(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis met on Thursday with participants in a Conference organized by the national Office for Pastoral Care for Vocations of the Italian Episcopal Conference. The theme of the conference is “Arise, go forth, and fear not. Vocations and sanctity: I am on a mission.” During the encounter, Pope Francis spoke off-the-cuff; his extemporaneous remarks will be published when they become available.
In prepared remarks, which were consigned to participants, the Pope said, “The complete and generous ‘yes’ of a life that is given is like a spring of water, hidden for a time deep within the earth, that is waiting to gush forth in a stream of purity and freshness.” Young people, he continued, “have a need to quench their thirst and then continue on their journey of discovery.”
The duty of calling for and accompanying vocations requires “passion and a sense of gratitude”, the Pope said: the passion of personal involvement and care for those who are called; and gratitude “of service in the Church that involves great respect” for those who are called to be “companions on the journey.”
“In order to be credible and to be in harmony with young people,” the Pope continued, it is necessary to be particularly devoted to listening, to be able to “waste time” in order to hear and understand the questions and desires of young people.
Recalling the theme of the conference, Pope Francis said it is important to be convinced that “I am on a mission,” and not simply that “I have a mission.” “To be continually on a mission requires courage, daring, imagination, and a desire to go beyond, to go further,” again recalling the theme, “Arise, go forth, and fear not.”
The Holy Father concluded his written remarks with the plea, “May we feel ourselves pushed by the Holy Spirit to identify new ways in the proclamation of the Gospel of vocation, to be men and women who, as sentinels, know how to welcome the rays of light of a new dawn, in a renewed experience of faith and of passion for the Church and for the Kingdom of God.”
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