In anticipation of this July’s World Youth Day in Rio, a book has been released to share the story of World Youth Day and to inspire more young people to attend.
Last week, World Youth Day: Inspiring Generations was released. The book aims to encourage people to experience World Youth Day, as well as dispel the myth that young people are not interested in faith. It contains stories based on the experiences of young Catholics who have been to previous World Youth Days.
Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, the head of the Church in England and Wales, was presented with a copy of the book at a Year of Faith event last week. He congratulated the co-editors on their determination and act of faith in putting the resource together.
The archbishop, who wrote the foreword for the book, spoke at that event about morality, chastity and sexuality, explaining that the moral law is not a ‘no’ to life, but is in fact a ‘yes!’ He said through moral law we are truly free and can find true and everlasting happiness.
The co-editors, James Kelliher, Jo-Anne Rowney and Paula Mendez, shared their thoughts about the book and World Youth Day:
Kelliher said: “WYD Madrid was such an amazing experience for myself and many other young people. When I returned home, I wanted to share our stories with Catholics everywhere. It has been a long process in the making, yet I’m really happy with the outcome and I hope lots of people will enjoy the read!”
Rowney said: “WYD was a great experience that I really wanted to share with other people my age. We realised that often young people don’t know where to look to get more involved so it was important we gave them a nudge in the right direction. But, while there are lots of things to do at home, World Youth Day is really the best place to start and the book shows that.”
Mendez said: “During World Youth Day we spent a lot of time talking to each other about our life experiences and the Church, some of these experiences were very moving – that is when we realised that we could get something together which could be put at the service of the Church.”
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On the Net:
World Youth Day: Inspiring Generations can be bought from the Catholic Truth Society here.
As well as the pocket-sized book, there is a Kindle edition, which includes more pilgrim stories, as well as bonus sections such as a pilgrim guide, advice and resources. The Kindle edition can be bought from Amazon here.
