Dear Friends,
With great joy we present to you the International Manual of the Eucharistic Youth Movement. We hope it will be of help and an inspiration as we move forward with the mission of evangelization which is ours in the Movement.
This material which you are now receiving is the result of several years of work at the international level and has two objectives:
- To bring together criteria to help strengthen the common identity and distinctiveness of the Movement. It seeks to clarify our common foundation, respecting the diversity and richness with which it is expressed, felt, and lived out in the different parts of the world.
- To point out the horizon towards which we are going. We hope everyone will come to feel and experience a coming together of the process of recreation of the Apostleship of Prayer as the POPE’S WORLDWIDE PRAYER NETWORK (PWPN), and its youth branch (EYM).
This spiritual path which is offered to the children and young people of the EYM continues later on for young adults. As is expressed in the introduction to this Manual: “It prepares us to live as adult Christians, committed to the service of our brothers and sisters for humanity’s challenges” .The proposal which we offer once they turn 25 is that they continue their spiritual journey in the PWPN, according to its several pathways.
We have wanted to present the spiritual foundation that is common to all of us, and which brings us close to the diversity of the five teaching styles that characterize it. The way of living out Eucharistic spirituality is what makes the EYM a unique movement. This different style, creative, and adapted to reality, according to the “times, places, and persons” enriches it. This spiritual foundation is found, developed and explored in depth in the spiritual itinerary of the Worldwide Prayer Network called “The Way of the Heart.” Besides, the children, teenagers and young people are formed for the mission, for a life of service which is born from the personal encounter with Jesus in prayer. This prepares them to be men and women attentive to the needs of the world of today.
We hope that this Manual will be of great usefulness and can give much fruit for all EYM children and youth.
May the Lord bless us in this marvelous mission, as the Manual accompanies us as we live in the Style of Jesus.
Fr. Frédéric Fornos, SJ
International Director
The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network and EYM
Fr. Luis Ramirez SJ
Sr Lourdes Varguez RJM
International Team
Rome, March 2018