World Youth Days - Totus2us

World Youth Day / WYD 2011 Madrid, in Spanish. Papa Benedicto XVI: "Queridos jóvenes, Con la celebración de la Eucaristía llegamos al momento culminante de esta Jornada Mundial de la Juventud. Al veros aquí, venidos en gran número de todas partes, mi corazón se llena de gozo pensando en el afecto especial con el que Jesús os mira. Sí, el Señor os quiere y os llama amigos suyos (cf. Jn 15,15). Él viene a vuestro encuentro y desea acompañaros en vuestro camino, para abriros las puertas de una vida plena, y haceros partícipes de su relación íntima con el Padre. Nosotros, por nuestra parte, conscientes de la grandeza de su amor, deseamos corresponder con toda generosidad a esta muestra de predilección con el propósito de compartir también con los demás la alegría que hemos recibido. Ciertamente, son muchos en la actualidad los que se sienten atraídos por la figura de Cristo y desean conocerlo mejor. Perciben que Él es la respuesta a muchas de sus inquietudes personales. Pero, ¿quién es Él realmente? ¿Cómo es posi

World Youth Day / WYD 2011 Madrid, in Spanish, French, English, German, Portuguese and Polish. Papa Benedicto XVI: "Queridos jóvenes: Hemos vivido una aventura juntos. Firmes en la fe en Cristo habéis resistido la lluvia. Antes de marcharme, deseo daros las buenas noches a todos. Que descanséis bien. Gracias por el sacrificio que estáis haciendo y que no dudo ofreceréis generosamente al Señor. Nos vemos mañana, si Dios quiere. Os espero a todos. Os doy las gracias por el maravilloso ejemplo que habéis dado. Igual que esta noche, con Cristo podréis siempre afrontar las pruebas de la vida. No lo olvidéis. Gracias a todos." For much more, visit Totus2us.org - dedicated to Our Lady, it is inspired by our holy Fathers St John Paul II, Papa Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. Totus Tuus - All Yours - was JPII's motto to Mary; Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.

World Youth Day / WYD 2011 Madrid, in Spanish. Papa Benedicto XVI: "La Eucaristía, de cuya institución nos habla el evangelio proclamado (cf Lc 22,14-20), es la expresión real de esa entrega incondicional de Jesús por todos, también por los que le traicionaban. Entrega de su cuerpo y sangre para la vida de los hombres y para el perdón de sus pecados. La sangre, signo de la vida, nos fue dada por Dios como alianza, a fin de que podamos poner la fuerza de su vida, allí donde reina la muerte a causa de nuestro pecado, y así destruirlo. El cuerpo desgarrado y la sangre vertida de Cristo, es decir su libertad entregada, se han convertido por los signos eucarísticos en la nueva fuente de la libertad redimida de los hombres. En Él tenemos la promesa de una redención definitiva y la esperanza cierta de los bienes futuros. Por Cristo sabemos que no somos caminantes hacia el abismo, hacia el silencio de la nada o de la muerte, sino viajeros hacia una tierra de promisión, hacia Él que es nuestra meta y también nuestro p

World Youth Day / WYD 2011 Madrid, in Spanish. Papa Benedicto XVI: "He ahí vuestra importante y vital misión. Sois vosotros quienes tenéis el honor y la responsabilidad de transmitir ese ideal universitario: un ideal que habéis recibido de vuestros mayores, muchos de ellos humildes seguidores del Evangelio y que en cuanto tales se han convertido en gigantes del espíritu. Debemos sentirnos sus continuadores en una historia bien distinta de la suya, pero en la que las cuestiones esenciales del ser humano siguen reclamando nuestra atención e impulsándonos hacia adelante. Con ellos nos sentimos unidos a esa cadena de hombres y mujeres que se han entregado a proponer y acreditar la fe ante la inteligencia de los hombres. Y el modo de hacerlo no solo es enseñarlo, sino vivirlo, encarnarlo, como también el Logos se encarnó para poner su morada entre nosotros. En este sentido, los jóvenes necesitan auténticos maestros; personas abiertas a la verdad total en las diferentes ramas del saber, sabiendo escuchar y viviendo

World Youth Day / WYD 2011 Madrid, in Spanish. Papa Benedicto XVI: "La radicalidad evangélica es estar “arraigados y edificados en Cristo, y firmes en la fe” (cf. Col, 2,7), que en la Vida Consagrada significa ir a la raíz del amor a Jesucristo con un corazón indiviso, sin anteponer nada a ese amor (cf. San Benito, Regla, IV, 21), con una pertenencia esponsal como la han vivido los santos, al estilo de Rosa de Lima y Rafael Arnáiz, jóvenes patronos de esta Jornada Mundial de la Juventud. El encuentro personal con Cristo que nutre vuestra consagración debe testimoniarse con toda su fuerza transformadora en vuestras vidas; y cobra una especial relevancia hoy, cuando «se constata una especie de “eclipse de Dios”, una cierta amnesia, más aún, un verdadero rechazo del cristianismo y una negación del tesoro de la fe recibida, con el riesgo de perder aquello que más profundamente nos caracteriza» (Mensaje para la XXVI JMJ 2011, 1).Frente al relativismo y la mediocridad, surge la necesidad de esta radicalidad que tes

World Youth Day / WYD 2011 Madrid, in Spanish. Papa Benedicto XVI: "Queridos amigos: sed prudentes y sabios, edificad vuestras vidas sobre el cimiento firme que es Cristo. Esta sabiduría y prudencia guiará vuestros pasos, nada os hará temblar y en vuestro corazón reinará la paz. Entonces seréis bienaventurados, dichosos, y vuestra alegría contagiará a los demás. Se preguntarán por el secreto de vuestra vida y descubrirán que la roca que sostiene todo el edificio y sobre la que se asienta toda vuestra existencia es la persona misma de Cristo, vuestro amigo, hermano y Señor, el Hijo de Dios hecho hombre, que da consistencia a todo el universo. Él murió por nosotros y resucitó para que tuviéramos vida, y ahora, desde el trono del Padre, sigue vivo y cercano a todos los hombres, velando continuamente con amor por cada uno de nosotros. Encomiendo los frutos de esta Jornada Mundial de la Juventud a la Santísima Virgen María, que supo decir «sí» a la voluntad de Dios, y María nos enseña como nadie la fidelidad a su

World Youth Day / WYD 2011 Madrid, in Spanish, French, English, German, Portuguese and Polish. Papa Benedicto XVI: "Chers jeunes francophones, vous avez répondu nombreux à l’appel du Seigneur à venir le rencontrer à Madrid. Je vous en félicite ! Bienvenue aux Journées Mondiales de la Jeunesse ! Vous portez en vous des questions et vous cherchez des réponses. Il est bon de chercher toujours. Recherchez surtout la Vérité qui n’est pas une idée, une idéologie ou un slogan, mais une Personne, le Christ, Dieu Lui-même venu parmi les hommes ! Vous avez raison de vouloir enraciner votre foi en Lui, de vouloir fonder votre vie dans le Christ. Il vous aime depuis toujours et vous connaît mieux que quiconque. Puissent ces journées riches de prière, d’enseignement et de rencontres vous aider à le découvrir encore pour mieux l’aimer. Que le Christ vous accompagne durant ce temps fort où, tous ensemble, nous allons le célébrer et le prier! I extend an affectionate greeting to the many English-speaking young people who hav

World Youth Day / WYD 1987 Buenos Aires, in Spanish. Papa San Juan Pablo II: "He venido a descansar un poco con vosotros, queridos jóvenes. He venido a escucharos, a conversar con vosotros, a rezar juntos. Quiero repetiros, una vez más – como os dije desde el primer día de mi pontificado – que “sois la esperanza del Papa”, “sois la esperanza de la Iglesia”. ¡Cómo he sentido vuestra presencia y amistad en estos años de mi ministerio universal a la Iglesia! Vuestro cariño y vuestras oraciones no han cesado de apoyarme en el cumplimiento de la misión que he recibido de Cristo. ... El lema de esta Jornada mundial, tomado de la primera Carta del Apóstol San Juan, nos muestra la fe de los primeros cristianos, y en particular la fe de este Apóstol, que siguió al Señor desde su juventud, creciendo en esa fe y en ese amor hasta su vejez. Precisamente hacia el final de sus días en la tierra, escribía: “Nosotros hemos conocido el amor que Dios nos tiene y hemos creído en El. Dios es amor, y quien permanece en el amor, p

World Youth Day / WYD 2002 Toronto, in English and French. Pope St John Paul II: "The new millennium opened with two contrasting scenarios: one, the sight of multitudes of pilgrims coming to Rome during the Great Jubilee to pass through the Holy Door which is Christ, our Saviour and Redeemer; and the other, the terrible terrorist attack on New York, an image that is a sort of icon of a world in which hostility and hatred seem to prevail. The question that arises is dramatic: on what foundations must we build the new historical era that is emerging from the great transformations of the twentieth century? Is it enough to rely on the technological revolution now taking place, which seems to respond only to criteria of productivity and efficiency, without reference to the individual’s spiritual dimension or to any universally shared ethical values? Is it right to be content with provisional answers to the ultimate questions, and to abandon life to the impulses of instinct, to short-lived sensations or passing fad

World Youth Day / WYD 1993 Denver. Pope St John Paul II: "It is above all the family that is under attack. And the sacred character of human life denied. Naturally, the weakest members of society are the most at risk: the unborn, children, the sick, the handicapped, the old, the poor and unemployed, the immigrant and refugee, the South of the world! Young pilgrims, Christ needs you to enlighten the world and to show it the "path to life" (Ps 16, 11). The challenge is to make the Church’s "yes" to Life concrete and effective. The struggle will be long, and it needs each one of you. Place your intelligence, your talents, your enthusiasm, your compassion and your fortitude at the service of life! Do not be afraid. The outcome of the battle for Life is already decided, even though the struggle goes on against great odds and with much suffering. This certainty is what the Second Reading declares: "Christ is now raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. ...so in Christ all will come to

World Youth Day / GMG 2000 Rome. Peter, from England: "You kind of got the history of the whole place, what it was to be a Catholic, all the buildings, the Pope, the physical image of being a Catholic was an amazing bit and then the line of succession of the Popes and the Shrine of Turin. It was a huge experience just to like ‘right, I’m a Catholic. I am part of something, even though I’m just young.’ And there we were, it was amazing, however millions and John Paul II … WYD Rome was an incredible event, I loved it!" St John Paul II (in Italian): "It is Jesus that 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 urges you to shed the masks of a false life; 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 d

World Youth Day / WYD 2008 Sydney. Pope Benedict XVI: "Dear young people, let me now ask you a question. What will you leave to the next generation? Are you building your lives on firm foundations, building something that will endure? Are you living your lives in a way that opens up space for the Spirit in the midst of a world that wants to forget God, or even rejects him in the name of a falsely-conceived freedom? How are you using the gifts you have been given, the “power” which the Holy Spirit is even now prepared to release within you? What legacy will you leave to young people yet to come? What difference will you make? The power of the Holy Spirit does not only enlighten and console us. It also points us to the future, to the coming of God’s Kingdom. What a magnificent vision of a humanity redeemed and renewed we see in the new age promised by today’s Gospel! St Luke tells us that Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of all God’s promises, the Messiah who fully possesses the Holy Spirit in order to bestow tha

World Youth Day / WYD 2008 Sydney. Pope Benedict XVI: "Unity is of the essence of the Church; it is a gift we must recognize and cherish. Tonight, let us pray for the resolve to nurture unity: contribute to it! Resist any temptation to walk away! For it is precisely the comprehensiveness, the vast vision, of our faith – solid yet open, consistent yet dynamic, true yet constantly growing in insight – that we can offer our world. Dear young people, is it not because of your faith that friends in difficulty or seeking meaning in their lives have turned to you? Be watchful! Listen! Through the dissonance and division of our world, can you hear the concordant voice of humanity? From the forlorn child in a Darfur camp, or a troubled teenager, or an anxious parent in any suburb, or perhaps even now from the depth of your own heart, there emerges the same human cry for recognition, for belonging, for unity. Who satisfies that essential human yearning to be one, to be immersed in communion, to be built up, to be led t

World Youth Day / WYD 2008 Sydney. Pope Benedict XVI: "Dear friends, life is not governed by chance; it is not random. Your very existence has been willed by God, blessed and given a purpose (cf Gen 1, 28)! Life is not just a succession of events or experiences, helpful though many of them are. It is a search for the true, the good and the beautiful. It is to this end that we make our choices; it is for this that we exercise our freedom; it is in this – in truth, in goodness, and in beauty – that we find happiness and joy. Do not be fooled by those who see you as just another consumer in a market of undifferentiated possibilities, where choice itself becomes the good, novelty usurps beauty, and subjective experience displaces truth. Christ offers more! Indeed he offers everything! Only he who is the Truth can be the Way and hence also the Life. Thus the “way” which the Apostles brought to the ends of the earth is life in Christ. This is the life of the Church. And the entrance to this life, to the Christian w

WYD / Jornada Mundial da Juventude 2018. Papa Francisco: "“Why are you so afraid? Do you still not have faith?” (Mk 4, 40). This reproach by Jesus to his disciples allows us to understand how the obstacle to faith is often not incredulity, but fear. Thus, the effort of discernment, once the fears are identified, should help us to overcome them by opening us to life and by facing with serenity the challenges presented to us. For Christians, concretely, fear should never have the last word, but it gives us the occasion to realize an act of faith in God… and also in life! This means believing in the fundamental goodness of the existence that God has given us, trusting that He leads us to a good ending even if through circumstances and vicissitudes that are often mysterious to us. If on the contrary we feed the fear, we will tend to close in on ourselves, to raise a barricade to defend ourselves against everything and everyone, remaining paralyzed. We must react! Never close in on ourselves! In the Sacred

WYD / Jornada Mundial da Juventude 2016. Papa Francisco: "God's mercy is very concrete and we are all called to experience it at firsthand. At the age of seventeen, one day when I had to go out with friends, I decided to pass by a church first. There I encountered a priest who inspired in me a special trust, in such a way that I felt the desire to open my heart in Confession. That encounter changed my life! I discovered that when we open our hearts with humility and transparency, we can in a very concrete way contemplate God's mercy. I had the certainty that in the person of that priest God was waiting for me, before I had taken the first step to go into that church. We seek him, but it is He who always goes before us, for he has always been seeking us, and is the first to encounter us. Perhaps some of you have a weight on your heart and are thinking: I have done this, I have done that.... Do not be afraid! He is waiting for you! He is the father: he is always awaiting us! How beautiful it is to encounter in

World Youth Day / WYD 2008 Sydney. Angela, from Colombia: "At WYD Sydney everything was full of joy, all people in the street singing praises to the Lord, we welcomed the Pope. In every moment we were enjoying every part of it. I know that from that journey something changed in me. I came back home with a consciousness of what the Church is about and I am part of it.And with a fire in my heart that wanted to share this with more people." Pope Benedict XVI: "Dear friends, life is not governed by chance; it is not random. Your very existence has been willed by God, blessed and given a purpose (cf Gen 1, 28)! Life is not just a succession of events or experiences, helpful though many of them are. It is a search for the true, the good and the beautiful. It is to this end that we make our choices; it is for this that we exercise our freedom; it is in this – in truth, in goodness, and in beauty – that we find happiness and joy. Do not be fooled by those who see you as just another consumer in a market of undifferen

WYD / Jornada Mundial da Juventude 2015. Papa Francisco: "The most precious good that we can have in life is our relationship with God. Are you convinced of this? Are you aware of the inestimable value that you have in the eyes of God? Do you know that He appreciates you and loves you unconditionally? When this perception disappears, the human being becomes an incomprehensible enigma, because it is precisely the knowledge of being loved unconditionally by God which gives meaning to our lives. Remember Jesus' conversation with the rich young man (cf Mk 10, 17-22)? The evangelist Mark says that Jesus gazed upon him with affection, and then invited him to follow him so as to find the true treasure. Dear young people, I wish that this gaze of Christ, full of love, accompanies you throughout your whole life. Youth is a period in which emerges the great affective wealth in your hearts, the profound desire for a love that is true, beautiful and great. How much energy is in this capacity to love and be loved! Do not

World Youth Day / Jornadas Mundiales de la Juventud 2011 Madrid. Laura, from London: "From Santiago we went on to Madrid to see El Papa, Benedict XVI and that was an amazing experience too. We went to the aerodrome, there were 2 million other Catholics there too, there were papal flags waving and national flags from countries from all over the world. It was very hot to begin with but it was just such a rich experience to be there in solidarity with so many other young people. Even during the day time when we were exploring around Madrid and you had a little freebie pass to get a lunch on the Pope's behalf, so queuing up for that you get to really like talk to the other pilgrims. It's such an amazing atmosphere. The transport system is alive young people with flags and different musical instruments, and singing and dancing (particularly the Brazilians, they're particularly good at dancing). So it was just such a joyful, wonderful experience. And then we had the Holy Hour in the aerodrom at night with Pope Bene

World Youth Day / Jornadas Mundiales de la Juventud 2011 Madrid. Teresa, from Spain: "World Youth Day Madrid impressed me so much because I saw the affection of the Pope to the young people and I felt like a big family and I realised the universality of the Church and that there are many young people that share the same faith." Tom, from England: "My experience of this World Youth Day in Madrid has been wonderful. Really you can see the whole purpose of World Youth Day - to promote the family life, to promote Catholic culture and education, and it's all with the Lord. In fact, at the vigil I had this great experience that we weren't there to see the Pope, we were there to be with the Pope worshipping Our Lord. And to anyone who hasn't been to WYD, I'd say 'You must come, to understand the universality of the Church, the youth of the Church and the joy that is in the Church." Rita, from Martinique: "I like adoration and being with everybody and praying to God." Pape Benoît XVI: "Chers jeunes francophones, soye