{"id":24698,"date":"2009-06-04T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-04T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/06\/pope-speaks-with-the-young\/"},"modified":"2009-06-04T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-06-04T14:00:00","slug":"pope-speaks-with-the-young","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/06\/pope-speaks-with-the-young\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope speaks with the young"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--StartFragment--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-style: italic;\">On May 30<\/span><sup><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-style: italic;\">th<\/span><\/sup><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-style: italic;\">, the Vigil of Pentecost, Pope<br \/>\nBenedict answered three questions of young people with extraordinary simplicity. The tenderness of the Pope&#8217;s answers is breadth-taking. This it the second time he&#8217;s<br \/>\ntaken questions from the youth. The following is Alessandro&#8217;s question and you can read the rest of questions <a href=\"http:\/\/chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it\/articolo\/1338718?eng=y\">here<\/a>. Plus, visit the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.onefamilyinmission.org\/\">Holy Childhood Association website<\/a> AND get involved with their mission as the Pope encourages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Dear Pope Benedict, you are the first missionary. How can we<br \/>\nyoung people help you to proclaim the Gospel?<o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\" style=\"display: inline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/PopeBenedictXVI_kids.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"PopeBenedictXVI_kids.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/PopeBenedictXVI_kids-thumb-275x331.jpg\" width=\"275\" height=\"331\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-style: italic;\">Answer:<\/span> I would say that one initial way is this: work with the<br \/>\nPontifical Society of Missionary Childhood. In this way you are part of a great<br \/>\nfamily that brings the Gospel to the world. In this way you belong to a great<br \/>\nnetwork. We see here how the family of the different peoples is reflected. You<br \/>\nare in this great family: each one does his part, and together you are<br \/>\nmissionaries, bearers of the missionary work of the Church. You have an<br \/>\nexcellent program: to listen, pray, learn, share, support. These are essential<br \/>\nelements that really are a way of being missionary, of advancing the growth of<br \/>\nthe Church and the presence of the Gospel in the world. I would like to<br \/>\nhighlight some of these points.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">First of all, prayer. <span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Prayer is a reality: God listens to<br \/>\nus, and when we pray, God enters into our lives<\/span>, he becomes present among us,<br \/>\nactive. P<span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">rayer is a very important thing, which can change the world, because<br \/>\nit makes the power of God present<\/span>. And it is important to help each other to<br \/>\npray: we pray together in the liturgy, we pray together in the family. And here<br \/>\nI would say that it is important to begin the day with a little prayer, and<br \/>\nalso to end the day with a little prayer: remembering our parents in prayer.<br \/>\nPray before lunch, before dinner, and on the occasion of the common celebration<br \/>\non Sunday. <span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">A Sunday without the Mass, the great common prayer of the Church, is<br \/>\nnot a real Sunday: the heart of Sunday is missing, and with it the light of the<br \/>\nweek<\/span>. And you can also help others &#8211; especially when there are no prayers at<br \/>\nhome, when prayer is unknown &#8211; you can teach others to pray: pray with others<br \/>\nand introduce them to communion with God.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Next, listening, which means really learning what Jesus<br \/>\ntells us. Moreover, knowing the Sacred Scripture, the Bible. I<span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-weight: bold;\">n the story of<br \/>\nJesus, we come to know the face of God, we learn what God is like<\/span>. It is<br \/>\nimportant to know Jesus deeply, personally. This is how he enters into our<br \/>\nlives, and, through our lives, enters into the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">And also sharing, not wanting things for ourselves alone,<br \/>\nbut for all; sharing with others. And if we see another who may be in need, who<br \/>\nis less fortunate, we must help him and in this way make the love of God<br \/>\npresent without big words, in our little personal world, which is part of the<br \/>\nbig world. <span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-weight: bold;\">And in this way we become a family together, where each respects the<br \/>\nother: bearing with the other in his uniqueness, even accepting those we don&#8217;t<br \/>\nlike, not letting anyone be marginalized, but helping him to be part of the<br \/>\ncommunity<\/span>. All of this simply means living in this big family of the Church, in<br \/>\nthis big missionary family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Living the essential points like sharing, knowing Jesus, prayer, listening to each other, and solidarity is a missionary activity, because it helps the Gospel to become a reality in our world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On May 30th, the Vigil of Pentecost, Pope Benedict answered three questions of young people with extraordinary simplicity. The tenderness of the Pope&#8217;s answers is breadth-taking. This it the second time he&#8217;s taken questions from the youth. The following is Alessandro&#8217;s question and you can read the rest of questions here. Plus, visit the Holy &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/06\/pope-speaks-with-the-young\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Pope speaks with the young<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[32081],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24698"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24698\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}