kiss of life to a soul soaked in tears of death.

© Felix Uche Akam
©Fada Kempis: The Dragnet

Can Any Liquid Be Used for Baptism?

The answer is no.
The Church teaches that baptism must be done with true water (aqua vera).

Valid water: This means ordinary water, whether natural or even purified/chemically prepared. It can come from rivers, seas, lakes, rain, melted snow, ice, or distilled water. As long as people recognize it as water, it is valid.

Invalid liquids: Sweat, saliva, tears, fruit juices, milk, coffee, beer, wine, or any other liquid cannot be used for baptism. These do not carry the proper symbolism of cleansing and life, and therefore cannot validly confer the sacrament.

Blessed water: For proper celebration (liceity), the Church asks that baptismal water be blessed especially during the liturgy so that it explicitly expresses God’s saving action.

Baptism requires real water, pure and recognizable as water. Not “any liquid” will do. This is because water uniquely symbolizes both cleansing from sin and the gift of new life in the Spirit.
©Fada Kempis: The Dragnet