What is love?

Young people are in need of love… but what is love really?

In order to deal with this topic in depth, the girls and boys in Costa Rica organized a conference on love and sexuality, a topic of great interest to us. It took place on September 11 at the Movement’s headquarters in East San Jose, Costa Rica, and its theme was: Love is urgent.

Without having planned it, on the day of the conference we were given the gift of having the Gospel of the day (Lk: 15, 1-32) dealing with the parable of the Prodigal Son, in which God shows us his merciful glance full of infinite love. As Father Kentenich expressed so many times, “nothing happens by chance, everything comes from the goodness of God“.

Motivating space for reflection, bonding, and openness to the Holy Spirit

This conference on sexuality and love was conceived and coordinated by the pioneers and allies of the Youth of Costa Rica. It emerged from the need that exists in today’s society to find a place in our hearts for the true love that God has for us, in the midst of all the world’ s noise and constant information.

More than 130 young people participated to learn about how to live interpersonal relationships at our age, and it became a chance for reflection, prayer, bonding, learning and openness to the message that the Holy Spirit wants for each one of us.

Six speakers, members of the Movement, shared their perspectives on this special day, accompanied by Father Pedro Pablo Celis, who gave a lecture about knowing we are loved before falling in love, because when we value ourselves, we will be prepared to have mature relationships with our peers, giving and receiving, listening, and engaging in dialogue. It is an exercise in self-education that sets us free to interact in our relationships and enrich each other.

Mary invites us to love in a fuller and purer way

The day ended with a prayer in which we gave our hearts to God, our concerns, desires, joys, and sorrows.

With this, Mary invites us to love in a fuller, more committed and purer way; this is how we receive the great gift of sexuality that God plans for us.

The outcome of the day and what we experienced are proof that “Love is urgent” and, as young people, we are capable of living it in Christ and for Christ.

We believe that this conference meets the priorities enunciated at the Pentecost Congress in Schoenstatt last June, which highlighted the importance of being open to providing leadership to the youth and offering them the place they need to fulfill their mission of sharing their values with today’s youth.