ORLANDO | Garrett Michelsen booked his flights to the Jubilee of Youth two days before Pope Francis died. He planned to attend the canonization of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, originally scheduled for August 3rd, but the pope’s death postponed the event. 

Still, the experience affirmed his faith and love for Christ’s Church and the Eucharist. Being a solo traveler, he found the community of faith welcoming.

“It was awe inspiring to see how truly catholic, as in universal, the Church is. You see the flags waving and people chanting in all the different languages. You think of Jesus giving us the command to go and baptize all the nations — and we’re doing it. It was cool to see all the different countries and cultures being brought to one celebration of youth,” Michelsen said.

Several communities embraced him as their own, among them some from Brazil and others from Mexico. “A lesson I learned was, the more you give then more you receive,” he said noting a series of exchanges of gifts between him and the Brazilian group. They spoke very little English, which they learned through pop culture.

“All we knew is that we loved each other,” he said. “We didn’t have the words, but we found a way to communicate through laughing and each other’s presence.”

He met them on a bus. They caught up with each other again and kept exchanging even greater gifts, both physical and spiritual. The connection grew deeper over the trip. On Saturday night they camped out after Eucharistic Adoration, waiting for Mass the next day in Tor Vergata. Afterward they invited him back to where they were staying. It was with the Sisters of the Poor of St. Catherine of Siena.

With the freedom to set his own schedule, he visited all the churches he could, almost 30 in all. A lay Dominican at age 28, Michelsen found himself at Santa Maria Sopra Minerva Church, praying before Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati’s body. The soon-to-be saint was also a lay Dominican and served as inspiration to Michelsen.

During his visits to the churches, he made a “shocking” discovery. Expecting to feel a different, greater emotion than when he goes to church at home because of their beauty, ancient history, and location he realized, “Jesus is the same everywhere.” “Yes, I recognized the beauty. But then every time I saw the tabernacle, it was me thinking Jesus is the exact same in Orlando as He is here. There’s no difference.”

And while the visit offered incredible graces of time spent with new friends, it was the Eucharist that made itself present through the people, through Pope Leo XIV, and through the future saints who found the Eucharist to be essential to their lives and mission.

He recalled watching Pope Leo kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament during Eucharistic Adoration. It recalled a memory of finding his own Bishop John Noonan kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament one evening during Holy Week, praying the Liturgy of the Hours.

Michelsen secretly joined in with him. “It was one of the coolest experiences. It brought me so much comfort and love watching my bishop pray. It was beautiful. The same thing came to mind during Adoration at the jubilee when Pope Leo was praying. It’s as if he was teaching us how to pray. It’s beautiful to see your shepherds do that for you, and for Christ,” he said.

Both Blessed Acutis and Blessed Frassati had reverence and love for the Eucharist. And although Michelsen admires both young men, he has a particular devotion to Frassati because he was also a lay Dominican. He said, “He’s manly. He’s like a bro. But he’s just the most humble person you can think of,” said Michelsen. “As St. Pope John Paul II said it so beautifully, ‘He was a man of the beatitudes.’ After reflecting on the Beatitudes, I knew that is what I want to be like. Paul says imitate me like I imitate Christ. And I thought, imitate Pier Giorgio as he imitates Paul, who imitates Christ. I want to be like this man.”

“What I hope the canonizations inspire is hope in the youth, for them to have hope. In the world we think there’s a lack of faith, but there is not. People are willing to put their faith in anything. There is a lack of hope, of having hope in Christ.” Michelsen noted this “especially when you look at depression and anxiety and all these horrible things a lot of young people are suffering with right now.” He believes a lot of them need that virtue of hope that you get through your Baptism. His desire is for the canonizations to “allow hope to spurn and awaken those theological virtues (faith, hope, and charity) within young people.”

By Glenda Meekins of the Florida Catholic staff, September 04, 2025