10/08/2023
+ Some of the beautiful words of Pope Francis during this World Youth Day 2023 in Lisbon, amidst the 1.5 million pilgrims gathered from all over the world!
• “As soon as the apostles get out of the boat to wash their nets, Jesus gets into the boat and calls them to lower their nets once more. At moments of discouragement, when we want to “retire”, let us allow Jesus to get into the boat again, with the excitement of the beginnings, an excitement that must be regained, reborn and relived. He comes to us amid our feelings of solitude and our crises, in order to help us begin anew. The spirituality of new beginnings. Do not be afraid of this. For that is how life is: we fail and we start over, we grow weary and we find renewed joy. We put our hands into the hands of Jesus. Today too he stands at the shore of our lives, to revive our hope and to say to us, as he did to Simon and the others: “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch” (Lk 5:4). And when we lose excitement, we find a thousand justifications not to lower the nets, and particularly that sullen resignation that is like a worm eating into the soul. Brothers and sisters, we are surely living in difficult times, we know that, but the Lord is asking this Church: “Do you want to leave the boat and plunge into disappointment, or will you let me enter and allow the newness of my words once more to take the helm?…”
• “Today, as much as ever, the words spoken by Saint John Paul II at one World Youth Day ring true: ‘It is Jesus whom you seek whenever you dream of happiness. When you find little that brings you satisfaction, he is there, waiting for you. He is the beauty that you so greatly desire. He is the one who instils in you the thirst for fulfillment that does not allow you to settle for compromise. He is the one who urges you to set aside the masks that deceive. He is the one who enables you to understand the deepest desires of your heart, and to make the decisions that others may want to discourage you from taking. Jesus is the one who stirs within you the desire to do something great with your lives… Do not be afraid to entrust yourselves to him!’… (Prayer Vigil, Rome, 19 August 2000).”
• “Dear young people, I would like to look each of you in the eye and say: Do not be afraid! Now I will tell you something even more beautiful: Jesus himself is now looking at you. He knows you; he knows what is in your heart; he smiles at you and tells you once again that he loves you, always and infinitely. Always and infinitely! Go forth then, bringing God’s radiant smile to everyone! Go and bear witness to the joy of faith, to the hope that warms your hearts, and to the love that you bring to everything you do. Shine with the light of Christ. Listen to him so that you, too, may become the light of the world. And do not be afraid, for the Lord loves you and walks at your side. With Jesus, life is born anew, always.”
~ Pope Francis, Lisbon 2023
