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For the young

We are writing to you because "youth is the time, dear young people, when you are asking what you should do with your life, how you can help the world to be a little better, how promote justice and peace."

We want to be with you.

Jeunes

"Hope dwells in you because you belong to the future just as the future belongs to you."

(John Paul II, Apostolic

Letter 1985)

"Today God still seeks young hearts, young persons with big hearts, capable of making space for Him in their lives so that He can use them to be the artisans of His New Covenant... capable of allowing themselves to be challenged by its newness and so set out with Him along new paths."

Benedict XVI,

to young people in Loreto

Whoever welcomes Christ loses nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing

of all that makes life free, beautiful and great.

No! Only in this friendship are the gates of life

thrown wide open.

Only in this friendship are the tremendous

possibilities of human living revealed.

Only in this friendship do we experience what is beautiful

and what leads to freedom.

Today, my dear young people, I wish to say to you,

with great force and conviction,

drawn from long personal experience:

DO NOT BE AFRAID OF CHRIST!

He takes nothing from you, and he gives all.

Those who give their lives to Christ, receive the hundredfold.

Yes, open, open wide the gates to Christ and you will find true life.

Benedict XVI

"Young people, arise and set out on your way!

Do not be afraid to meet Jesus! Seek Him, listen to Him,

respond to Him, with attentiveness and availability!"

"Listen to the voice of the Lord which speaks to you in the events of daily life, in the joys and sufferings that each day brings, in the persons who are close to you, in the voice of conscience which is thirsting for truth, happiness, goodness and beauty.

The following of Christ, dear young people, requires a constant effort to contribute to the building of a more just, more united society where all can enjoy the goods of this earth."

John Paul II, Berne, June 2004

Young Anne Marie Javouhey turned down a proposal of marriage, saying:

"It seems to me that I am destined to do a little good.

It is too beautiful a vocation to be missed

I wish only to be the spouse of the Lord".

And I, what good am I being called to do?

How will I do this good?

With whom will I do it?

If you would like help to answer these questions, here is an address:

jeunes@sjcluny.org

Prayer for youth

O Lord Jesus Christ, keep these young people in your love. Let them hear your voice and believe what you say, for you alone have the words of life.

Teach them how to profess their faith, bestow their love, and impart their hope to others.

Make them convincing witnesses to your Gospel in a world so much in need of your saving grace.

Make them the new people of the Beatitudes, that they may be the salt of the earth and the light of the world at the beginning of the third Christian millennium!

Mary, Mother of the Church, protect and guide these young men and women of the twenty-first century. Keep us all close to your maternal heart. Amen.

John Paul II, World Youth Days,

Toronto, 2002

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