Today's teenagers have everything that other generations had, only in excess, and sometimes the exception becomes the rule. We kill ourselves more, take more drugs and are more "tough" than our parents. Suicides, drugs, promiscuous sex life - all are an attempt to escape from the world around us. Self-harm hurts. In my years of greatest despair, I would take the kitchen knife and press it into my body - not as hard as others I know. I was empty, unhappy, I always wanted to reach the extremes, to escape from the desert I was in...

John the Baptist became a man in the desert, and Jesus defeated Satan in the middle of the desert... Adolescence is also, in a way, a desert; the world of childhood no longer applies, but at the same time it is still impossible to face the reality. It is a time when despair, confusion and loneliness intensify - it is a true spiritual drought, and that is when we find God. The hour of deepest sorrow, of most unspeakable sorrow, is upon us. He wipes away every tear from our eyes and fills us with hope, and we recognize Him because we have reached the deepest depths...