'WE PRAY FOR ALL YOUNG PEOPLE, CALLED TO LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST; MAY THEY SEE IN MARY’S LIFE THE WAY TO LISTEN, THE DEPTH OF DISCERNMENT, THE COURAGE THAT FAITH GENERATES, AND THE DEDICATION TO SERVICE'.
In his message for the month of May this year, Pope Francis brings together the themes of young people, vocation, discernment, service and the example of Mary. He did the same in his 2019 Apostolic Exhortation 'Christus Vivit' that was published after a synod on the youth in Rome the previous year. Here is an extract from that inspiring document that puts before young people a challenge but also great encouragement to live a life of service, commitment and joy in God.
'Jesus can bring all the young people of the Church together in a single dream, “a great dream, a dream with a place for everyone. The dream for which Jesus gave his life on the cross, for which the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost and brought fire to the heart of every man and woman, to your heart and mine. To your heart too, he brought that fire, in the hope of finding room for it to grow and flourish. A dream whose name is Jesus, planted by the Father in the confidence that it would grow and live in every heart. A concrete dream who is a person, running through our veins, thrilling our hearts and making them dance'.
'If you are to accompany others on this path, you must be the first to follow it, day in and day out. That is what Mary did, in her own youth, as she confronted her own questions and difficulties. May she renew your youthfulness by the power of her prayers and accompany you always by her maternal presence'.