Dear friends,

my dear young people from Uganda, the Holy Land and Italy,

Welcome! I am very happy that you have come to join us today. It is a joy to share these moments with you. I thank all the choir members for your hard work in preparing this recital, and I congratulate the choir directors.

We have just listened to your beautiful singing. Music has the remarkable ability to bring different voices together in unison, where each one contributes something unique to the whole. In this sense, choir becomes an ideal symbol of harmony and cooperation.

It is significant that Sacred Scripture and the Liturgy of the Church speak of “choirs of angels and saints” when describing the joy of heaven, not because they are literally singing all the time, but because united in love they behold God together and find in him the fullness of happiness.

My dear young friends, as you were singing, did you notice how music drew all of us into an experience of something new, something that was greater than any one of us alone could create? This is the experience of beauty. It opens before us a new horizon, and it awakens within us the desire to go out to meet that horizon. When we set out toward it, we discover not simply something, but Someone. We encounter God our Creator. Just as we can follow a stream back to its source, the beauty of music invites us to encounter the one who is beauty itself.

In this regard, continue to cultivate the gifts that God has given you, and allow them to lead you towards him.  He is everything we are looking for in life, the one who alone can quell our restless hearts. Remember that you have been made for great things, and that this world is not enough to quench your thirst for meaning and happiness.

Know too that the Holy Father loves you and prays for you, for your families and for your countries. In a particular way, I pray that peace may reign in your homes and in all those places throughout the world that continue to suffer from violence.

In closing, I would like to thank the Andrea Bocelli Foundation for the work you carry out on behalf of young people who experience educational and social disadvantages. Through the power of music, you are contributing to the Church’s mission of promoting the integral development of every human person and serving the common good. May God bless your efforts.

Dear friends, thank you again for coming to lift our hearts with your beautiful music. Entrusting you to the intercession of Mary our Mother, I will gladly impart to each of you my heartfelt blessing.

Thank you.