POPE FRANCIS TELLS YOUNG PEOPLE TO LEARN FROM TRADITION

'It is from your roots that you will get the strength to continue.'  

The future cannot be understood without reflecting on the past and on the history and traditions passed on to young people from parents and grandparents. “It’s from your roots that you will get the strength to continue. None of us – neither you nor me – were manufactured in a laboratory; we have a history, we have roots. And everything we do, the results we achieve, the beauty we create in the future, all comes from those roots. The Pope’s message was sent to young people of the Caribbean attending the youth assembly sponsored by the bishops’ conference. The conference’s theme was focused on transforming the family in accordance with “Amoris Laetitia”, the Pope’s apostolic exhortation on marriage and family. In his message, he warned young people of the danger of becoming “ageing youths” who are “settled” and do not have the strength to move forward and build a better future. Chapter four is “the heart” of the document’s teaching on the family and urged them to study and examine it as a way “of moving the family forward and to transform the family.” Pope Francis said, “Study it. Look at it and you will have the guidelines to move forward.” Love is never-ending and is an important aspect of family life with “a strength all its own.”  “St Paul says: ‘Faith and hope will end when we are united with the Lord, but love will continue with Him,'” the Pope told the young people. “You are transforming something that is for all eternity; that strength (of love) that will remain forever.”