I urge you: open your hearts to the Lord’s call to follow Him in the priesthood and the religious life. Can there be any greater mark of love than this: to follow in the footsteps of Christ, who was willing to lay down His life for His friends (John 15:13) (April 20, 2008)

Your personal prayer, your times of silent contemplation, and your participation in the Church’s liturgy, bring you closer to God and also prepares you to serve others…Contemplating Jesus on the Cross we see love in its most radical form. We can begin to imagine the path of love along which we must move (cf. Deus Caritas Est, 12). The opportunities to make this journey are abundant. Look about you with Christ’s eyes, listen with His ears, feel and think with His heart and mind. Are you ready to give all as he did for truth and justice?…We must listen deeply. (April 19, 2008)

The more we imitate Jesus and remain united to Him, the more we enter into the mystery of His divine holiness. We discover that He loves us infinitely, and this prompts us in turn to love our brethren. Loving always entails an act of self-denial, “losing ourselves,” and it is precisely this that makes us happy. (November 1, 2006)

Just as two thousand years ago Jesus called people to follow Him, today too young men and women are setting out at His call, attracted by Him and moved by a desire to devote their lives to serving the Church and helping others. They have the courage to follow Christ, and they want to be His witnesses…following Christ means taking on ever more fully His mind and His way of life. (September 8, 2007)

And ever since, men and women have set out to tell the same story, witnessing to Christ’s truth and love, and contributing to the Church’s mission…The great majority were young—some still in their late teens—and when they bade farewell to their parents, brothers and sisters, and friends, they knew they were unlikely ever to return home. Their whole lives were a selfless Christian witness. They became the humble but tenacious builders of so much of the social and spiritual heritage which still today brings goodness, compassion and purpose to these nations. And they went on to inspire another generation. (July 17, 2008)

The Church especially needs the gifts of young people, all young people. She needs to grow in the power of the Spirit who even now gives joy to your youth and inspires you to serve the Lord with gladness. Open your hearts to that power! I address this plea in a special way to those of you whom the Lord is calling to the priesthood and the consecrated life. Do not be afraid to say “yes” to Jesus, to find your joy in doing His will, giving yourself completely to the pursuit of holiness, and using all your talents in the service of others! (July 20, 2008)

There is another aspect of prayer which we need to remember: silent contemplation. St. John, for example, tells us that to embrace God’s revelation we must first listen, then respond by proclaiming what we have heard and seen. Have we perhaps lost something of the art of listening? Do you leave space to hear God’s whisper, calling you forth into goodness? Friends, do not be afraid of silence or stillness, listen to God, adore Him in the Eucharist. Let His word shape your journey as an unfolding of holiness. (April 19, 2008)

What matters most is that you develop your personal relationship with God. That relationship is expressed in prayer. God by His very nature speaks, hears, and replies. Indeed, St. Paul reminds us: we can and should “pray constantly” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Far from turning in on ourselves or withdrawing from the ups and downs of life, by praying we turn towards God and through Him to each other, including the marginalized and those following ways other than God’s path. (April 19, 2008)

Eucharistic adoration is an essential way of being with the Lord….There we can offer Him our petitions, our concerns, our troubles, our joys, our gratitude, our disappointments, our needs, and our aspirations. There we can also constantly ask Him: “Lord, send laborers into your harvest! Help me to be a good worker in your vineyard!” (September 11, 2006)

[Eucharistic] adoration means saying: “Jesus, I am Yours. I will follow You in my life, I never want to lose this friendship, this communion with You.” I could also say that adoration is essentially an embrace with Jesus in which I say to Him: “I am Yours, and I ask You, please stay with me always.” (October 15, 2005)

Where can we look for answers? The Spirit points us towards the way that leads to life, to love and to truth. The Spirit points us towards Jesus Christ. There is a saying attributed to St. Augustine: “If you wish to remain young, seek Christ.” In Him we find the answers that we are seeking, we find the goals that are truly worth living for; we find the strength to pursue the path that will bring about a better world. Our hearts find no rest until they rest in the Lord, as St. Augustine says. (July 13, 2008)

I echo to you the words spoken by Blessed Mary MacKillop when she was just twenty six years old: “Believe in the whisperings of God to your heart!” Believe in Him! Believe in the power of the Spirit of Love!” (July 19, 2008)

Friends, again I ask you, what about today? What are you seeking? What is God whispering to you? The hope which never disappoints is Jesus Christ… Nourished by personal prayer, prompted in silence, shaped by the Church’s liturgy you will discover the particular vocation God has for you. Embrace it with joy. You are Christ’s disciples today. Shine His light upon this great city and beyond. Show the world the reason for the hope that resonates within you. Tell others about the truth that sets you free. (April 19, 2008)

With love and conviction, I repeat to you young people present here, and through you to your peers throughout the world: Do not be afraid, Christ can fill your heart's deepest aspirations! Are there dreams that cannot come true when it is God's Spirit who inspires and nourishes them in your heart? Can anything block our enthusiasm when we are united with Christ? Nothing and no one, the Apostle Paul would say, will ever separate us from God’s love, in Christ Jesus our Lord. (September 8, 2007)

Let me tell you again this evening: if you stay united with Christ, each one of you will be able to do great things. This is why, dear friends, you must not be afraid to dream with your eyes open of important projects of good and you must not let yourselves be discouraged by difficulties. Christ has confidence in you and wants you to be able to realize all your most noble and lofty dreams of genuine happiness. Nothing is impossible for those who trust in God and entrust themselves to Him. (September 8, 2007)

Building on Christ means basing all your desires, aspirations, dreams, ambitions, and plans on His will. It means saying to yourself, to your family, to your friends, to the whole world, and, above all, to Christ: “Lord, in life I wish to do nothing against You, because You know what is best for me.” (May 27, 2006)

Dear young people, if the Lord calls you to live more intimately at His service, respond generously. You may be certain: life dedicated to God is never spent in vain.  (September 8, 2007)

Today, as in all ages, there is no lack of generous souls ready to give up everyone and everything to embrace Christ and His Gospel, consecrating his existence to His service within communities characterized by enthusiasm, generosity and joy. (February 17, 2008)

When we give ourselves to Christ, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ and you will find true life. (April 24, 2005)

The person who abandons himself totally in God’s hands does not become God’s puppet, a boring “yes man;” he does not lose his freedom. Only the person who entrusts himself totally to God finds true freedom, the great, creative immensity of the freedom of good. (December 8, 2005)

If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human experience truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation. (April 24, 2005)

The Cross reveals that we find ourselves only by giving our lives away, receiving God’s love as an unmerited gift and working to draw all men and women into the beauty of that love and the light of the truth which alone brings salvation to the world. (July 19, 2008)

By embracing the Lord’s call to follow Him in chastity, poverty and obedience, you have begun a journey of radical discipleship which will make you “signs of contradiction” (cf. Luke 2:34) to many of your contemporaries. Model your lives daily on the Lord’s own loving self-oblation in obedience to the will of the Father. You will then discover the freedom and joy which can draw others to the Love which lies beyond all other loves as their source and their ultimate fulfillment. Never forget that celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom means embracing a life completely devoted to love, a love that enables you to commit yourselves fully to God’s service and to be totally present to your brothers and sisters, especially those in need. (July 19, 2008)

Dear young people, let me now ask you a question. What will you leave to the next generation? Are you building your lives on firm foundations, building something that will endure? Are you living your lives in a way that opens up space for the Spirit in the midst of a world that wants to forget God, or even rejects Him in the name of a falsely-conceived freedom? How are you using the gifts you have been given, the “power” which the Holy Spirit is even now prepared to release within you? What legacy will you leave to young people yet to come? What difference will you make? (July 20, 2008)

We reflect on Mary as a young woman, receiving the Lord’s summons to dedicate her life to Him in a very particular way, a way that would involve the generous gift of herself, her womanhood, her motherhood. Imagine how she must have felt. She was filled with apprehension, utterly overwhelmed at the prospect that lay before her…The angel understood her anxiety and immediately sought to reassure her. “Do not be afraid, Mary…. The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Luke 1:30, 35). It was the Spirit who gave her the strength and courage to respond to the Lord’s call. It was the Spirit who helped her to understand the great mystery that was to be accomplished through her.  (July 20, 2008)

I would like to speak to you, making my own the inner attitude and trusting abandonment of that young woman who, 2,000 years ago, said her “yes” to the Father who chose her to be your Mother. The Father chose her because she was docile and obedient to His will. Like her, like little Mary, each one of you, dear young friends, should say to God with faith: “Here I am; let it be done to me according to your word.” (September 1, 2007)

I ask myself and I ask you: can God’s requests to us, however demanding they may seem, ever compare with what God asked the young Mary? Dear young men and women, since Mary truly knows what it means to respond generously to the Lord’s requests, let us learn from her to say our own “yes.”  (September 1, 2007)