Attitude and Youth

Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind. It is the freshness of the deeper springs of life. Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. People grow old by deserting their ideals. Whether 60 or 16, every human being may experience wonder, the undaunted challenge of events, the unfailing, childlike appetite for the future, the joy in living. For you are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your despair. As long as your heart receives messages of beauty hope, cheer, courage, and power from God and from your fellow human beings, you are young.

From A Canopy of Stars: Some Reflections for the Journey
by Fr Christopher Gleeson SJ
[David Lovell Publishing 2003]