As I write this I am fresh back from speaking at World Youth Day in Sydney. It was a very memorable event. The word about TOB is getting out around the world -- literally. People from Taiwan, China, Philippines, India, the Pacific Islands and countries I'm not sure I have ever heard of came up to me after my talks to tell me how much TOB has blessed them and changed their lives.
I gave three different lectures while there, each attended by about 3,000 people. I came away with a different sense about young people today. I went there thinking young people have pretty much bought in to the culture's message. I left realizing -- generally speaking, of course -- that it seems they've had enough of what the culture has to offer. They're hungry for truth, and it seems they've tried what the culture offers and have found it wanting.
They're also, and understandably so, angry that they have been raised in the Church and not grown up with the liberating message of the TOB. There is so much work to be done in bringing this message to the world, beginning with people in the Church. The harvest is great; the laborers are few. Pray that the Lord send workers into the fields! Perhaps you are being called?
In his homily at the closing Mass, Pope Benedict XVI charged the youth with building “a new age in which love is not greedy or self-seeking, but pure, faithful and genuinely free, open to others, respectful of their dignity, seeking their good, radiating joy and beauty.” The young people of the world are eager to embrace such a challenge. They simply need the proper knowledge and tools to do so.
We have included in our newsletter this month, and I will keep it short so you can read them, two articles. The first is from
zenit.org in which the journalist discusses my talks, TOB, and the whole WYD experience. The other is a
TOB testimony from one of our youngest students to date. In these articles you will see how concretely the Faith is alive in our youth today and how TOB is the tool that leads them to witness to the power of Christ in their life.
I'm looking forward to teaching the first TOB II course at the end of September. I'm putting the study-guide together now and I myself am excited to teach material from the Pope's catechesis that I simply have not been able to cover in the introductory seminars and courses I typically offer. I'm really looking forward to having past students return for this first time ever opportunity. See you at the end of September.
*You may read the full article on zenit.org by clicking
here.
