Jesus Is our Greatest Friend

The Holy Father received a group of students, teachers, and parents from the Paul VI Pontifical School located near Castelgandolfo. He recalled his own early education and the importance of what is learned in school. He continued to point out that the through school you develop friendships of which none is more important the the one that is fostered with Our Lord.

"Dear children you go to school and you learn naturally, and I am recalling that seventy-seven years have now passed since I began school. I lived in a small village of three hundred inhabitants, ... yet we learned the essential things. Most importantly, we learned to read and write. I think it is a great thing to be able to read and write, because in this way we can know other people's ideas, read newspapers and books. We can also know what was written two thousand or more years ago; we can know the spiritual continents of the world and communicate with one another. Above all there is one extraordinary thing: God wrote a book, He spoke to us human beings, finding people to write the book containing the Word of God. Reading that book, we can read what God says to us.

At school you learn everything you need for life. You also learn to know God, to know Jesus and thus you learn how to live well. At school you make a lot of friends and this is a beautiful thing because in this way you form one big family, but among our best friends, the first we meet and know should be Jesus Who is a friend to everyone and truly shows us the path of life."

-- September 23, 2010 address to students, teachers, and parents from Paul VI Pontifical School located near Castelgandolfo.

From the Vatican Information Service.

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Messages from the Holy Father are featured on a regular basis. These words of wisdom will include quotes from homilies or addresses given by the Holy Father along with a link to learn more about the full text and context of the address.