“Christus vivit”: He is alive and He wants you to live.

“If God is still Love, if Christ has saved us, if the Spirit lives in each of us and is at work in the life of the Church and the world, how do these fundamental realities transform our way of accompanying young people in faith, in community life, in service, and in vocational discernment? What vision – not only of young people and their cultures (plural!), but of the whole Church and its mission of evangelization – inspires us in Christus Vivit, the apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis? To what conversions – personal, diocesan, ecclesial – are we called?

 

This course explores Pope Francis’ fourth apostolic exhortation Christus Vivit (Christ is Alive), in which he proposes a journey of faith to give new directions to the Church’s mission to youth.

1. What is a synod? Why a synod dedicated to youth and their discernment?

2. What is an apostolic exhortation? What is its theological and pastoral significance?

3. How can the ‘eternal youth’ of Christ be a model not only for young people, but for the whole Church?

4. In what sense is the world in which we live a sign of hope for the mission to youth? What obstacles and difficulties must be overcome?

5. What are the key elements of the kerygma addressed to all the young people of the world? (God is love; Christ has saved you; his Spirit lives in you and gives you life!)

6. On what paths does Christ call young people today?

7. How can we ensure the synodal and intergenerational dimension of our mission with young people?

8. How can we awaken young people to the vocational dimension of the Christian life? How can we integrate the particular vocations that structure ecclesial life (marriage, consecrated life, ordained ministries) into the universal vocation to life, love, holiness, work, and the development of the gifts received?)

9. How can we create an atmosphere in our communities that favors the discernment of God’s call in all freedom? How can we accompany this discernment in an individual and community way?