Let us encourage the generosity which is typical of the young and help them to work actively in building a better world. Youth do not solely need material things. Above all, they need to have those non-material values which are the spiritual heart of a people ... spirituality, generosity, solidarity, perseverance, fraternity, and joy.

Lent is a good time for sacrificing. Let us deny ourselves something every day to help others.

We must walk united with our differences: there is no other way to become one. This is the way of Jesus.

When we meet a person truly in need, do we see the face of God?

Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded. We have created a “disposable” culture which is now spreading. It is no longer simply about exploitation and oppression, but something new. Exclusion ultimately has to do with what it means to be a part of the society in which we live; those excluded are no longer society’s underside or its fringes or its disenfranchised – they are no longer even a part of it. The excluded are not the “exploited” but the outcast, the “leftovers”.

Are our lives truly filled with the presence of God? How many things take the place of God in my life each day?

Only by becoming poor ourselves, by stripping away our complacency, will we be able to identify with the least of our brothers and sisters.