Hope and Perseverance: Christus Vivit five years on

By Tiziana Campisi

Among the hundreds of bishops gathered for the XV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in 2018, dedicated to the theme “Young people, faith and vocational discernment”, 34 young people were invited as listeners.

One of them was Briana Santiago, originally from Texas, who, at the time of the Synod, was in her fifth year of formation in the community of consecrated “Apostles of the Interior Life”.

Today, at thirty-two years old, she participates in the activities of this community, founded in 1991 to fight against spiritual poverty through an apostolate focused on evangelization and spiritual formation.

She explained to Vatican News how the Apostolic Exhortation inspires her daily life:

The following transcript has been lightly edited for brevity

You participated in the 2018 Synod on Youth. What can you tell us about this experience and what did you learn?

I think when you come from a specific culture, being in a room with 300 other people – between the Synod Fathers and us 32 young people who come from completely different backgrounds, experiences, histories and needs – it makes you completely opens the horizons. , and you see that we are part of a complete body of Christ.

There was a pre-synodal meeting a year before, and I met there all the young people of different faiths and origins, then the Synod itself, with all the richness there and the possibility of discussing together and to arrive together at – I truly believe – something inspired by the Holy Spirit himself. And then there was the post-synodal meeting, called the International Youth Forum, where we were able to reap these fruits and say, “OK, how can we apply this?” How can I experience this in my diocese? How can I experience this in my parish? How can I live this out in the work I have in the world? And how can I get Jesus there?

It was therefore such a richness to be able to experience these three moments while the synodal process continued and to be able to see where the Spirit inspired us to reach out to the young people of today.

What was the lasting impact of the synod on you?

There were so many different ones! There was human formation, having so many different cultures, different people and different needs all in one place. But I also think I can say personally: “This is where I must give my life as a consecrated person. This is how I can today be close to young people and offer them the experience that I have in my own charisma. The name of my community is “The Apostles of the Interior Life” and I understood that I needed to meet in a certain way the young people of the Church today. This is not just my idea, but it is something that is now enriched by all the stories I have heard during this Synod experience from people literally from all over the world.

So for me personally, a big payoff was being able to experience that and learn from others and then make it my own in some way. How can I bring God to the young people of today, who are very different from the young people of 50 years ago, and even from the young people of five years ago, at the time of the Synod itself? What can I do today for them?

Another important fruit for me is that it did not end with the Synod itself. All of us Synod listeners have created a WhatsApp group and in this WhatsApp group we send each other updates, ideas, apostolate or updates when we get married. When I was dedicated, I sent out the link to watch the live stream of my dedication, and we're asking for prayers, and we're asking how everyone is doing.

So, even this continuous communication, the fruit of this synod, it is still very present in our lives and we are still trying today to make it known to the world.

What parts of Christus Vivit are most meaningful to you?

I will begin with paragraph 112, which is part of chapter 4, and which contains a message for all young people: “The very first truth I would tell each of you is this: God loves you. » I think that in everything we do and in all the ways we try to bring Christ to the world, we have to start here. We must start from the fact that God loves each of the young people we meet, no matter where they are in their history. And I think that's a beautiful thing to start with, not with what they're doing wrong in their life or whether they have faith or not, but that God loves them where they are.

And then also paragraph 178: “Dear young friends, do not wait until tomorrow to bring your energy, your audacity and your creativity to change our world. » So basically: yes, we need your energy, we need your boldness and we need your creativity to change the world. Do not wait. We need you now. I think it's such a beautiful thing to keep in mind

For me personally, one of the paragraphs that is almost a kind of self-examination is number 246, which talks about what the qualities of a spiritual director or mentor should be for young people today. today. And as someone who in my own apostolate frequently does spiritual accompaniment, even to recognize, yes, young people want me to be in touch with my own humanity and to recognize that I make mistakes, but that I can be forgiven. What a beautiful thing to remember in my own apostolate.

And for young people today, I think there are two words that I would like to mention: hope and perseverance. I think it is very common for young people to be tempted to lose hope, saying that things will never change, that the Church will never be updated, that they will never have faith, or that they will never change. 'll never have enough. But God says: no, don't lose hope because I am here, I am present, I love you. God loves us and this love will always be there.

So we have World Youth Day in Seoul, this beautiful communion that we have between brothers and sisters in Christ, with millions of them present. How can we not lose this hope once it's over? Well, by persevering day after day and saying, “I know God is here and I know things will change. »