“Hope is the virtue of those who have a young heart; and here, age does not count. Because there are also elderly people with eyes full of light, who live in a permanent look towards the future”. Pope Francis.

A young heart, eyes full of light, a look towards the future of life. This is how we could quickly define the hope that the world needs. We live in a disheartened, hopeless world that has lost the illusion of hoping for something better than what we are living. There is a kind of culture of pessimism that prevents us from seeing that light in our gaze.

As The Way of the Heart says in Step 3: “The world we inhabit is also wounded by painful contradictions that cause death and destruction. Life and love are often stifled by violence and selfishness. The small and the vulnerable suffer aggression from the powerful, natural resources are plundered, there is sadness and loneliness. We have strayed from the ways of God’s love and his plan for humanity”. ECC 3

Pope Francis calls us to celebrate the Jubilee of Hope, that is, a year in which we can rediscover that lost joy in the face of a better future, which can only come if the light of hope penetrates our gaze. The life and love for which we were made can be resurrected in the hearts of those who resituate themselves daily before God and the intention with which he created us.

“God’s plan for humanity is a purpose of Love “from the creation of the world.” Not only does the Spirit of the Lord beget humanity throughout the centuries, but, as St. Paul says, all creation, the universe itself “groans and travails in birth,” “eagerly awaiting the adoption of the children of God.” We participate in this work of engendering the whole of history, which transforms not only humanity, but the entire cosmos.

With the resurrection, nothing can stand in the way of God’s Love manifested in Jesus Christ! This love, vulnerable and fragile but stronger even than death, reveals a new future for humanity… Let us place our trust in Him. Let us enter with him into this process of humanization to which he invites us”. ECC3

Let us be “a leaven of genuine hope, a proclamation of new heavens and a new earth”. Pope Francis. Lord, grant us to see that our life is a journey, and that, as we go on pilgrimage, we go towards Christ, conqueror of all death.

International Editorial Team

Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network