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Following is the text of Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted's address to St. Mary's High School students during a recent blessing ceremony:
Earlier this year, Pope Benedict told young people in Brazil:
"My appeal to you today, young people,… is this:
"Do not waste your youth. Do not seek to escape from it. Live it intensely… The Church needs you, as young people, to manifest to the world the face of Jesus Christ.
"Without this young face, the Church would appear disfigured."
These words of our Holy Father articulate why Catholic education is so important, why parents make such sacrifices to provide their children with the opportunity of attending a Catholic school, why benefactors step forward to make possible the building of state-of-the-art facilities like the one we are blessing and dedicating today.
Catholic education strengthens your ability, as young people, here and now, “to manifest to the world the face of Jesus Christ.” How badly many of your peers need to see the face of Christ.
Without Christ, the world is ruled by the powers of evil. Without Christ, (Cf. Gal 5:16ff) people abandon themselves to indulgence of every sort: to impurity, to hostilities, to slander, to jealousy, to selfish rivalries, factions and envy. Without Christ, they fall into drunkenness and drugs. Many of your peers do not know Christ but, sadly, they know all too well these behaviors that can never bring them peace.
St. Mary’s is a school built on the knowledge of Christ. You who are students here already know the blessing of having a personal relationship, in truth and love, with Christ. Dear young people, as Pope Benedict told youth in Brazil, “do not waste your youth! Do not seek to escape from it. Live intensely your friendship with Christ.
Listen again to the words of St. Paul(Eph 4:14): “Let us, then, be children no longer, tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine that originates in human trickery and skill in proposing error. Rather, let us profess the truth in love and grow to the full maturity of Christ.”
It is a blessing to know what is false and what is true, to know what is a lie originating in human trickery and what is the truth that leads to real joy and peace. [E.G. my friend Joe]
Without the truth, you are tossed here and there like leaves in the wind. But when you are rooted in the truth which finds its origin in Christ, nothing can shake you, nothing can destroy your happiness and peace, for these are gifts of the Holy Spirit Himself.
Moreover, when you are rooted in truth, when you are grounded in Christ, you are able to be a messenger of hope and a true friend to your peers. You yourselves know what blessing such friends are in the world today.
Pope Benedict says: “Without the face of young people, the Church would appear disfigured.” With the face of young people, however, who are solidly formed in their Catholic faith, the Church flourishes in our time, and is a beacon of hope for the world.
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