Dear friends. March 25th this year marked the fifth anniversary of the publication of 'Christus Vivit...Christ Lives', the post-synodal exhortation on young people and addressed to the whole people of God. It is a document packed with wonderful wisdom, insight and guidance for young people and indeed for the whole Church. In Christus Vivit, Pope Francis speaks to young people from the loving heart of a father. Here are some extracts from a document that deserves to be read and re-read again and again. A link to the full document is found below.
“Christ is alive! He is our hope, and in a wonderful way he brings youth to our world, and everything he touches becomes young, new, full of life. The very first words, then, that I would like to say to every young Christian are these: Christ is alive and he wants you to be alive! He is in you, he is with you and he never abandons you. However far you may wander, he is always there, the Risen One. He calls you and he waits for you to return to him and start over again. When you feel you are growing old out of sorrow, resentment or fear, doubt or failure, he will always be there to restore your strength and your hope.
To discern our personal vocation, we have to realize that it is a calling from a friend, who is Jesus. When we give something to our friends, we give them the best we have. It will not necessarily be what is most expensive or hard to obtain, but what we know will make them happy. Friends are so sensitive to this that they can already imagine the smile on their friend’s face when he or she opens that gift. This sort of discernment that takes place among friends is what I suggest you take as a model for trying to discover God’s will for your lives”.
Pope Francis’ Post-Synodal Exhortation, Christus Vivit: To Young People and the Whole People of God, March 2019.
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