Gio's Words

                                     words between 2 and 5 years

 

"Poor thing, what a bua"

he said pointing to the wounds of Jesus on the hands, feet and side of the large wooden crucifix of the Church of San Giuseppe in via Nomentana, Rome.

  

"Hello Jesus"

so he greeted Jesus turning to the tabernacle of the parish of St. Joseph.  

 

"The cross is beautiful"  

so he joyfully exclaimed with his arms raised looking at the whole group of pilgrims near the summit of Kricevaz, Medjugorje Bosnia, Easter 2009.

 

"Here he is Jesus, who wants to be all in all"  

so he said sitting astride the shoulders of his mother, pointing to the priest as he descended the steps from the outdoor altar of the Church of St. James, with the Hosts for the distribution of Communion, Medjugorje 1 October 2010.

 

"I am his servant"  

he said, addressing the Virgin Mother and Jesus, in front of the tabernacle of the Church of St. Catherine of Siena, on 68th street in East Manhattan New York.

 

"Let's say a Hail Mary for the mother and her baby"  

he said, pointing from his stroller to the pregnant women he met on the street on the way to MSKCC hospital in New York.

 

“I always lose. Jesus always wins; the good ones always win "  

he said these words in the context of severe physical suffering, also due to moments of crisis in illness and in 'medical torture'.

 

"Jesus brings us all on here" 

he said , flying a cross of palm leaves, woven by his sister Elisa in the Palm Sunday Mass, as if it were a small plane, while visiting the Monastery of the Dominican Sisters of Corpus Christi, Bronx New York.

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                                               words after his First Communion at 6 years old  

 

"Taste how good Jesus is"

"There is nothing better than Jesus"  

so he often repeated since October 2012, when he received Communion during the weekday Mass.

 

"Mom, who sings and prays, prays twice" 

so he said happily, after having participated, singing, in the Mass accompanied by a soprano friend, during the Eucharistic Adoration on Wednesday in the Church of Santa Caterina da Siena in New York

 

“Do you know who turns on the light? It is God who turns on and makes shine the light "  

he told the Memorial Hospital music therapist who sang the American folk song "Let it shine, this little light of mine" for the first time.

 

“Can't you hear how many are suffering? Let me bring the Communion here " 

so he urged his mother to have him bring Communion to the hospital instead  at home.  

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"The Johns are already all with me; I would like the other, the cousin of Jesus ... Saint Judas Thaddeus" 

he replied in this way to Father Michael O'Connor OP who asked him which saint he chose to receive the sacrament of Confirmation . On that day Gio had to die according to the predictions that had followed him for years, but inexplicably he recovered.  

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"How beautiful this church is: it is full of crosses"

he said looking towards the Altar of the Church of Santa Caterina da Siena in New York, close to the hospital and therefore frequented by many sick and family members who went there to deposit their sufferings.  

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"Jesus give me a new life"

so he prayed in the last Lent of 2013,  hospitalized  after 

the aggravation.

 

"Let us pray and show the cross"

so he said in the last Lent of 2013, hospitalized after the aggravation, in difficult situations in which one felt humanly tried and helpless.

 

"How nice to be in the house of Jesus, I would always like to stay there"

he said as he left the Church of Santa Caterina da Siena in New York.

 

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words from March 31, 2013

(Easter of the Lord, and 7th birthday of Gio)

to Thursday 30 May 2013

(feast of Corpus Domini and day of his birth into heaven)

 

"Mom my body is weak it can't do it"

"Do not  you worry so much about my body, even if you like to heal me and touch me, you know it will become dust "

thus he prepared his mother for detachment from him and from his earthly life to look to the heavenly life.  

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"You must learn to feel me like you feel Jesus in your heart"

he said touching his mother's heart, to ask her to learn to listen to him there, as he listened to Jesus; so he should have done when he left Jesus.

 

“Do you see my patience? I ask for it to Jesus "

she said during MSKCC hospital admissions, when she was undergoing painful medications and medical treatments.  

 

"I am a lamb, the lamb of Jesus"

so hummed one morning when waking up in  hospital, referring  also to the small statue of Jesus the Good Shepherd given to him by  mom on her 7th birthday.

 

“I serve Jesus by suffering.

Jesus is with me when I suffer. The sicker one is, the more serves Jesus"

so he asserted in the last period of hospitalization before death. 

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"Now I help Jesus to carry the cross"

so he explained to his mother in the final path of the illness, painful and full of unusual complications, what his place was in the passion lived with Jesus .

 

"Children suffer with Jesus and they are all safe"

she reminded her mother to also pray for the adults who suffered and were in danger, because they struggled to accept their suffering and to live it with Jesus.