Benedict XVI delivers a great message to 25,ooo youth gathered in Assisi yesterday.Pope to youth: be, like Francis, in love with Christ and history’s protagonists
Dear young people, you have reminded me of some of the pressing issues for youth today, of your difficulties in building a future for yourselves and above all of your strained efforts to discover the truth.
In the account of Christ’s passion we find Pilates question: “What is the truth?” (Jn 18,38). It is a question which resounds widely throughout modern day culture. The Gospel indicates Christ as the truth: God’s truth and man’s truth. We risk spending our entire lives deafened by the chaos of empty voices, we risk losing his voice among the din, the only voice which counts because it is the only voice which saves. We content ourselves with fragments of the truth, we allow ourselves to be seduced by truths that are only such in appearance. Is it really a wonder, then, that we find ourselves surrounded by a world of contradictions, which, despite the many marvellous things, so often deludes us with its banal expressions, its injustices, and its violence? 
Without God, the world looses its basis and its direction. Do not be afraid my dear friends, to imitate Francis above all in the ability to turn to yourselves. He knew how to make room for silence within himself, to listen to God’s Word. Step by step he allowed himself to be taken by the hand and guided by God towards a full encounter with Christ, to the point of making it the precious treasure and light of his life. Link to the article.To read a second of Benedict XVI's message; On Peace, a Call From Assisi link here.
And for more photos of what Assisi looked like on June 17, 2007 link here.
3 comments:
I was hoping you would post on the Holy Father's pilgrimage to Assisi and his time with youth, Aramis. Thanks!
Benedict has a deep fondness for the conversion experience of St. Francis and has talked about it frequently. I did not do it here, however you could delve into BXVI's reflections on St. Francis and draw out many aspects of Girardian and mimetic theory -- connecting the dots with Paul's, "yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me" (Gal 2:20) and Francis' surrender to imitation of Christ.
Sadly, my only visit to Assisi (to date, at least) was a mixed event; it was great, to be sure, but St Clare's was closed and so I only got half the experience.
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