To all those who will spend a little time reading this letter, a cordial and fraternal greeting. The joy of recognizing us as a Family, on the way with young people, makes Claret's dream come true: "A Synodal Apostolic Body for the Evangelization of the World," be the key that predisposes the heart to welcome this exchange in the reflection of Chapter VI of the Post Synodal Apostolic Exhortation "CHRISTUS VIVIT."
If to prepare the future, it is necessary to live well in the present, of which young people are the now of God, it is equally true that to build the future it is necessary to have strong roots that help to sustain us when we stand and rooted to the earth so that any time or circumstance doesn’t fly away. This is a beautiful challenge for all of us who accompany “the now of God” in everyday life.
There are two points of the text that I would like to focus as contributions to arouse and accompany the unique and free personal processes in the pastoral care of young people and vocations:
• Loving history, the spiritual and human wealth transmitted from one generation to another, opens one’s life to the values of the Gospel and promotes the depth necessary to welcome beauty in everything, in work, family, fidelity, vocation, in every person, service, friendship, etc. as the basis of true social solidarity and the culture of encounter. Helping young people to discover the living wealth of the past by remembering and taking advantage of it for their own choices and possibilities is a genuine act of love for them in view of their growth and the choices they are called to take. "Taking care of the roots, in a critical spirit, ensures that they receive the strength to grow, flourish, and become fruitful."
• Living intergenerational relationships as one of the frameworks for solidly cementing a new society allows us to walk together, young people, not too young people and elders, learning from each other, letting us be inspired by the Gospel and infusing each gesture with new hope. In this way, the roots are a point of allowing us to respond to the challenges of the world and of the Church, announcing the Good News of Jesus whenever and wherever it may be.
The invitation to the encounter -the deep exchange that is nourished and sustained by the roots -provokes a creative proposal where, as Pope Francis says, the dreams of the less youth generations help the generations of younger people to see their horizons.
This could be the occasion to ask: How deep are my roots? What value do I give to intergenerational relations?
Am I an adult who always thinks about how young people should behave, or am I an adult who easily thinks that the past no longer matters?
I hope that the answer to these and other questions that arise in each one's heart can help to glimpse a new ray of light in the process of accompanying young people as an opportunity that opens us to spiritual discernment of situations and the action of the Spirit, for Pastoral Conversion.
Greetings to all of you from Rome,
Lia Latela RMI
Prefect General of Apostolate - Rome