I’ve always thought that talking about yourself is one of the hardest things you can do, because you always run the risk of being too flattering. Or indeed of not being flattering enough. In any case, I’ll do my best.

My name is Antonio Signorato, I am 31 years old and I’m writing from Sicily.

I am a simple office worker with three great passions, a dream in my heart, and a tentative hope.

My job is about as mundane as it gets, but I don't mind that at all; in fact, I find it very comforting. I suppose that this is because I am somewhat mundane myself.

After football - which is my great love - my other two passions are literature and history.

That’s right, football! To many people, it’s just a silly game: vain divas showing off, and making millions by chasing a ball around.

I can’t deny that, in many ways, this is indeed the case.

However, to me, football is more than that. Nor would I say that it’s “just” the most beautiful sport in the world; it is, in fact, a veritable cornucopia of metaphors about life.

I will employ one of these to describe myself a little better.

I wouldn’t describe myself as a Brazilian striker, though! Carioca strikers are fast, daring, imaginative… the metaphor doesn’t fit me at all!

Nor am I a goalkeeper with feline reflexes, or an elegant, intelligent defender....

Wait, I've got it!

My perfect metaphor is that of a midfielder: his feet are about as graceful as a couple of rocks, and he won’t pull off a single long pass in his entire career, but he runs, sweats, and does the work of four men. He’s always there when you need him, and ultimately guys like him are an essential part of the team too!

My passion for literature, on the other hand, is an extension of my love for books and writing, which was ignited when I was still very young and has grown along with me throughout my life, hand in hand with my shyness.

For a boy with a few social difficulties, a pen and a blank sheet of paper can become two very useful tools!

In my teenage years, in fact, I learned that paper could listen better than my peers and that ink flowed more easily than speech.

I’ve continued to write ever since, albeit mostly for myself.

And I’ve never stopped reading.

My favorite author, just to confirm the mundane nature of my character - as well as certain stereotypes about particular Catholic circles - is J. R. R. Tolkien, the creator of “The Lord of the Rings.”

Although, to be honest, my very favorite book, the one that changed my life, is “The Treatise of True Devotion to the Virgin Mary” by St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort.

It’s a book that everyone should read: instructive and extremely comforting.

In this sense, one of the most important experiences of my life was the one I had at my local secondary school.

There, I spent a highly instructive five years studying literature, history, philosophy and art, among other things.

I describe these years as instructive not only because of the information that I gained - which, in itself is very important - but also for the mindset that the classical way of studying creates...

I feel fortunate to have had this experience, despite all the limitations and problems of the public school system, which are more significant now than ever.

Moreover, those years were instrumental to the development of my love of literature.

During my final two years, I twice had the opportunity to take part in a literary competition organized by the Italian Pro-Life Movement (MPV).

On the first occasion, I submitted a short essay entitled “Marriage: misunderstood and abandoned”. In this work, I tried to assess why the institution of marriage was, even then, so deeply in crisis, especially among younger generations.

Re-reading the essay with a more adult perspective, there’s a particular passage that I find very interesting.

“To love means to choose intelligently and freely, which is only possible when we are free of the slavery of the passions.”

It is a strikingly profound concept to have sprung from a teenage mind, especially taking into account the fact that my life at the time was hardly the Catholic ideal.

It’s proof of how God is constantly speaking to us, even when we are not listening to Him as carefully as we should.

My second essay, on the other hand, was a paper entitled “Europe: a contradiction to be solved.”

Here, too, I found a sentence that left me quite surprised upon re-reading it as an adult.

“Europe constitutes the greatest contradiction in history.”

What I meant by that statement was that alongside the Europe that proclaimed itself a champion of rights, freedoms and civil achievements, there existed another that denied the most basic right: the right to life.

I wrote those words twelve years ago, yet they could have been written yesterday: a sign that the problems of that time, far from being resolved, have, if anything, worsened.

Re-reading those passages, I could perceive my love for writing in its primordial form, as well as all the “ardor” of youth, admittedly still heavily influenced by a rather naive way of thinking, but nevertheless full of determination.

Something I definitely feel jealous of my younger self.

Both essays were selected, along with others, to win a very special prize: the chance to participate in the “Vittoria Quarenghi” summer seminar.

This seminar is an event held every year by the MPV, a study vacation which addresses the principal pro-life issues of the time. We also had a lot of fun, which certainly didn't hurt.

To this day, the memories from the two seminars that I attended are still among those that I most cherish.

I was able to meet a lot of people, form various friendships, and listen to a large number of conferences, all of which were very interesting and educational. Above all - and this was a very big deal to me at the time - I realised that I wasn’t “alone” in the world. I was surrounded by other pro-lifers, other people who shared my same values, values that I had thought were extinct.

It was at that time, and as a result of those experiences, that I committed myself as a volunteer for the Pro-Life Movement. My time as a volunteer lasted for a few years, and is one of the things I am most proud of.

Finally, my third passion, history, grew as the result of my brother's infectious enthusiasm.

I am by no means an expert, but I love reading and listening to those who study the field in depth, because, upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that history can truly be considered magistra vitae.

My dream is to further my studies in the field of history. Beyond the private study that I already do, I would love to be able to study history but also at the university level, which I have never had a chance to do.

Of course, my ID card rather pushes the odds against me, but I have learned the importance of never giving up!

God willing, it will happen!

As for my tentative hope, I will talk about that later.

First, I would like to recount what, for all intents and purposes, was the most important turning point in my life: my encounter with the “eternal” Mass.

A few years ago, I was struggling through a difficult period of my life, in which goals, hopes and motivations were almost out of sight. It was at this time that, after lengthy work on myself and thanks to a thousand providential circumstances, I had the opportunity to attend the “ancient” rite, the so-called “Latin Mass”, for the very first time.

Before the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar, I discovered and re-discovered Faith.

Re-discovered because, in fact, I have always been Catholic, albeit “in my own way.”

Discovered because, for the first time, I truly realised the depth of my ignorance in the ways of God, and the tragedy of my own indifference to Him.

Thus began the profound reformation of my life, which we are all called to do in one way or another, and which will last, with God's help, for the rest of our days.

To tell the truth, I am still the same “midfielder” that I have always been; if anything, in view of the graces I have received, my ignorance has grown, rather than diminished!

But it is one thing to walk alone, and quite another to walk the paths of the Lord: it makes all the difference in the world!

Of course, there was no way that a life change as important as this wouldn’t have an impact on my love for writing.

Writing for myself, writing about myself, no longer seemed enough.

It didn't feel right. I felt that that side of my life also needed to be included in the aforementioned reform.

I also felt a new desire to put God at the centre of this area.

My goal, clearly, was not (and is not) to teach anyone anything, because I have little or nothing to teach anyone; rather, I wanted to share all those little aspects of the Faith that, with the amazement of a child, I have the grace to observe in my daily life.

A megaphone: that’s what I would like to be.

A megaphone for all the spiritual texts, all the lives of the Saints, all the Catholic-oriented considerations that fill my days.

Ultimately, a megaphone for all those voices, infinitely more important than mine, that for a thousand different reasons fail to reach the jaded masses of our time.

This is the tentative hope that I spoke of before: that despite my unworthiness to do so, I might be able to serve God through writing.

This hope and this commitment, I place in the hands of the Ever Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph Her Most Chaste Spouse and St. Anthony Abbot.