Maybe a family member, maybe a neighbor, maybe a student or client you work with professionally.

Instead of seeing them primarily through the lens of their limitations or diagnosis, ask yourself, “What if God has given this person unique gifts that I’ve been missing because I’ve been looking for typical markers of intelligence and capability? What if their different way of experiencing the world gives them access to truths and realities that my filtered conventional consciousness screens out? Third, I invite you to pray to St.

Carlo Aquitis, especially if you have someone in your life with special needs or if you’re struggling to believe that God is real and active in our world, you can use this simple prayer that we found meaningful.

St.

Carlo, you understood what it means to be different, to see the world in your own unique way, and to use your particular gifts for God’s glory.

Help me recognize the gifts in people I’ve been seeing only as limited or broken.

Help me believe that heaven is real and that God speaks to us in ways more diverse than I’ve imagined.

And if it’s God’s will, let me experience some sign of your presence and intercession.

Amen.

Finally, share this testimony with someone who needs to hear it.

Maybe you know a parent who’s exhausted from caring for a special needs child and who needs to hear that their child might carry gifts they haven’t recognized.

Maybe you know someone who’s lost their faith and needs to hear that God pursues us through unexpected channels.

Maybe you know an educator or therapist who works with special needs individuals and who could benefit from expanding their understanding of what these children and adults might be experiencing.

Drop a comment below telling me your own story.

Have you witnessed something in a person with developmental differences that seem to go beyond their diagnosis? Have you experienced St.

Carlo’s intercession in your life? Are you caring for someone with special needs and struggling to see hope in the situation? Your testimony might be exactly what another person needs to hear to keep going, to start believing or to recognize the miracle that’s been in front of them all along.

Remember what Mateo wrote in his own account.

His autism wasn’t a mistake, but the exact thing God used to reach our family.

Whatever differences or difficulties you’re facing in your life or in the lives of people you love, consider the possibility that God might be present in those very challenges in ways you haven’t yet recognized.

The same God who spoke through a nonverbal autistic boy and worked through a teenage saint who died almost two decades ago is still speaking, still working, still reaching across every boundary we think separates heaven from earth.

May St.

Carlo Autis continue to intercede for all families touched by developmental differences, helping us see that what the world calls disability might sometimes be a different kind of ability.

The ability to perceive and communicate realities that typical consciousness filters out.

The ability to remind us that we’re surrounded by mystery and miracle.

The ability to call us back to wonder and faith and the recognition that we’re never alone.

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