A FACE FOR THE MOTHER OF THE YOUNG
(taken from "Carolpapa" by Ernesto Olivero)

Mary, Mother of the Young, I wanted you, Holy Father, to give her a face, a face to provide solace for today’s young people. I wanted it to be your heart to suggest it to us and you understood.
It was cold on 10 January. I was coming to offer you the first copy of the first edition of this book, but my heart’s most intimate desire was to embrace you again with the "I love you" of always, like those children who do a thousand somersaults around their father to make him smile, to make him feel good.
You put a Byzantine icon depicting the young face of Mary who swathed the Child with her cloak in my hands and you blessed it: the two have the same look, the same eyes, the same smile, one is in the other. A beautiful gift for young people who need to feel embraced with love and nothing more.

THE ICON DONATED BY JOHN PAUL II
PREGHIERA A MARIA MADRE DEI GIOVANI

Mary, the future starts from young people, young people can take the good of the past and make it the present, holiness, initiative and courage, are sown in young people, Mary, Mother of the Young, swathe them with your cloak, defend them, protect them from evil, entrust them to your son, Jesus and then send them out to give hope to the world

JOHN PAUL II