It was a joyful celebration of faith. More than 70 thousand young people gathered on March 25th in St. Peters Square to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the first World Youth Day, which took place in 1985 in Rome.The Popes encounter with the youth on the Thursday prior to Palm Sunday — when the WYD is celebrated throughout the world at a diocesan level — has now become a traditional moment of prayer and communion. The Pontiff embraced the warm greetings of the youth and answered their questions. Three young people in particular outlined the younger generations expectations and fears, asking the Pontiff for reassurance in regard to the future, which will be marked with hope if imbued with the…

Young Person: Holy Father, the young man from the Gospel asked Jesus: Good Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life? I do not even know what eternal life is. I cannot imagine it, however one thing I do know: I do not want to throw my life away, I want to live it to the fullest and not alone.Im scared that this might not happen; Im sacred of thinking only about myself, of messing everything up and ending up without a goal to achieve, living from day to day. Is it possible to make my life something beautiful and great?

Pope Benedict XVI: To love God we must know God, recognize Him, and this is the first step that we must take: to try to know God. In this manner, I know that it is not by chan …

Young person: “The Gospel says that Jesus looked at the young man and loved him. Holy Father, what does it mean to be looked at with love by Jesus; how can we also have this experience today? But is it truly possible to live this experience even in today’s world?”

Benedict XVI: “A person can not learn the same way in which I can study math, for math, reason is necessary and is sufficient, but to know a person, above all the great person, Jesus, the God- man, we need reason, but at the same time also the heart. Only with the opening of the heart for Him alone, together knowing what he said, what he did, with our love, with our movement towards him, can we increasingly know Him and so experience being loved…

Young person: “Jesus invited the rich young man to leave everything and follow Him, but he went away sad. I like him also find it hard to follow, because I’m afraid to leave my things and sometimes the Church asks difficult sacrifices of me. Holy Father, how can I find the strength to make courageous decisions and who can help me?”

Benedict XVI: “Let us begin with perhaps what is a difficult word for us: sacrifice. Sacrifices are possible and even become beautiful at the end if they have a reason, and if this reason justifies even the difficulty of the sacrifice. In this context, St. Paul used the image of the Olympics and the athletes committed to the Olympics. He tells them that to finally arrive…