What is your ideal?

What kind of life do you want to live? Saint John Paul II used to say that, as a young priest, he had come to notice “the fundamental importance of youth,” a key stage in everyone's life, when a few “Yes'” and “No's” could set your whole existence on the right or wrong tracks. In numerous statements addressed to young people, he urged us to choose the way of grandeur, with Christ, rather than the way of mediocrity:

Do not content yourself with a mediocre life, deprived of any drive towards an ideal, aiming only at immediate self-centered benefits.”*

Resist to the temptation of mediocrity and conformism.” **

Let me call back to mind […] that narrow goals are never going to quench the thirst for happiness and bliss contained in your heart.”***

Do not be afraid of commitment and sacrifice; They might require a large investment of efforts at present, yet they are the pledge of tomorrow's success.”  ****

A question to ask yourself:

How to opt for grandeur? Saint John Paul II offers us the following approach: opening ourselves up to Christ and letting Him be the driver of our lives. And this starts with the silence of our prayer… 

We invite you to read during your prayer this excerpt from a speech by John Paul II and to meditate on it. It outlines a life program towards holiness:

Dear friends, you can feel that no earthly reality can satisfy you fully. You are aware that opening yourself to the world is not enough to quench your thirst for life, and that freedom and peace can only come from “the Other”, i.e. one infinitely greater and yet intimately close to us. 
Admit that you are not your own boss and open up to the One who created you out of love, to Him who can turn you into dignified, free, and resplendent people. I urge you to this attitude of trustful surrender; Learn to listen in silence to God's voice reaching out to each one of us in one's innermost. Secure solid and sound ground to raise the edifice of your life. Do not be afraid of commitment and sacrifice; they might require a large investment of efforts at present, yet they are the pledge of tomorrow's success. Uncover the truth about yourself and new horizons will keep opening before you.” ****

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*To the young people participating to the XXXVth International University Congress “UNIV 2002”, March 25^th 2002. 

**Mass in preparation for Christmas for the students of Rome's universities, December 11^th 2001.

***Regina Caeli – Solemnity of Pentecost, Rijeka, June 8^th 2003. 

**** Pastoral visit to Kazakhstan – Meeting with young people in the “Aula Magna” of the Eurasian University in Astana, September 23^rd 2001.