A journey into the world of young people and their inner selves, to discover a new spirituality and a dialogue with the times and their emergencies. A strong sensitivity towards peace, creation, justice, and human dignity.

Today’s young people are searching and demanding; they aren’t satisfied with readily available answers, but want to go beyond the obvious, to be accompanied in the difficult task of inhabiting questions, to reach depths that are impossible to discern with a distracted or hasty gaze.

Their search is complicated by taking place in a rapidly changing context; their growth occurs through dialogue and interaction with an adult generation that has other points of reference, matured in a different era, and that today feels immersed in a shift in epoch.

For young people, change doesn’t exist; this is their world, the one they were born into: they have never known another. Dialogue between generations in such a situation is complex, as is the existential quest of young people whose sensibilities are open to aspects and questions that differ from those of the preceding generation.

The restlessness and questions of young people open the way to a new spirituality, one that no longer begins with God to express itself as a personal form of one’s experience of faith, but develops entirely within the human being, starting with a strong awareness of self and one’s inner world.

But what is human for young people? For generations who live their humanity in dialogue with an unprecedented time, in which reference values ​​are changing? The changes underway also influence the way they think about themselves and their relationship with reality.

Young people today speak less about God, but this does not mean that God is excluded from their lives; instead, their spiritual journey develops on a different level: that of their humanity, their conscience, and their inner world, which is very intimate and vulnerable to subjectivism. And it is in this inner journey that they discover themselves, their identity, the strength of relationships, their connection with and responsibility towards nature, the call to a commitment to the environment and to others, starting with a reflection on their own dignity.

Young people can encounter God within themselves; if this happens, it can be almost exclusively there, in the secret of their conscience, with a personal faith that they have neither received nor inherited but discovered, in an experience in which faith is above all a relationship. Religious experience, when it culminates in this spiritual journey, is alive and dynamic, just like a relationship: it involves the whole person, becoming one with existence.

The humanity to which young people are sensitive is in intense dialogue with this age, with its emergencies for which they have an even greater sensitivity than adults: peace, creation, justice, solidarity, and human dignity.

The sensitivity of young people pushes for a redefinition of the culture of Christian communities and their educational offerings: the growth paths we feel are needed today require a grounded foundation, strong humanistic roots, contemporary language, and attention to the times in which we live, understood as the “place” where the Spirit dwells.

Today’s sensitivity orients us toward discernment, toward profound attention; not the curious gaze of a tourist, but the restless gaze of those who seek the promptings of the Spirit, the signs of His presence, the markers of a new humanity.

Spirituality is also this: young people are pushing strongly toward a spiritual experience of humanity, willing to work on themselves, to understand better and experience the humanity that inhabits them and the lives of others.

Their spiritual quest has a universalistic connotation in which everyone can find themselves—believers, non-believers, and those with different beliefs—with new possibilities for dialogue. Beyond a still overly activist practice, the latest generations expect the Christian community to listen and pay attention to the tensions that shape their lives.

For parishes, associations, and groups, it would also be an opportunity to rediscover its great spiritual tradition, which would not lead far from the sensibilities of youth: think of Augustine, for example, and his invitation to seek truth in the depths of life, because “God dwells there,” “more intimate to us than we are to ourselves.”

And it is also an opportunity to revive and reinterpret their own humanistic soul; young people are yearning for an authentic humanism, not proclaimed in the abstract, but lived and witnessed in the daily choices of an inclusive Church open to dialogue, and of warm, welcoming, respectful, and humble Christian communities.

This new sensibility could also contribute to renewing the spiritual and formative insights of communities, still imbued with a painful and sacrificial mentality that seems to deny the quest for full life that the Lord came to announce, which continues to offer a proposal that transforms Christianity into a morality, emptying the good news of salvation and a new relationship with God of meaning. Young people are not closed to faith, but are seeking a faith that is friendly to life, open, and contemporary. Christian communities open to these dimensions would be a gain for all.

Some might object that young people cannot influence the Church and Christian communities because “they have left.” Today’s young generation is still on the threshold, often with nostalgia; they are waiting for some sign that there is room in the community for doubts, for questions, even those that remain unanswered; that every search is blessed, that everyone has a humble desire for authenticity.

They are the presence the Church needs today to rejuvenate outdated styles, to update its culture, and to become transparent in the Gospel. Young people, with their concerns and their provocations, are a particularly precious presence for the Church today, a gift of the Spirit. Before wondering what to do for them, Christian communities today should ask themselves how to listen to them, how to allow themselves to be challenged by them. Rather than bringing young people back to Church, we need to let them lead us beyond the narrow confines of sensibilities that are merely nostalgic for the past; to let ourselves be drawn into today’s world, to encounter “the joys and hopes, the sorrows and anxieties” (cf. Gaudium et Spes 1) of the people of our time.

Paola Bignardi