Source:
CNA/EWTN News
During
evening prayer with college students of Rome on Nov. 30, Pope Francis
emphasized the importance of remaining faithful to the truth in the face of
modern ideologies.
“If
you don’t let yourselves be conditioned by prevailing opinions, but remain
faithful to Christian ethical and religious principles, you will find the
courage even to go against the current,” he said.
“The
fullness of the Christian life that God carries out in man, in fact, is always
threatened by the temptation to succumb to the spirit of the world,” he
cautioned.
“For
this reason God gives us his aid by which we can preserve the gifts of the Holy
Spirit, the new life in the Spirit that He has given us.”
“Dear
young university students,” Pope Francis encouraged, “your willpower and your
capabilities, united to the power of the Holy Spirit that lives in each one of
you from the day of your baptism, permits you to be not spectators, but
protagonists in contemporary events.”
He
then acknowledged the importance of facing life’s many difficulties. “One can’t
live without looking at the challenges, without responding to the challenges.”
But
“God is more powerful than our weaknesses,” he stressed. “God’s faithfulness
never disappoints.”
“There
are several challenges that you university students are called to confront with
inner strength and evangelical courage,” he continued.
“The
socio-cultural context in which you are placed is sometimes weighed down by
mediocrity and boredom. We must not resign ourselves to the monotony of
everyday life, but cultivate large-scale projects, going beyond the ordinary:
don’t let your youthful enthusiasm be stolen!” he urged.
Christian
youth must find the balance between independent thought and fidelity to the
truth, he noted.
“The
model to follow is not the sphere, in which every protrusion is levelled and
every difference disappears; instead, the model is the prism, which includes a multiplicity
of elements and respects unity in variety,” explained the Pope.
Independent
thought becomes fruitful not merely because it stands apart, but rather “when
it is an expression of an open mind that discerns, always illuminated by truth,
by goodness, and by beauty.”
“In
fact,” he said, “the plurality of thought and of individuality reflects the
multiform wisdom of God when it approaches truth, when it approaches the good,
when it approaches beauty, with honesty and intellectual rigor.”
“May
the task of journeying in the faith and of carrying yourselves in a manner
consistent with the gospel accompany you in this time of Advent, in order to
live in an authentic way the commemoration of the birth of the Lord,” the
Pontiff concluded.
The
Nov. 30 celebration of Vespers with the university students of Rome is a papal
tradition taking place every year in anticipation of the first Sunday of
Advent.
An
icon of Mary, patroness of university students, stood under the title “Seat of
Wisdom” to the side of the altar. At the end of the evening, a group of French
students processed out bearing the image on their shoulders.
The
icon had been kept for the celebration of World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, and will now be received in university chaplaincies in France.
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