ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS JOHN PAUL II
TO A GROUP OF CATHOLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS
AND THEIR TEACHERS FROM BELGIUM

Saturday, 14 April 1979

I am happy to greet the pupils and teachers of Catholic schools in the Belgian provinces of Antwerp, Brabant and Limbourg.

Congratulations to you all for having come to spend Holy Week in Rome. What an unforgettable memory for you! And thank you for your visit to the Pope, a visit which is such a congenial one on the human plane and such a consoling one on the spiritual plane.

As you know, the Lord Jesus has mysteriously entrusted all his disciples to me. They all have a place in my heart and my prayer, but especially the rising generation, yours, dear young people. That is why I wish to leave you today three instructions, which will be like three subjects of reflection.

Be young people overflowing with joy and earnestness, with consideration for everyone and with your own requirements.

Be ardent disciples of Christ, the centre of the whole of history and of your own history, very humble and courageous disciples, more and more capable of giving an account of their faith in him.

Be realistic and persevering builders of society, which is rather weary along its ways of practical materialism, and builders of the Christian community, of the one Church of Christ.

And I wish to add also: let many of you listen to the "Come and follow me", which Christ the Redeemer certainly addresses to attentive hearts and spirits today, as to these first apostles, as to all generations.

To you, dear young people, to all your classmates, to your teachers and your parents, a Happy and Holy Easter! With my affectionate Blessing

© Copyright 1979 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana