Are you looking for ways to awaken your ten-year-old’s faith? Or are you trying to help your 16-year-old granddaughter discern God’s will? Below you’ll find a letter addressed to young people that explores the life of St. Dominic Savio, who died when he was 15, and who has been canonized by the Catholic Church.

Consider reading the following letter to the teens and pre-teens in your life, or better yet, invite them to read it to you. Dominic can be a friend and an inspiration to every generation.

Dear Young People,

The name Dominic means “belonging to God.” Dominic Savio, who died in March of 1857, was a teenager who belonged to God in a radical way. 

The Catholic Church has declared him a saint, which means he learned to love others and to love God perfectly, and he is now in heaven. 

St. Dominic Savio’s life can teach you, and people of all ages, how to live the life God intends you to live! In the Bible, we read how Jesus told his followers, “I came so that [you] might have life and have it more abundantly” (Jn 10:10). Dominic believed this was true, and with God’s grace helping him, he lived an extraordinary life.

Most of us like to think that if we are passionate about something, nothing will stop us from following our passion. But when we start to feel passionate about our faith, we are sometimes afraid of being too radical. We fear losing friends, being judged, and “missing out” on something fun or exciting. Dominic wasn’t afraid to be “all in” when it came to his relationship with God. 

Here are three ways teens can imitate St. Dominic Savio:

Be Heroic

Years ago, one of my sons used to daydream a lot about saving people’s lives. He would imagine what he would do if a man entered the church during Mass and started waving a gun around. As an altar server, my son could picture himself leaping from his place on the altar and subduing the attacker, saving lives by risking his own.

This is a funny, but wonderful daydream, and I pray that all young men will be willing to sacrifice their lives for others. But it is doing the will of God in the ordinary things of life that make us heroes and saints. Ordinary activities of life show us what we are really made of and whether we are letting God make us into the people he created us to be. Sometimes putting God’s will before our own is called, “dying to ourselves,” because it is like a “little death” to say “no” to our own desires and “yes” to what is right.

What ordinary things can make you a saint like Dominic Savio? Things like hanging up your wet towel instead of leaving it on the floor of your bedroom, shutting off your gaming system when you know you should, talking pleasantly to your family members when you are annoyed, doing your schoolwork diligently, and praying every single day. It is that simple and it is that hard.

Dominic said, “I am not capable of doing big things, but I want to do everything, even the smallest things, for the greater glory of God.” When we “die to ourselves” and glorify God, the Bible tells us that God responds by giving us more than we could ever ask for or imagine. Jesus said, “Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it” (Luke 9:24).        

Make good resolutions and ask for God’s help.

As little kids, we start to learn what is right and good. As we get older, we discover that it isn’t always easy to do what is right and to be followers of Christ. (Dominic lived in Italy in the 1800s and the kids of his day and time had many of the same kinds of struggles that you do!)

As we grow, we may start to make bad choices and begin to close our hearts to God. When our heart becomes closed and hardened, we start to lose the ability to understand what love is and to see things clearly. Soon we find ourselves far from God and doing things our own way, which might feel good at first, but will lead to great unhappiness.

Dominic would tell us that doing things our way instead of God’s way is a boring and stupid way to live. Only by following God do we discover our reason for being and find true happiness. We need to rely on the Holy Spirit to help us! Prayer, Mass, and confession were important to Dominic because he realized that he could not live the Christian life by his own power.

St. Dominic Savio made these resolutions when he was very young: 

• go to confession and receive Holy Communion as often as possible
• make Sundays and Holy Days set apart and holy 
• be friends with Jesus and Mary
• die rather than sin

Over the years, when he failed to keep his good resolutions, Dominic turned to God for help and tried again.

Love and revere God and treat other people as God’s beloved children.

In a book called The Life of Dominic Savio, St. John Bosco shared that Dominic had so much respect and reverence for the name of God that, if he heard someone use God’s name disrespectfully, he would immediately say a prayer. He might even, boldly but humbly, ask the person to refrain from using the name of the Lord in that irreverent way. 

Many of the boys at Dominic’s school liked to hang out with Dominic. However, he went out of his way to befriend those who were unpopular and who struggled to fit in. 

Even when it put him at risk for ridicule or even physical danger, St. Dominic tried to help the boys he knew to respect God and avoid sin—sins such as lying, violence, foul language, and impure thoughts, words, and actions. Remember, one of his resolutions was to “die rather than sin.”

With God’s Help, You Really Can Live a Great Life

Pope Benedict XVI once shared with some German youth, “The ways of the Lord are not easy, but we were not created for an easy life, but for great things, for goodness.”

Dominic Savio was great. Following his example may sometimes seem unachievable, but nothing is impossible when we invite the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit into our lives. God will help us, and Dominic will pray for us if we ask him to. Little by little, we can discover the incredible life we were created for.

Try “following” Dominic Savio today!