Tucson woman writes a song to honor Saint Carlo Acutis

By New Outlook
 
September 7th marked a historic moment in the Catholic church when Pope Leo XIV canonized Carlo Acutis, the first Millennial Saint. Acutis was known for using technology to evangelize. The Italian boy died in 2006 at the age of 15 after battling leukemia. He was beatified by Pope Francis in 2020. Saint Carlos Acutis was canonized with Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati.
 
In Tucson, Lourdes León has a special devotion to Blessed Carlo Acutis. Lourdes, an educator at St. John the Evangelist Catholic School, even wrote a song in his honor titled “Jesus, My Highway to Heaven.”
 
Her connection to Acutis began during the pandemic, when teachers suddenly had to transition to digital classrooms. After more than 25 years of teaching face-to-face, Lourdes recalls feeling overwhelmed and unprepared to guide students through a computer screen.
 
One night in prayer, her thoughts turned to Carlo Acutis. She pictured his gentle smile and imagined him as one of the children she taught. “My anxiety began to lessen,” Lourdes remembers, “as I embraced Carlo Acutis and asked him to help me, because I need not be afraid of working on this platform.”

 
Over time, Lourdes began to feel more at ease. “Knowing that he used technology and embraced it in a holy way, I realized I needed to see it not as a burden, but as a way of adjusting and moving with the times.” Since then, she notes, her computer skills have grown, and she has discovered new ways to evangelize through technology.
 
The second moment of grace for Lourdes came when her teenage daughter began facing serious health challenges. “One of my friends had mentioned to me that Father Francisco Maldonado had visited Carlo’s tomb and returned with a 1st class relic. We asked him if we could celebrate a Healing Mass in our home with the relic, and he agreed,” she recalls.
 
On March 16, 2023, the León family prepared their home for the Mass. As she has done for more than 30 years, Lourdes also planned the hymns for the liturgy. She drew inspiration from a quote of Carlo Acutis: “Jesus is my great friend, and the Eucharist is my highway to heaven.”
 
That morning, while waiting in a doctor’s office with her daughter, she found herself quietly humming a melody. By that evening, she had shaped those notes into a song using many of Carlo’s words. The result was “Jesus, My Highway to Heaven,” a hymn born from both prayer and trial.

The lyrics are:
 
You are my Highway to Heaven. Jesus, my friend. You are my great friend. You are my Highway to Heaven. Jesus, my friend. You are my greatest friend.
To always be close to you - that is my life plan to see it through. Jesus, speak to me deep within. I want to follow you in everything.
You are my Highway to Heaven. Jesus, my friend. You are my great friend. You are my Highway to Heaven. Jesus, my friend. You are my greatest friend.
The more of you that I receive. The more holy that I will be. Jesus, speak to me deep within, I can trust you with anything.
You are my Highway to Heaven. Jesus, my friend. You are my great friend. You are my Highway to Heaven. Jesus, my friend. You are my greatest friend.
Jesus, come and take a seat. Make yourself a home in me.
Eucharistic Christ, whom I adore. I want to love you more and more.
You are my Highway to Heaven. Jesus, my friend. You are my great friend. You are my Highway to Heaven. Jesus, my friend. You are my greatest friend.

That same evening, Lourdes shared the song with her family and friends at the Healing Mass for her daughter. In the weeks that followed, she slowly introduced it to the parish community at Santa Cruz Catholic Church, where she serves as a music minister for the 10:00
a.m. Mass. With the news of Carlo Acutis’s upcoming canonization, she brought the song to her students a few months ago.
 
Like Saint Acutis, Lourdes embraces technology as a tool for evangelization. She prepares music for school-wide Masses and shares it with classroom teachers, providing both lyrics and audio recordings to help students “reengage” with the liturgy prior to the school Mass. If you’d like to hear “Jesus, My Highway to Heaven” sung by the school children at a recent Mass on the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, August 15, 2025, click here or listen below.

As Lourdes looks back on her devotion to Acutis, she reflects: “Saint Carlo Acutis is a shining light for us, guiding us in this time.” A longtime teacher at St. John School, Lourdes says what makes Carlo so meaningful is that he feels “approachable.” “He wore jeans and tennis shoes, he liked video games, and he used the internet—but he also knew moderation,” she explains.
 
As an educator, Lourdes admits she often worries about children today, surrounded by constant distractions. Yet she finds hope in Carlo’s witness. “He knew how to find the quiet, even as young as he was. He was drawn to the Eucharist and made it the center of his life—above the noise, above the distractions, and above all other created things. The Eucharist is our source and summit. We know that in our catechism, but he truly lived it.”
 
The third verse of her song sums it up, “Jesus, come and take a seat. Make yourself a home in me. Eucharistic Christ, whom I adore. I want to love you more and more.” Saint Carlo Acutis, pray for us!