Dear Sons and Daughters, Members of Youth for the Third Millennium and Missionary Families for the Third Millennium of Regnum Christi:

As you gather together having concluded a wonderful mission within the outskirts of the great cities and amongst the indigenous mountain villages of our dearly beloved Mexico, I cordially greet you in the peace of God our Father and of Christ Jesus, our Lord (1 Tm 1: 2).

With your efforts you have chosen to bring the Gospel to every man and woman, announcing salvation through the joyful spreading of the Word, the happiness of brotherly solidarity common to Jesus’ disciples and the enthusiastic testimony of your faith. You have wished to imitate our Lord, visiting cities and towns, teaching, proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom, bringing hope and consolation to those who are weak (cf. Mat 9: 35).

Your Mexican lands have been blessed with a rich and profound Christian tradition and hold great promise, especially for you, my dear young people, who will have to continue spreading, strengthening and bravely defending your faith amidst the dark threats that would like to place your faith and gospel values in peril. This was the invitation that I made to you in my first visit to Mexico in 1979 and I would like to repeat it to you anew: My dear young people, dedicate yourselves in a profoundly human and Christian manner to things that merit effort, detachment and generosity! The Church has great hope in you and trusts in you! (Discourse to Students 30 January 1979).

Today the world needs a New Evangelization that relies on your spiritual testimony and the generosity of your youth, so that no door will be closed to Christ and so that everyone can come to know him as our true happiness, the source of our hope and the cause of our salvation. Our world needs Christ more than anyone else, men, women, families, children, the elderly, the sick, the strong and the weak, we all need him.

Our paths, like that of our Lord’s, will not be easy. But once again I say to you: Do not be afraid! Following Christ’s steps, he who is the Way, our feet will not stumble (cf. Psalm 17/16, 3). Do not be discouraged! He never abandons us and we know in whom we have placed our trust (cf. 2 Tm 1: 12). Be faithful! Do not be seduced by the false claims of those who do not have and cannot give. Keep your eyes fixed on the Lord, who always remembers those who follow him with fidelity and prudence (cf. Mt. 25: 23).

United to Christ and under the maternal protection of the Blessed Virgin, our Lady of Guadalupe, continue with your Christian testimony, in your service to the Church and your missionary commitment. With these sentiments I affectionatle bestow my Apostolic Blessing.

Vatican, 7 May 1996