In August, we celebrated the Jubilee of Youth in Tor Vergata (in Rome) with Pope Leo XIV. We discovered some amazing stories there, and we want to share them with you now. Here’s what Mariam has to say:

I live in the Netherlands, but originally I'm from Iraq. I study nutrition and dietetics. I'm 22 years old. 

I've experienced a lot of miracles in my life, with my family especially. My parents did everything for us. And my father really represents St. Joseph. He is always the leader in our family. I can tell one story where, there in Iraq, there was a bomb outside of our house and many cars got bombed and I was a child. I was really afraid, and I looked up to my dad, and the only thing that my dad was doing was smiling and that gave us a lot of peace. It gave me a lot of peace, inner peace. He only said, “Start to pray and it will be will be good, because God is with us.”

I'm a supernumerary, and that means I'm part of Opus Dei, via my brother. My brother is also a supernumerary, and so I started to ask questions; direct questions in my faith, in how I can represent myself to others, but especially, how I can combine my work and my faith together. Because I think a lot of people really separate that, but there is unity in that. And one quote of The Way really struck me is that “an hour of study is an hour of prayer,” of Josemaria Escriva. Therefore I found my vocation in it, and I started to act like my brother, and to pray together. Praying together leads to hope. 

I came to the Jubilee Year to find inner peace. I went also to the World Youth Day, and the World Youth Day really struck me because of all communities together from all different nations and all different backgrounds and stories, and because I'm also a refugee. I'm born in Baghdad. It reminded me of that hope. And the Jubilee Year is all about hope. It's a beautiful proof that we are not crazy that we believe, and everything happens for a reason. And the the way that we are here shows us that that God is real and God's love as well. 

I've been to UNIV, if you heard of it. It's a beautiful conference of Opus Dei, where I also met Pope Francis. And it was the last Holy Week before he died. That was really special. Pope Francis is really expresses simplicity, and he's the leader of the Catholic Church, and the only thing that he asked was to think about the people who are poorest. I think I really get inspired by him, especially in World Youth Day. He said, "Don't judge the person but [look at] him so you can lift him up." 

That really inspired me with Pope Francis, and now Pope Leo XIV is chosen. He's the father of the Catholic Church which the only thing that he can bring is peace in us. And he prays also a lot for the Middle East. Maybe from the outside, there is no peace, but it's all the martyrs that died for their faith; they died in inner peace.