Diary of Happiness: a book that urges us to love in everyday life

When we see the enthusiasm of young people develop into pastimes without fun, into activities that do not build up and into relationships that consume instead of enriching, we run the risk of falling into pessimism.
“Today’s young people are worthless” is a sentence we can sometimes hear from who has surrendered to the defeat of humanity.

Yet, there have been and there still are many daring young people, full of desire to take action and ready to give themselves to others.

Some examples of young people who have been able to transform their daily lives into masterpieces are presented in the book Diary of Happiness.

Stories of young people in search. A journey to the center of the human heart (published by Mimep Docete, price 8 euros, written by Sister Dolores Boitor and Cecilia Galatolo, laywoman, author of two other books we have written about:
You were born original, don’t live as a photocopy and I didn’t know, but I was waiting for you).

“Diary of happiness”: a book that instills hope Dead at an early age, but having lived their short lives in the service of others, these teenagers are now reference points for many peers in different parts of the world. We are talking about blessed Chiara Luce Badano,venerable Carlo Acutis, Matteo Farina and Angelica Tiraboschi, all joyful witnesses of a happiness that does not depend on circumstances or what you have, but on the state of health of the soul.

The book presents four invented diaries, written however on the basis of real events, actually pronounced phrases, funny or touching anecdotes about them.

Alongside each diary there is the biography of each one. What unites them is the acceptance, humbly and with confidence, albeit with efforts, of the disease that has affected them, seeing it as “transitory” and capable of leading them to the goal of life without end. As their bodies were suffering, their souls were singing.

Special and normal teenagers at the same time

Exceptional in their simplicity, the protagonists of this book (for whom the process of canonization by the Catholic Church is underway) show that it is not necessary to go to India or Peru to “become as the saints”: one can do good even in everyday life.

The four teenagers of the book found the meaning of life intruly loving their family and friends, indoing volunteer work, insharing their belongings with the poor, in listening attentively to those who were close to them.

They understood that the mission of loving awaited them exactly where they were, with the people they met in their “here and now”.

Young people who encourage us to aim high

If we don’t know how to find happiness, we can end up filling our days with things that anesthetize us, that silence that annoying inner voice that tells us: “You are a masterpiece and you have to do beautiful things to feel good”. So, these stories sting, have the power to shake us, to awaken a wonderful restlessness, to make us ask ourselves if we are wasting our time. Chiara, Carlo, Angelica and Matteo invite us to make courageous, authentic, heroic choices even in the most apparently banal occupations… they show us that we are in the world to transform reality, instead of surrendering to it. And, that we must want happiness, rather than just desire it.

The world needs witnesses more than teachers, as Pope Paul VI claimed. We do not need someone who will tell us “literally” what we should do with our lives, but rather someone who we can imitate, someone we can take as a model of “a good life”.

That’s why, if we are pessimists, discouraged, we don’t believe in our qualities, we actually do not love life, this very brief booklet is for us: let us be infected by the mysterious “joy” that these very normal and extraordinary young people had and try to imitate them and spread the good around us…