World Youth Day / GMG 2000 Rome. Peter, from England: "You kind of got the history of the whole place, what it was to be a Catholic, all the buildings, the Pope, the physical image of being a Catholic was an amazing bit and then the line of succession of the Popes and the Shrine of Turin. It was a huge experience just to like ‘right, I’m a Catholic. I am part of something, even though I’m just young.’ And there we were, it was amazing, however millions and John Paul II … WYD Rome was an incredible event, I loved it!" St John Paul II (in Italian): "It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; he is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is he who provokes you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is he who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is he who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle. It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be grounded down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal." For much more, visit Totus2us.com. Dedicated to Our Lady, it was inspired by our holy fathers St John Paul II and Papa BXVI. Totus Tuus - All Yours - was JPII's apostolice motto to Mary; Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.

World Youth Day / WYD 2008 Sydney. Pope Benedict XVI: "Dear young people, let me now ask you a question. What will you leave to the next generation? Are you building your lives on firm foundations, building something that will endure? Are you living your lives in a way that opens up space for the Spirit in the midst of a world that wants to forget God, or even rejects him in the name of a falsely-conceived freedom? How are you using the gifts you have been given, the “power” which the Holy Spirit is even now prepared to release within you? What legacy will you leave to young people yet to come? What difference will you make? The power of the Holy Spirit does not only enlighten and console us. It also points us to the future, to the coming of God’s Kingdom. What a magnificent vision of a humanity redeemed and renewed we see in the new age promised by today’s Gospel! St Luke tells us that Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of all God’s promises, the Messiah who fully possesses the Holy Spirit in order to bestow that gift upon all mankind. The outpouring of Christ’s Spirit upon humanity is a pledge of hope and deliverance from everything that impoverishes us. It gives the blind new sight; it sets the downtrodden free, and it creates unity in and through diversity. This power can create a new world: it can “renew the face of the earth”" For much more, visit Totus2us.org - dedicated to Our Lady, it was inspired by our holy Fathers St John Paul II and Papa Benedict XVI. Totus Tuus - All Yours - was JPII's motto to Mary; Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.

World Youth Day / WYD 2008 Sydney. Pope Benedict XVI: "Unity is of the essence of the Church; it is a gift we must recognize and cherish. Tonight, let us pray for the resolve to nurture unity: contribute to it! Resist any temptation to walk away! For it is precisely the comprehensiveness, the vast vision, of our faith – solid yet open, consistent yet dynamic, true yet constantly growing in insight – that we can offer our world. Dear young people, is it not because of your faith that friends in difficulty or seeking meaning in their lives have turned to you? Be watchful! Listen! Through the dissonance and division of our world, can you hear the concordant voice of humanity? From the forlorn child in a Darfur camp, or a troubled teenager, or an anxious parent in any suburb, or perhaps even now from the depth of your own heart, there emerges the same human cry for recognition, for belonging, for unity. Who satisfies that essential human yearning to be one, to be immersed in communion, to be built up, to be led to truth? The Holy Spirit! This is the Spirit’s role: to bring Christ’s work to fulfilment. Enriched with the Spirit’s gifts, you will have the power to move beyond the piecemeal, the hollow utopia, the fleeting, to offer the consistency and certainty of Christian witness! Friends, when reciting the Creed we state: “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life”. The “Creator Spirit” is the power of God giving life to all creation and the source of new and abundant life in Christ. The Spirit sustains the Church in union with the Lord and in fidelity to the apostolic Tradition. He inspired the Sacred Scriptures and he guides God’s People into the fullness of truth. In all these ways the Spirit is the “giver of life”, leading us into the very heart of God. So, the more we allow the Spirit to direct us, the more perfect will be our configuration to Christ and the deeper our immersion in the life of the Triune God. This sharing in God’s nature occurs in the unfolding of the everyday moments of our lives where he is always present. There are times, however, when we might be tempted to seek a certain fulfilment apart from God. Jesus himself asked the Twelve: “Do you also wish to go away?” Such drifting away perhaps offers the illusion of freedom. But where does it lead? To whom would we go? For in our hearts we know that it is the Lord who has “the words of eternal life”. To turn away from him is only a futile attempt to escape from ourselves. God is with us in the reality of life, not the fantasy! It is embrace, not escape, that we seek! So the Holy Spirit gently but surely steers us back to what is real, what is lasting, what is true. It is the Spirit who leads us back into the communion of the Blessed Trinity!" For much more, visit Totus2us - dedicated to Our Lady, it was inspired by our holy Fathers St John Paul II and Papa Benedict XVI. Totus Tuus - All Yours - was JPII's motto to Mary; Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.

World Youth Day / WYD 2008 Sydney. Pope Benedict XVI: "Dear friends, life is not governed by chance; it is not random. Your very existence has been willed by God, blessed and given a purpose (cf Gen 1, 28)! Life is not just a succession of events or experiences, helpful though many of them are. It is a search for the true, the good and the beautiful. It is to this end that we make our choices; it is for this that we exercise our freedom; it is in this – in truth, in goodness, and in beauty – that we find happiness and joy. Do not be fooled by those who see you as just another consumer in a market of undifferentiated possibilities, where choice itself becomes the good, novelty usurps beauty, and subjective experience displaces truth. Christ offers more! Indeed he offers everything! Only he who is the Truth can be the Way and hence also the Life. Thus the “way” which the Apostles brought to the ends of the earth is life in Christ. This is the life of the Church. And the entrance to this life, to the Christian way, is Baptism." For much more, visit Totus2us - dedicated to Our Lady, it was inspired by our holy Fathers St John Paul II and Papa Benedict XVI. Totus Tuus - All Yours - was JPII's motto to Mary; Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.

WYD / Jornada Mundial da Juventude 2018. Papa Francisco: "“Why are you so afraid? Do you still not have faith?” (Mk 4, 40). This reproach by Jesus to his disciples allows us to understand how the obstacle to faith is often not incredulity, but fear. Thus, the effort of discernment, once the fears are identified, should help us to overcome them by opening us to life and by facing with serenity the challenges presented to us. For Christians, concretely, fear should never have the last word, but it gives us the occasion to realize an act of faith in God… and also in life! This means believing in the fundamental goodness of the existence that God has given us, trusting that He leads us to a good ending even if through circumstances and vicissitudes that are often mysterious to us. If on the contrary we feed the fear, we will tend to close in on ourselves, to raise a barricade to defend ourselves against everything and everyone, remaining paralyzed. We must react! Never close in on ourselves! In the Sacred Scriptures we find 365 times the expression “do not be afraid”, in all its variations. As if to say that every day of the year the Lord wants us free from fear." For much more, visit Totus2us.com - dedicated to Our Lady, it is inspired by our holy Fathers St John Paul II, Papa Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. Totus Tuus - All Yours - was JPII's motto to Mary; Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.

WYD / Jornada Mundial da Juventude 2016. Papa Francisco: "God's mercy is very concrete and we are all called to experience it at firsthand. At the age of seventeen, one day when I had to go out with friends, I decided to pass by a church first. There I encountered a priest who inspired in me a special trust, in such a way that I felt the desire to open my heart in Confession. That encounter changed my life! I discovered that when we open our hearts with humility and transparency, we can in a very concrete way contemplate God's mercy. I had the certainty that in the person of that priest God was waiting for me, before I had taken the first step to go into that church. We seek him, but it is He who always goes before us, for he has always been seeking us, and is the first to encounter us. Perhaps some of you have a weight on your heart and are thinking: I have done this, I have done that.... Do not be afraid! He is waiting for you! He is the father: he is always awaiting us! How beautiful it is to encounter in the sacrament of Reconciliation the merciful embrace of the Father, to discover the confessional as the place of Mercy, let us be touched by this merciful love of the Lord who always forgives us!" Music by Daniel Weatherley - Ave Maria. For much more, visit Totus2us.com - dedicated to Our Lady, it is inspired by our holy Fathers St John Paul II, Papa Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. Totus Tuus - All Yours - was JPII's motto to Mary; Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.

World Youth Day / WYD 2008 Sydney. Angela, from Colombia: "At WYD Sydney everything was full of joy, all people in the street singing praises to the Lord, we welcomed the Pope. In every moment we were enjoying every part of it. I know that from that journey something changed in me. I came back home with a consciousness of what the Church is about and I am part of it.And with a fire in my heart that wanted to share this with more people." Pope Benedict XVI: "Dear friends, life is not governed by chance; it is not random. Your very existence has been willed by God, blessed and given a purpose (cf Gen 1, 28)! Life is not just a succession of events or experiences, helpful though many of them are. It is a search for the true, the good and the beautiful. It is to this end that we make our choices; it is for this that we exercise our freedom; it is in this – in truth, in goodness, and in beauty – that we find happiness and joy. Do not be fooled by those who see you as just another consumer in a market of undifferentiated possibilities, where choice itself becomes the good, novelty usurps beauty, and subjective experience displaces truth. Christ offers more! Indeed he offers everything! Only he who is the Truth can be the Way and hence also the Life. Thus the “way” which the Apostles brought to the ends of the earth is life in Christ. This is the life of the Church. And the entrance to this life, to the Christian way, is Baptism." For much more, visit Totus2us.com. Dedicated to Our Lady, it was inspired by our holy fathers St John Paul II and Papa BXVI. Totus Tuus - All Yours - was JPII's apostolice motto to Mary; Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.

WYD / Jornada Mundial da Juventude 2015. Papa Francisco: "The most precious good that we can have in life is our relationship with God. Are you convinced of this? Are you aware of the inestimable value that you have in the eyes of God? Do you know that He appreciates you and loves you unconditionally? When this perception disappears, the human being becomes an incomprehensible enigma, because it is precisely the knowledge of being loved unconditionally by God which gives meaning to our lives. Remember Jesus' conversation with the rich young man (cf Mk 10, 17-22)? The evangelist Mark says that Jesus gazed upon him with affection, and then invited him to follow him so as to find the true treasure. Dear young people, I wish that this gaze of Christ, full of love, accompanies you throughout your whole life. Youth is a period in which emerges the great affective wealth in your hearts, the profound desire for a love that is true, beautiful and great. How much energy is in this capacity to love and be loved! Do not allow this most precious value to be falsified, destroyed or defaced. This happens when our relationships are marked by the instrumentalization of one's neighbour for ones own selfish ends, sometimes as mere objects of pleasure. The heart is wounded and sad following these negative experiences. I beg you: do not be afraid of true love, the one that Jesus teaches us and that Saint Paul describes thus “Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous, it does not boast, it is not puffed up with pride, it is not rude or selfish, it is not angry, nor does it take into account a wrong suffered; it is not glad in injustice but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love will never end.” (1 Cor 13, 4-8). While inviting you to discover the beauty of the human vocation to love, I also urge you to rebel against the widespread tendency to trivialize love, above all when it seeks to reduce love only to its sexual aspect, thus depriving it of its essential characteristics of beauty, communion, fidelity and responsibility. Dear young people, “in a culture of the provisional, of the relative, many preach that the important thing is 'to enjoy' the moment, that it is not worth committing oneself for the whole of life, making definitive choices, ‘forever’, because one does not know what will happen tomorrow. I, however, ask you to be revolutionaries, I ask you to go against the current; yes, in this I ask you to rebel against this culture of the provisional, which, at its base, believes that you are not capable of assuming responsibility, believes that you are not capable of loving truly. I have confidence in you, young people, and I pray for you. Dare to go against the current. And dare also to be happy” (Meeting with the volunteers at WYD Rio, 28 July 2013). ... “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mt 5, 8). Dear young people, as you see, this Beatitude touches very closely your existence and is a guarantee of your happiness. Hence I repeat to you once more: have the courage to be happy!" Music by Daniel Weatherley - Ave Maria. For much more, visit Totus2us.com - dedicated to Our Lady, it is inspired by our holy Fathers St John Paul II, Papa Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. Totus Tuus - All Yours - was JPII's motto to Mary; Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.

World Youth Day / Jornada Mundial da Juventude 1989 Santiago. Ernest Williams, from England, speaks about how his time over the summer of 1989 in Medjugorje, at WYD Santiago with JPII and then in Fatima, led to him founding Youth 2000: "We came back early the next morning and it's a funny sight seeing a sea of half a million young people waking up, having slept in sleeping bags outside on the hilltop all night long. We arrived and filmed the Mass that morning. It was a beautiful Mass, visually quite stunning. And what I remember the most, because again it was all in Spanish (and some in French and Italian) the only point where he spoke in English and that's where I was able to register and it really stood out for me, was at the very end when John Paul II sent the young people off back to their countries to begin this mission of evangelization, which was the whole theme. He spoke these words in English: "Dear young people, let us commit our lives to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, her Son, the way, the truth and the life, and then we shall become the burning messengers of the new evangelisation and the generous builders of a new civilization of truth and love." When I heard these words, it struck something deep in my heart and I knew I had to respond. I knew I had to respond and I wanted to respond in a very direct way to this call and this challenge." For much more, visit Totus2us.com - dedicated to Our Lady, it is inspired by our holy Fathers St John Paul II, Papa Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. Totus Tuus - All Yours - was JPII's motto to Mary; Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.

World Youth Day / Jornada Mundial da Juventude 2013 Rio de Janeiro. Claz, from London: "World Youth Day Brazil was spectacular. It was unbelievably blessed … To see somebody opening their heart to Christ's message, to Christ's love was for me absolutely life-changing. So I highly recommend that if you're interested in going to a WYD, try and find a group that goes for the whole two weeks where you've got the first week of missionary work and the second week of general World Youth Day activities, because how this impacts you can really, really change something in your life and allow God to really touch your heart there as well" Pope Francis: "As I express my thanks and bid farewell, my thoughts turn to those who are at the heart of these celebrations: the young people! May God bless you for the beautiful witness of your lives and for your intense and joyful participation over these last few days. Many of you came here as disciples; I have no doubt that all of you will leave as missionaries. Through your joyful witness and service, help to build a civilization of love. Show, by your life, that it is worth giving your time and talents in order to attain high ideals, it is worth recognizing the dignity of each human person, and it is worth taking risks for Christ and his Gospel. It is he that we have come to seek because he first sought us. It is he who has inflamed our hearts with the desire to take the Good News to the large cities and to the small communities, to the countryside and to all the corners of this vast planet. I will always place my hopes in the young people of Brazil and in the young around the world: through them, Christ is preparing a new springtime all over the earth. I have seen its first fruits and I know that others will joyfully reap the full harvest." Visit Totus2us.com for more. Totus Tuus - All Yours - was the motto of Blessed John Paul II to Mary; Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.