World Youth Day 2019 USA Leader Guides Stateside Leader Guide | Page 16

present. Each encounter is an opportunity. “friendship” with Jesus. 11 The stateside leader
The pilgrim leader helps to make all those can assist the young people in developing
encounters possible, memorable, and lasting. their friendships with Jesus Christ; this is
made possible by the leader’s own continuous
An Encounter with Jesus Christ renewal of his or her friendship with Jesus.
Pope Francis invites “all Christians, Pope Francis in his 2015 WYD Message gave
everywhere, at this very moment, to a a few ways to renew this friendship every day:
renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, through participation in the Sacraments,
or at least an openness to letting him particularly Eucharist and Reconciliation,
encounter them.” 9 What does it mean to have reading Sacred Scripture, personal prayer, and
a personal encounter with Jesus Christ? It serving those in need, particularly the poor. 12
means experiencing him in the Sacraments, in Stateside leaders are encouraged to encounter
the Scriptures, in prayer, in others, and in Christ on a constant basis. In this way, they
service. This encounter is at the core of who will be credible witnesses when they invite
we are as Christians. As Pope Benedict XVI their pilgrims to do the same.
said: “Being Christian is not the result of an
ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the An Encounter with the Church
encounter with an event, a person, which The encounter with Jesus Christ is always in
gives life a new horizon and a decisive and through his Church. The Church is
direction.” 10 spread throughout the world, and a WYD
leader will need to be prepared for this
WYD is an opportunity offered by the encounter with the Church Universal and her
Church to all young people to encounter chief shepherd, the Holy Father.
Christ. Many people talk about their
experience of WYD as “life-changing.” They The Pope, who is Vicar of Christ, “is the
experience Christ and his Church in a unique perpetual and visible source and foundation
and special way. Leaders need to recognize of the unity both of the bishops and of the
this opportunity. As Pope Francis notes, the whole company of the faithful.” 13 WYD is a
encounter is really the developing of a public opportunity for young people to
9 Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, no. 3.
Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, no. 1; cited by Pope
Francis in EG, no. 7.
11 See Evangelii Gaudium, no. 266. 12
10 13
15
Pope Francis, Message for the 30 th World Youth Day, 3.
Lumen Gentium, 32, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 882.