"Beloved brothers and sisters : Boa noite!

I´m happy to see you all. Thank you for traveling, walking and for being here! I think that like the Virgin Mary had to travel to see Elizabeth: «she arose and went with haste » (Lk 1:39) we ask ourselves: why did Mary arise and go with haste to see her cousin? Of course she has just found out about her cousin's pregnancy, but she also was pregnant. Why then did she go without anyone asking it of her? Mary´s gesture, that was not obligatory, was done because she loves, and «the one who loves, flies, runs and is joyful» (Imitation of Christ, III, 5). This is what love does to us.

The joyfulness of Mary is doubled, she had just received the announcement from the Angel that she was going to receive the Redeemer in addition to the news that her cousin was pregnant. It's strange, instead of thinking of herself, she thinks about another woman. Why? Because joy is missionary, joy is not for oneself, it is to carry something. Now, I ask all of you that are here, that have come to encounter and to search for the message of Christ, to search for a positive meaning to life: will you keep it for yourself or will you take it to others? What do you think? I can't hear you!

It is to take to others, because joy is missionary, everyone repeat it together, joy is missionary.

Therefore, I have to take that joy to everyone else, but the joy that we possess others have prepared us to receive. Now let's look back, everything we've received and have prepared. All of this has prepared our hearts for joy, everything. If we look back we have people that were a ray of light for life: parents and grandparents, friends, priests, religious sisters, catechists, youth directors and teachers; they are like the roots of our joy.

Now we will have a moment of silence and when each of you think of those that gave you something in life, they are like roots of joy. Did you find them? Did you find faces? Did you find stories? That joy that came from those roots is that which we have to give to others because we have joyful roots. Joyful roots and we can also be for others the joyful roots. That doesn't mean giving transitory roots, a joyful moment, it means carrying a joy that creates roots and I ask myself, how can we turn into joyful roots?

Joy is not found inside a library, even though we still need to study. It's on the other side, it's not guarded under lock and key, joy has to be searched for, it has to be discovered, we have to discover it in our conversations with others, where we have to give those joyful roots that we have received and sometimes that's tiring. I´ll ask you a question, have you ever been tired? Yes. I can't hear you. Have you ever been tired? Think about what happens when someone is tired, they don't want to do anything, like when we say we want to throw in the towel, because we don't have any desire to continue. Like when someone abandons everything and stops walking and then falls down.

Do you all think that when someone falls in life, when they mess up or when they commit grave errors that they are finished, no. I can't hear you. No. What do we have to do? I can't hear you. Get up! There is something very beautiful that I wanted you to take with you as a memory, the Alpinists, that love to climb mountains, have a song that goes like this, in the art to climb the mountain, what's important is not falling, but rather not staying down when we fall, what a beautiful thing!

The person that stays down, is retired from life already, closed, closed off from hope, shut down the dream and stays fallen down. When we see that some of our friends have fallen, what are we supposed to do? Lift them up! With strength, lift them up. Realize that when someone lifts up or helps another, what gesture are you doing? You look down at them from above, the only opportunity, the only moment that it is acceptable to look down at someone from above is to help them to get up. How many times have people looked at us like that, over their shoulder, from above us, it's truly sad. The only way in which that is allowed, the only situation where it is acceptable to look down at someone from above is, say it, it is….. louder! Helping them to get up, good.

This is a little part of the journey, consistency in walking and in life to accomplish the things that you have to train for along the journey. Sometimes we don't have any desire to walk, we don't have any desire to push ourselves harder, we copy off other´s exams because we don't want to study and we don't succeed. I don´t know if anyone here likes soccer? I like soccer. Behind every goal, what is there? Lots of training, behind any success, what is there? Lots of training, and in life, we can't always do what we want but instead fulfill the vocation that we have inside us. It carries us to be, to walk, and if I fall, to get myself up or to be helped up, to not stay fallen down and to keep training and keep training on the journey and everything is possible. Not because we take classes along the way about the journey, there aren't any classes that can teach us how to walk in life, that is something that is learned. It is learned from our parents, our grandparents and our friends by walking with them. In life we learn and that is the training along the way.

I will leave you with this idea, nothing more: walk, and if someone falls to get up, walk with a goal, train everyday of your life. In life nothing is free, we pay for everything. There is only one free thing: the love of Jesus. Therefore, with this free gift that we have, the love of Jesus and with the desire, the desire to walk, we shall walk in hope, looking to our roots, without fear, don´t be afraid.

Thank you,  chao"