Thank you for being with us this week as we enter the season of Lent ! You come as the sun pierces the clouds bringing with it the hope of the beauty of springtime which is gently emerging from the long winter.

This week is almost an Atlantic meeting ! Many of you come from Portugal and others have joined us from New York. A special welcome to you all. I would like to express my gratitude to all the teachers and other group leaders who have accompanied all you young Portuguese this week, and also to the Bishop Virgilio of Coimbra for being with us these days. Your presence counts!

And among the youth from the US, I know that there are some of you who are doing all you can to support migrants, refugees and people on the margins of society in your country. Thank you for your courage and please know that we are with you in all your endeavours.

In a moment, two of you will ask me a question. But before that, I wanted to share some words that I have already shared with my brothers as we start Lent.

During morning prayer yesterday on Ash Wednesday, you were anointed with oil and heard the words: ‘Receive the oil of gladness and courage.’ In the Epistle to the Hebrews, God says to his Son, ‘You have loved righteousness and hated evil; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness.’ (Heb 1:9) .

I wondered if during this Lent, each of us could take a moment to remember joyful moments spent with others from this past year and to give thanks for those moments. Are they not the real signs of this anointing that God offers us?

But in the verse from the Letter to the Hebrews, it is also about loving justice and rejecting evil. For myself, I have decided that during this Lent I would like to ask the Holy Spirit to help me not to judge others, because it is often this trap that robs us of joy in our relationships with one another. Let us ask for the grace to love each person they are!

Often we want to renounce something material during Lent, to deny ourselves something, but there are also joyful inner renunciations which set us free, change our hearts and build communion. Is that not what God is asking of us all?

Please join us tomorrow as we pray in silence for peace in our world. We are confronted with so many situations of violence both close at hand and in other countries.

This morning a brother set off for Ukraine where he will visit young people we know living in this war-torn land. Another brother will join him on Sunday. February 24^th will be the fourth anniversary of the start of the full-scale invasion of this country, in a war which really began already in 2014. Young Ukrainians who are now twenty have spent over half of their lives with the spectre of conflict present. We must not forget them. In a few days, another brother will visit Myanmar, where there is so much suffering, both for Christians and the general population.

As you begin to prepare to return home, please reflect on what was important for you during your stay in Taizé. How can you put this into practise in your everyday environment? In the community of the Church, even if it is not easy and in some ways you have to forget the atmosphere of Taizé, you can continue to seek Christ. Many of you have come in groups and have shared a common experience. Speak together and try to support each other!