VATICAN - Pope tells youth from Madrid to receive the Cross for WYD 2011: “Go in the footsteps of Christ. He is your end, your way and also your prize.”

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “Christ gave himself for each one of you and loves you in a unique and personal way. Respond to Christ's love by offering him your life with love. In this way, the preparation for World Youth Day, whose works you have begun with much hope and dedication, will be recompensed with the fruits intended by these Days: to renew and strengthen the experience of the encounter with Christ who died and rose from the dead for us.” These were the words of the Holy Father Benedict XVI in the audience on April 6 which he held with youth from Madrid, who came to Rome to receive the Cross of World Youth Day presented to them by the youth of Australia. Along with the Icon of Mary, the Cross will travel to various Spanish cities, in preparation for the WYD celebrations in Madrid in 2011.
“Go in the footsteps of Christ. He is your end, your way and also your prize,” the Pope told the Spanish youth. “Life is a journey, certainly. But it is not an uncertain journey without a fixed destiny; it leads to Christ, the end of human life and history. On this journey you will meet with Him who gave his life for love, and opens to you the doors of eternal life. I invite you, therefore, to be formed in the faith that gives meaning to your life and strengthens your convictions, so as to be able to remain firm in the difficulties of each day.”
Benedict XVI exhorted the youth to attract their young friends, your study and work companions, so that they too will know him and confess him as Lord of their lives. “Young people of today need to discover the new life that comes from God, to be satiated by the truth that has its source in Christ who died and was resurrected and who the Church has received as a treasure for all men.”
The time of preparation prior to WYD in Madrid is “an extraordinary occasion to experience the grace of belonging to the Church, Body of Christ,” the Pope highlighted, as it “manifests the dynamism of the Church and her eternal youth. He who loves Christ, loves the Church with the same passion, as she enables us to live in a close relationship with the Lord.” The Pope exhorted the youth to cultivate those initiatives that enable them to feel members of the Church, in full communion with their Pastors and the Successor of Peter, and to pray in community, opening the doors of their parishes, associations, and movements “so that all can feel at home in the Church, in which they are loved with the very love of God.” He also invited them to celebrate and live the faith “with immense joy, which is a gift of the Spirit.”
In concluding his speech, the Pope invited the youth to live the days of Holy Week contemplating Christ “in the mysteries of his Passion, Death and Resurrection,” where one can touch the love of God made manifest in Christ. “Thus the cross becomes the very sign of life, as on it Christ overcomes sin and death through the total giving of himself. That is why we must embrace and adore the cross of the Lord, make it our own, accept its weight as the Cyrenean to participate in the only thing that can redeem the whole of humanity (cf. Colossians 1:24). In baptism you were marked with the cross of Christ and you belong to him totally. Make yourselves ever more worthy of it and never be ashamed of this supreme sign of love.” At the close of the audience, Benedict XVI encouraged the young people to carry forward the works of preparation for World Youth Day, letting themselves be invaded by the strength and wisdom of God, so that Madrid will become “a place radiant of faith and life, where young people from the whole world celebrate Christ with enthusiasm.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 7/4/2009)