A PIME missionary speaks, with his own vocation as an example, about today’s young people, who go beyond speeches and seek human relationships built on trust. “What convinced me were not so many good speeches, what convinced me were credible men, men whose life spoke of the Gospel”.
A Salesian educator talks about his interactions with young people in the metropolis and with students from mainland China. Expressing love for Christ through witnesses and fellow Christians is urgent. The maturing of the faith in young people is delayed by making compromises with those who hold economic and political power.
“Cambodia is at a critical juncture. In the past few years, it has been moving into the modern world from a predominantly rural society that existed for thousands of years.” “Always having the Lord beside us and walking with him gives them [young people] a lot of strength, the light to make the choices they have to make and courage in carrying them forward.”
The testimony of a Chaldean priest, the first to return to the Nineveh Plain, after the defeat and the expulsion of the Islamic State. The experience among the Mosul refugees in Kurdistan, in need of everything. The return to the Plain, where churches, houses and shops are rebuilt and the foundations of coexistence between Christians and Muslims for a new Iraq are laid.
“And let us be careful with ourselves for this should lead us to think about our own life. Do I seek to look only at appearances, and not change my heart? Do I not open my heart to prayer, to the freedom of prayer, the freedom of almsgiving, the freedom of works of mercy?”
The gathering held today will hear testimonies from Iraq, China, Cambodia, Brazil, and Hong Kong. A contribution to the Synod on Youth taking place in the Vatican. Overcoming a sociological and political view of the world of young people. Faith in Jesus Christ and the company of adult missionaries a path to exalt the qualities of young people and lead them to become builders of a new society.
