Through the WYD08 experience, young people from throughout the world will make a pilgrimage in faith, meet, and experience hospitality and the love of God. The young people will have an opportunity to rediscover their baptismal calling and the centrality of the sacraments of the Eucharist and reconciliation, and so discover a new apostolic zeal to witness more fully the Gospel in the modern world.

The WYD08 theme, received from The Holy Father is:
'You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses.' Acts 1:8

This passage occurs after the death and resurrection of Jesus, just before his ascension to the Father. It represents the birth of the Church.

The disciples had questioned Jesus about the time of the restoration of Israel. His words 'You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you' were somewhat surprising - they referred to a new meaning of the word "power". Jesus promises a different kind of "power" to help the Jews from under the yoke of Roman occupation. The power He promises to give is the very Spirit of God, the dynamic potential for transformation, the very condition of living according to the manner of Jesus' life.

This Spirit is not a vague ambiguous force, rather it is a Divine Person, the true Self Gift of the Father to the Son, and the Son to the Father, and hence the gift of the Father to us in the Son - with Him we say "Our Father". Only with the reception of the Spirit of Jesus can we exercise the authentic passion of the Heart of Christ, and hence by being set on fire with it do we as persons become witnesses to Him and everything for which He stands.

The ultimate witness we can make is to follow in the pattern of His life through the total self gift of our lives, lived authentically in truth and love for Him and at the service of others.

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"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witness." Acts 1:8