CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- A fresh and courageous perspective is needed when it comes to helping youth discern and discover their vocation, Pope Francis said Thursday, emphasizing the importance of personal holiness and the commitment to serving others.<\/p>\n\u201c(Today) there is the urgency to bring into the Christian community a new \u2018vocational culture,\u2019\u201d the Pope said Jan. 5.<\/p>\n
He said a vocational pastoral outreach \u201cwith broad horizons\u201d and which comes from \u201cthe breath of communion,\u201d is needed.<\/p>\n
This outreach, he said, must also be capable \u201cof reading with courage the reality as it is\u201d with the hardships and resistance included, while at the same time \u201crecognizing the signs of generosity and beauty in the human heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Francis spoke to participants in a Jan. 3-5 convention organized by the Italian Bishops Conference\u2019s office for vocations, titled \u201cRise, go and do not fear. Vocation and Holiness: I am on a mission.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pointing to the upcoming 2018 Synod of Bishops on \u201cYoung People, the Faith and the Discernment of Vocation,\u201d the Pope said that as it approaches, the theme must be increasingly at the forefront of their thoughts and attention.<\/p>\n
He compared the \u201ctotal and generous yes of a life given\u201d to a spring of water hidden deep in the earth, which waits for the right moment \u201cto gust forth and slide out, in a stream of purity and freshness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYouth today need a fresh spring of water to quench their thirst and then continue their journey of discovery,\u201d he said, explaining that the commitment to helping youth discern their vocations requires both passion and gratitude.<\/p>\n
This passion is one of \u201cpersonal involvement, in knowing how to care for the lives entrusted to you like chests that contain a precious treasure to be safeguarded,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Gratitude, on the other hand, is expressed by the \u201cgratuity of a service and ministry in the Church that requires great respect\u201d for those who make the journey with you, he said, noting that \u201cit\u2019s a commitment of seeking their happiness, and this goes well beyond your preferences and expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n
In order to be credible and \u201cin tune\u201d with today\u2019s youth, listening has to be a priority, Francis said. He stressed the importance of knowing how to \u201close time\u201d in listening to and welcoming their questions and desires.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour witness will be much more persuasive if, with joy and truth, you know how to tell the beauty, the awe and the wonder of being in love with God\u201d and of being men and women \u201cwho live with gratitude their choice of a life helping others in order to leave an unprecedented and original imprint on history.\u201d<\/p>\n
To do this means not being \u201ctricked by external solicitations,\u201d but entrusting oneself to \u201cthe mercy and tenderness of the Lord, reviving the fidelity of our choices and the freshness of the first love.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pope Francis said the urgency of promoting and encouraging vocations doesn\u2019t depend on efficiency or what we do, but is rather centered on the careful attention given to \u201cvigilance and discernment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s having a gaze capable of seeing the positive in the human and spiritual events we encounter,\u201d he said, focusing on the need for a heart that\u2019s both \u201camazed and grateful in front of the gifts that people carry within themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
This type of gaze, he said, should focus on potential more than on limits, and ought to provide a holistic view of \u201cthe present and the future in continuity with the past.\u201d<\/p>\n
Francis then turned to the conference theme, telling attendees to repeat frequently that \u201cI am on a mission\u201d and not simply that \u201cI have a mission.\u201d<\/p>\n
To be on a permanent mission \u201crequires courage, audacity, imagination and the desire to go beyond, to go even further,\u201d he said, noting that the conference theme\u2019s focus on responding without fear serves as a reminder of the many vocation stories they have heard or encountered.<\/p>\n
In each of these stories, \u201cthe Lord invited those called to go out of themselves in order to be a gift for others; to these he entrusts a mission and reassures them,\u201d the Pope said.<\/p>\n
He closed his speech praying that those present would feel pushed by the Holy Spirit to \u201ccourageously identify new ways of announcing the Gospel of vocation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like sentinels, he asked that they would be men and women who \u201cknow how to grasp the streaks of light of a new dawn, in a renewed experience of faith and passion for the Church and for the Kingdom of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Vatican City, Jan 5, 2017 \/ 06:39 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- A fresh and courageous perspective is needed when it comes to helping youth discern and discover their vocation, Pope Francis said Thursday, emphasizing the importance of personal holiness and the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vatican"],"yoast_head":"\n
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