Young People
Pope Francis not only seems young at heart, he really has the young at heart! In so many ways, and so many times and places, the Holy Father has sought out young people, encouraged young people, and tells the whole Church in Christus Vivit, that young Catholics are not the Church of tomorrow, they are the Church now! (No. 178).
This is the challenge of Jesus today to young people… to be church now!
What does it mean to be Church?
​
Church is not just the institution, the organisation, the buildings or all the deacons, priests and bishops who run everything day-to-day… The Church is Christ’s bride. The Church is the Body of Christ; continuing Jesus’ mission and presence in the world. The Church is every baptised member, a community of people under Jesus who is the head.
So, if you are Church, and your mission is to continue Jesus’ mission… then you have to build up the Kingdom of God in this world, here and now
We are to do as Jesus did… give Jesus our Mind, our Heart and our Will. We will build the kingdom of God when we cure the sick, feed the hungry, and tell people of the Good News… that Jesus has come and that God loves the world, and that all will be forgiven if we turn our lives to him.
"It is Jesus you seek when you dream of happiness; he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; he is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is he who provokes you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise...it is he who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle. It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.”
- St John Paul II
Did you know?
There are many websites which will lead you to Christ and to new adventures and new friendships.
Here are some websites that will get you started... the world is waiting for you!
Thoughts from the Pauline
Spirituality
Monthly spiritual bites
“There will be no new relationship with nature without a new human being,
and it is by healing the human heart that one can hope to heal the world from its social and environmental unrest.”
-Pope Francis
​
National Office for Vocation
“At this stage of history, the liberating message of the Gospel of Life has been put into your hands. And the mission of proclaiming it to the ends of the earth is now passing to your generation. Like the great Apostle Paul, you too must feel the full urgency of the task: 'Woe to me if I do not evangelize' (1 Cor 9:16). Woe to you if you do not succeed in defending life. The Church needs your energies, your enthusiasm, your youthful ideals, in order to make the Gospel of Life penetrate the fabric of society, transforming people’s hearts and the structures of society in order to create a civilization of true justice and love. Now more than ever, in a world that is often without light and without the courage of noble ideals, people need the fresh, vital spirituality of the Gospel.”