Pope Francis to Medjugorje formative years festival: Christ frees us ‘from the seduction of idols’

The Medjugorje early life competition is concentrated on prayer, with Mass, Eucharistic adoration, the Rosary, and a Marian procession. The week additionally comprises spiritual instructions, stories, and a musical demonstrate.

"This event -- as the journey of so many says -- has the power to set us on the route in opposition t the Lord," the pope stated.

Cardinal Robert Sarah, the retired prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship and the self-discipline of the Sacraments celebrated the early life competition's opening Mass Aug. 1. earlier this month, Sarah underwent a robot-assisted prostate surgical procedure in south Italy.

In his Aug. 1 homily, Cardinal Sarah noted "we've come right here, to Medjugorje, to renew our religion in Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, that's, to establish an authentic and a must-have relationship with Him, our Lord and our God, in order that in prayer we are able to answer the important question: the way to locate Jesus and how to behave in His penetrating and sovereign Presence?"

"many of our contemporaries, i would even say the multitude of individuals so near us, in our families, amongst our pals, the place we analyze and work, appear insensitive, detached, even opposed and adversarial to the query of the existence of God; they even declare that they not believe of religion in any respect and that it's a sign that they are free," Sarah referred to.

The cardinal encouraged young americans to bear in mind their baptism and, as St. Paul says in Ephesians 4:24, "to put on a brand new man, created by way of God in righteousness and holiness of fact."

"today Christ the Lord calls us to look up; it's basically vital to remind up to date buyers to devour to live, now not to are living to consume," he stated.

Cardinal Sarah mentioned "Jesus, who is aware of the human coronary heart, desires to respond to our deepest wants, to our most simple aspirations, to this hunger for Love and this thirst for the absolute that torments us."

The Eucharist, he persevered, is "a treatment that makes it possible for us to go away the shore of our consolation and our false security, which is marked by means of relativism, and to move to the shore of the Gospel of certainty and the Salvation of our souls."