A contribution from Juan Andrés Quintero, SJ

One activity of Fr General Arturo Sosa’s visit to the Province of Venezuela was his prayer meeting with young people. This took place in Caracas on Wednesday, 28 June. The meeting was organised by the Office of Youth and Vocations, supported by a group associated with a number of pastoral ministries.

Fr General’s presence and companionship helped to re-create and strengthen the apostolate to young people. Those involved in organising the visit asked themselves: what do we want to present to, and share with Fr Arturo? Accompanying young people in a world which is increasingly varied, complex and ever-changing is not simple.

One idea was clear to us from the outset, to make the General feel “at home”. It was a conscious decision to hold the meeting at the headquarters of the Instituto Técnico Jesús Obrero of Fe y Alegría, in the community of Catia, on the western outskirts of Caracas. Fr General knows this location well, since, during his time in the Province, he had frequent associations with both the Institute and the community here. He was often in close contact with them.

More than 130 young people from various Ignatian institutions and youth organisations in Caracas took part in the meeting. Clearly, issues associated with young people extend beyond the geographical boundaries of the capital: they apply across the length and breadth of the country. This event provided an opportunity to connect with the mission and work of the Society in a more universal sense.

But as a start, this small, but representative group of young people had the opportunity to share with Fr Arturo. The format of the meeting made space and time for guided Ignatian prayer. The prayer process presented different moments where, between peaceful pauses, songs and the recitation of prayers together, questions were put to the General. These questions served as the subject matter of the prayer. At the meeting’s end, Fr Arturo gave a short reflection, followed by a final blessing.

The questions focused on the experience of Fr General’s own vocation. He testified to a life and experience of God which has led him to take on the helm of the Society in our time. When everything is seen as a burdensome challenge, stumbling or giving up can so easily be justified. But, Fr Arturo rightly pointed out that we are called to live with “openness and sensitivity”, feeling accompanied by God. He added: “let us not look at the difficulties, which seem impossible to overcome, as if God had abandoned us ... On the contrary, the Lord also said: ‘I will be with you every day until the end of the world’”.

Finally, Fr General called on young people to get involved in the mission of Jesus, because each one of us “has a responsibility to continue what he started”. This is possible and we can ourselves do it, because he accompanies us, as was the experience in his own life. When we bless each other, when we make the sign of the cross, when we remember the Lord, we remember that we are the ones who can make God’s dream come true, the dream of a fraternal world, a just world, a much more human world.