Before you begin

Watch Alex’s video testimony above. Then read the three quotes below silently before discussing:

• “I want you to be happy on earth. And you will not be happy if you don't lose that fear of suffering. For, as long as we are ‘wayfarers,’ it is precisely in suffering that our happiness lies” (St. Josemaría, The Way, no. 217).
• “This is what true hope consists of: not in trying to avoid pain, but in believing that the seed of new life is hidden, even in the heart of the most unjust suffering” (Pope Leo XIV, Audience, 27 August 2026).
• “Going back to God is going back to an embrace, the Father’s embrace. He is capable of transforming us, He is capable of changing our hearts, but we must make the first step: to return. It is not going to God, no. It is going back home. And Lent always focuses on this conversion of the heart that, in the Christian way of life, takes form in the sacrament of Confession” (Pope Francis, Homily, 20 March 2020).

Discussion guide

Alex says that when his uncle watched the documentary about Pedro Ballester, he felt the faith had “such power at such a difficult time,” and that Alex found his uncle’s sense of “taking ownership of his faith” beautiful.

• Have you ever encountered someone whose faith in the middle of suffering moved or challenged you? What was it about them that stayed with you?
• Why do you think it can be easier to see the power of faith when it’s tested, rather than when life is comfortable?

We are able to embrace the Cross when love is the meaning of our lives and our suffering. Shortly before he died, when he was in the hospital and a friend asked if he was happy, Pedro answered, “I have never been happier.”

• Does Pedro’s happiness seem real to you, or does it feel impossible? What would it take for you to believe it?
• Love, or self-giving, is the freest thing we can do. How do you see self-giving in Pedro’s life? What does that freedom cost him, and what did it give him?

When Alex’s uncle went to Confession for the first time in twenty years and received the Eucharist and the Anointing of the Sick, he seemed to get his sense of humour back. Pope Leo XIV says that Jesus’ embrace of suffering shows us what it is to be truly free: “In life, we don’t need to have everything under control. It is enough to choose to love freely each day” (Audience, 27 August 2025).

• What do you think moves someone to go back to Confession after a long time? What holds people back?
• Have you ever experienced how prayer and the sacraments help you cultivate the gift of freedom?

A simple video about Pedro Ballester’s example made a big difference in Alex’s uncle’s life.   

• Can you think of a moment in your own life when someone’s example, rather than their words, opened something in you?
• Do you find it natural to pray through the intercession of someone like Pedro — a young person, not yet canonised, who was very ordinary, with struggles similar to other students today? Why or why not?

🎬 Watch the full documentary about devotion to Pedro Ballester around the world: “A Friend in Heaven”

🎥 Watch “I have never been happier,” an hour-long video on Pedro’s life

🎨 Go to the Life in Colour landing page