10 proclaimed the beatitude of the poor and the meek who trust in God’s mercy. My message for you, dear young people, the great message entrusted to the Church, is Jesus! Yes, Jesus himself, in his infinite love for each of us, his salvation and the new life he has bestowed upon us. Mary is our model; she shows us how to welcome this immense gift into our lives, to share it with others, and thus to bring Christ, his compassionate love, and his generous service to our deeply wounded humanity. All together to Lisbon! Mary was a young woman, like many of you. She was one of us. An Italian bishop, Don Tonino Bello, addressed this prayer to her: “Holy Mary…, we know very well that you were destined to sail the ocean deep. If we beg you to hug the coast, it is not because we want to hold you back, but because, seeing your closeness to the shores of our discouragement, we come to see that we too are called to venture out, as you did, upon the high seas of freedom” (Maria, donna dei nostri giorni, Cinisello Balsamo, 2012, 12-13). It was from Portugal, as I mentioned in the first Message of this trilogy, that in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries great numbers of young people—including many missionaries—set out for worlds unknown, not least to share their experience of Jesus with other peoples and nations (cf. Message for the 2020 World Youth Day). To that land, at the dawn of the twentieth century, Mary chose to make a special visit. From Fátima, she addressed to people of all ages the powerful and magnificent message of God’s love, which summons us to conversion and to true freedom. Once more, I invite each of you to take part in the great intercontinental pilgrimage of young people that will culminate in the celebration of World Youth Day in Lisbon next August. I also want to remind you that next 20 November, the Solemnity of Christ the King, we will celebrate World Youth Day in local Churches throughout the world. In this regard, the recent document of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life—Pastoral Guidelines for the
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzMzNzY=