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Skriven 2006-04-16 23:27:10 av Marc Lewis (1:396/45)
Ärende: Vatican Information Service (Press Release)
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                The following press release is Copyrighted by the
                          Vatican Information Service.
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                               VIS-Press releases

UNIV STUDENTS, MEETING CHRIST WILL MAKE YOU APOSTLES

VATICAN CITY, APR 10, 2006 (VIS) - In the Paul VI Hall this morning, Benedict
XVI received participants in the UNIV international congress of university
students, accompanied by members of their families. The participants, from 32
countries, are meeting to consider the theme: "Culture and the means of social
communications."

The Pope began his address by greeting Bishop Javier Echevarria Rodriguez,
prelate of Opus Dei, the organization that promotes these meetings. He then
reminded the university students that their presence in Rome over Easter gave
them an opportunity "for a more intimate encounter with Christ."

"As I wrote in my Message for 21st World Youth Day," the Pope went on, "it is
Christ Who guides your steps, your university studies and your friendships. ...
For each of you, as for the Apostles, the personal meeting with the divine
Master Who calls you friend can be the beginning of an extraordinary adventure:
that of becoming apostles among your own peers, leading them to enjoy your own
experience of friendship with God-made-Man."

The Pope noted the "great interest" of the theme chosen for this year's UNIV
meeting, observing how, "unfortunately, ... in our own time, new technologies
and the mass media do not always favor personal relations, sincere dialogue,
and friendship between people; they do not always help to cultivate the
interior nature of the relationship with God."

He went on: "I know that for you friendship and contacts with others,
especially your own peers, constitute an important part of your daily lives.
You must feel Jesus to be one of your closest friends, indeed the closest. ...
Only in Him can you find the strength to give your brothers and sisters human
affection and supernatural charity, in a spirit of service that is expressed
above all in understanding."

"Those who have discovered Christ cannot but bring others to Him, because great
joy cannot be kept for oneself but must be communicated. This is the task to
which the Lord calls you, this is the 'apostolate of friendship' that St.
Josemaria, founder of Opus Dei, describes as 'a personal friendship, self-
sacrificing and sincere: face to face, heart to heart.' All Christians are
invited to be friends of God and, with His grace, to attract their friends to
Him. ... St. Josemaria also reminds you of certain key words for your spiritual
itinerary: 'communion, union, conversation, confidence: word, bread, love'."

"If you cultivate friendship with Jesus, if you practice the Sacraments
assiduously, especially the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist, you will
be able to become 'a new generation of apostles anchored firmly in the word of
Christ, capable of responding to the challenges of our times and prepared to
spread the Gospel far and wide'."
AC/CULTURE:COMMUNICATION/UNIV VIS 060410 (470)

SUMMARY

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