“Born in the midst of young people, let the Community have special love and dedication to them.” (ECCSh, Preamble). Thus is born the Youth for Jesus Project, in order to evangelize and form young people in the light of the Shalom Charism. It has 32 years of history, and since its origin in 1982, the same Spirit of God has been blowing on the Project and directing this work in an expansive way. So that with effectiveness, power, creativity, and audacity of the word of God, it can liberate and transform young people thirsty for love who walk aimlessly nowadays.
Ronaldo Pereira was one of the pioneers of the work with the Shalom Youth. He once emphasized that the Youth for Jesus Project was a response to the words of Pope Paul VI, who said “the hope of the Church resides in the youth”. He stated that “young people well formed in faith and prayer become more and more the apostles of youth. The Church has great confidence in your contribution. From then on, the Shalom youth became protagonists in evangelization and in the formation of other young people. When Moysés speaks of the primacy of youth in the Statutes, he is, as founder, recognizing that the evangelization of youth is part of the founding grace of the charism. That is, it is part of the original grace of the Vocation.
“Young people are not an accident. Young people are in the founding grace. They are not an ornament or circumstances that will pass with time. The primacy of young people is part of the founding grace of the Shalom Charism.”
And so, in the inspiration of values linked to holiness, the Project gained a strong intercessor, Saint Therese of the Child Jesus. A saint who since childhood, knew that she was created for heaven, for a life of sanctification, and that it would be necessary to offer everything, including her own life, for the conversion of peoples.
The 2019 “Listening” magazine shows that “our prayer has extraordinary power before God on behalf of the people, on behalf of young people.” With the challenge of being a Christian in today’s modern world, one seeks a life based on the gospel, where for some it is a daily challenge. But even so, young people assume the protagonism of the New Evangelization. Thus, the actions have created expression and the Youth for Jesus Project had to adapt with much creativity, for an accessible communication and a strong presence in social networks.
The Project is formed by young people from “another world”. Who seek Heaven by living on earth. They are the ones who choose Holiness and Radicality. They are Shalom youth. This is the identity of the Shalom youth: holiness.
