Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Video message to youth, inviting them to prepare for WYD

Today, the Holy Father's Message addressed to young people in preparation for the 32nd World Youth Day (2017), which will be celebrated at the Diocesan level throughout the world on Palm Sunday (9 April 2017), was published.  The theme for this year's World Youth Day is The Almighty has done great things for me (Lk 1:49).

This year, in order to offer greater opportunities for the sharing of his Message, Pope Francis wished to present it to the youth throughout the world using a video which highlights some of the themes which are spoken of in the document, and to invite them to undertake the journey of preparing spiritually even now for the international celebration of World Youth Day which will take place in Panamà from 22 to 27 January 2019.


Video Message of His Holiness, Pope Francis
introducing his Message for the
2017 World Youth Day celebrations

Dear young people,

With the memory vividly in our minds of our meeting together at World Youth Day 2016 in Kraków, we have set out towards the next goal that will be, God willing, in Panamà in 2019. These moments of encounter and conversation with you are very important to me. I want this journey to proceed in line with preparations for the next Synod of Bishops because it is dedicated to you young people.

We are accompanied on this journey by Our Mother, the Virgin Mary. She encourages us with her faith, the same faith that she expressed in her song of praise. Mary said, The Mighty One has done great things for me (Lk 1:49). She knew how to give thanks to God who looked upon her lowliness, and she recognized the great things that God was accomplishing in her life. So she set off to visit her cousin Elizabeth who was old and needed her to be close by. Mary did not stay at home because she was not a young couch potato who looks for comfort and safety where nobody could bother her. She was moved by faith because faith is at the heart of Our Mother’s entire life story.

Dear young people, God is also watching over you and calling you, and when God does so, he is looking at all the love you are able to offer. Like the young woman of Nazareth, you can improve the world and leave an imprint that makes a mark on history ‒ your history and that of many others. The Church and society need you. With your plans and with your courage, with your dreams and ideals, walls of stagnation fall and roads open up that lead us to a better, fairer, less cruel and more humane world.

As you follow this path, I encourage you to cultivate a relationship of familiarity and friendship with Our Lady. She is our Mother. Speak to her as you would to a Mother. Together with her, give thanks for the precious gift of faith that you have received from your elders, and entrust your whole life to her. She is a good Mother who listens to you and embraces you, who loves you and walks together with you. I assure you that if you do that, you will not regret it.

Have a good pilgrimage to World Youth Day 2019.

May God bless you all.

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