Posts Tagged ‘Madrid’

Eucharistic Adoration with 1.5 million others was my favourite World Youth Day 2011 moment

Welcome back to the blog which, after my break, springs back into action. But before diving back into the world of all things Catholic, I want to spend a moment looking back at World Youth Day in Madrid which I attended.

I do not propose in these lines to complain about the lack of organisation – that has been done and done rightly – I simply wish to tell something of my adventures across Europe.

Simple Prayer Book in hand, I left by coach, visiting Paris, Lourdes and Toulouse in France. Staying in school dormitories and universities meant that this, my 5th and possibly final World Youth Day, was not the most uncomfortable one. Crossing into Spain, I spent time in Barcelona visiting the inside of the Sagrada Familia for the first time; sometimes that place looks more like something from the Lord of the Rings trilogy than a Church but it was stunning.

We were a group of more than three hundred from all over the UK and in a group that size it takes a long time to do anything or go anywhere; but the constant changes in location meant there were a great many opportunities for prayer while travelling, including the Divine Office and the Rosary. Spending time with God in that way was a massively important part of the trip for me.

As we got nearer to Madrid we heard about anti-Pope protests and people clamouring about the use of public money to finance the event, just as they did when the Pope came to the UK last year. I smiled watching my fellow pilgrims descend on any petrol station, shop or refreshment stand we found, pumping Euros into Spain’s failing economy in exchange for vital ice-creams, drinks or sandwiches.

Walking – or in my case being wheeled (see picture) – towards our place in Cuatro Vientos airbase, it got unbearably hot, I thought of the Israelites needing water in the desert, and just when things looked really bad, the fire brigade arrived to hose down pilgrims – it was the answer to all our prayers!! I have read of people being turned away or refused food; as veterans of the WYD circuit, we had been supermarket shopping in the preceding days to stock up on supplies so, other than avoiding ants’ nests which seemed to be everywhere, we were relatively comfortable.

Then the storm struck, and the fireworks we saw at the end of the festivities were no match for the natural ones. But for all the pyrotechnics, the highlight of the night was the moment of Eucharistic adoration. In that moment, we pilgrims understood what we had come for, for adventure and for fun yes, but most of all, for this meeting of a community of believers with Jesus – and it was wonderful.

Mass next day was great with a perfect gospel, Peter’s profession of faith; but the storm had made receiving Holy Communion impossible. Even so, I left with a sense of having done what I had set out to do, travel into the heart of Europe with Christ and his Church and listen to and support the successor of St Peter who clearly warned me and all of us:

“We cannot follow Jesus on our own. Anyone who would be tempted to do so ‘on his own’, or to approach the life of faith with the kind of individualism so prevalent today, will risk never truly encountering Jesus, or will end up following a counterfeit Jesus.”

Don’t forget, your World Youth Day photos could illustrate a CTS booklet! Add them to our Facebook page!

Of related interest:

DO845 YouCat – YouCat is an accessible, contemporary expression of the Catholic Faith. The appealing graphic format includes questions and answers, highly-readable commentary and summary definitions of key terms.
Way A Way of Life for Young Catholics – Written for young Catholics who want to live their faith more deeply but are not sure what steps to take, this booklet contains practical, down-to-earth advice on many aspects of daily life.
How to Discover Vocation How to Discover your Vocation - This booklet will help you to think and pray about your vocation and become clearer about where God is leading you. It answers many of the practical questions you may be asking: What are the different Christian vocations? How does God guide us and speak to us? How can I be more open to my vocation, and come to a decision?
Tuesday, 30 August 2011 13:54

England’s youth need to meet Jesus Christ

Making saints

This is the last post on this blog for some weeks, as I am leaving for World Youth Day in Madrid and I can say I am not entirely sorry to leave England’s capital after last night.

London saw last night, young people looking for something – not just trainers or TVs – children as young as ten were on the streets, living out the lessons learned in a culture where value is conferred on someone by the shoes, the flat-screen or the phone they own.

Here is a warning from Blessed John Paul II, who cared so much for young people, from 1984:

“Dear young people, you are under threat from the bad use of advertising techniques, which plays upon the natural tendency to avoid effort and promises the immediate satisfaction of every desire, while the consumerism that goes with it suggests that man should seek self-fulfilment especially in the enjoyment of material goods.”

Some of these ideas were visible last night in those who robbed and vandalised across the city.

Yet the meeting in Madrid will present another idea to the world: that people were not made to satisfy themselves, or to steal or destroy, but to know God and love him, only then can we see where life comes from, from loving him and our neighbour.

A pilgrimage is a journey, and along with sleeping bags, Rosaries and other gear, the pilgrim carries the worries and questions of his own time and place. Journeying to Madrid, I will now carry with me my anxieties for the youth of this country, knowing that God is the only one who can bring good out of last night’s evil, and asking him to show this generation his unique fatherly love.

Patron saints of World Youth Day: St. John of the Cross, St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, St. Isidore the Worker, St. Maria of the Head,   St. Rafael Arnaiz, St. John of Avila, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Rose of Lima and Blessed John Paul II, pray for us and for England’s young people.

Of related interest:

Young Way of Life for Young Catholics – Written for young Catholics who want to live their faith more deeply but are not sure what steps to take, this booklet contains practical, down-to-earth advice on many aspects of daily life.
Lent You will be my Witnesses – During World Youth day 2008 in Australia, Pope Benedict not only raised challenging questions but gave the young people inspired and convincing answers rooted in Christ.
Union Union With God - St Athanasius famously said that “the Son of God became man so that we might become God”. This booklet delves into what it means for a Christian to not only have a relationship with God but become so united with Him that we take part in his divinity.
Tuesday, 09 August 2011 10:39

World Youth Day pilgrims: Get your photos in a CTS booklet!

YouCat

World Youth Day is just days away now, and if you are lucky your photos could feature in the CTS booklet that will be published after the event.

Here at CTS we have published booklets of the addresses given by both Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul, at World Youth Days, showing that the purpose of these meetings is to draw closer to Jesus with Peter’s help and we need your help illustrating the one for Madrid.

If you are going, join us on Facebook and upload your photos, and you will get a free copy of it too! Then the best ones will be selected to go into the booklet.

Meanwhile, the executive director of World Youth Day Madrid 2011, Yago de la Cierva, is reported by the CNA as having said that they are still receiving nearly 5,000 new registration forms a day. He was also asked about protests against the event and the arrival of the Holy Father, which look like taking place in Madrid.

“Spain is a free and democratic country and freedom of speech is allowed. It shouldn’t bother anybody that a group of young people use their own money to organize a festival in which they aren’t going to be disparaging anyone.”

World Youth Days are not, as has been said before, the Christian equivalent of today’s festivals. Creative Minority Report today published a humorous if telling comparison between World Youth Day and perhaps the most famous of all festivals, Woodstock.

In 1995, Pope John Paul II, who had instituted the event 10 years before, held World Youth Day in Manila, with an estimated 5 million people, quite possibly the largest single gathering in human history. It is unlikely that that number will be topped, however there is certainly likely to be over a million people, with some estimates putting the number at twice that, which would be a similar total to the one registered at the Roman World Youth Day 11 years ago.

To get inspired, pick up Don’t be afraid to be saints, a collection of quotes and reflections for young people taken from past World Youth Days on vocations, service, the Church and much more.

YouCat – the youth catechism of the Catholic Church is also published by the CTS in the UK & Ireland and priced £9.95

And don’t forget to send us your pics!

Of related interest:

Love and purity True Love – Passion & Purity - This booklet helps the reader gain an insightful understanding of our deepest need to love and be loved, and what place our sexuality has in this important aspect of our lives.
Way A Way of Life for Young Catholics – Written for young Catholics who want to live their faith more deeply but are not sure what steps to take, this booklet contains practical, down-to-earth advice on many aspects of daily life.
How to Discover Vocation How to Discover your Vocation - This booklet will help you to think and pray about your vocation and become clearer about where God is leading you. It answers many of the practical questions you may be asking: What are the different Christian vocations? How does God guide us and speak to us? How can I be more open to my vocation, and come to a decision?
Wednesday, 03 August 2011 12:02

Pray for the success of World Youth Day

YouCat

With World Youth Day coming up, the Holy Father has invited the whole Church to pray that it may be, for young people, a meeting with Jesus.

His general prayer intention for this August is that:

“That World Youth Day in Madrid may encourage young people throughout the world to have their lives rooted and built up in Christ.”

Fr Eric Jacquinet – who heads up the Youth Office at the Vatican’s Council for the Laity, in giving his ideas on meeting the Lord and how the Church can spread the message of Jesus, points out that some of the best missionaries now come from young converts and here, the Vatican Insider offers a breakdown of what the Pope will be doing during the five-day event, including using a 3-metre-high gold and silver monstrance, a 16th-century piece from Toledo, for the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament during the Saturday night’s customary prayer vigil.

Some have decried World Youth Day as a Catholic festival that John Paul II made successful simply because he was a megastar, but this is an over-simplification based on a skewed view of what the Polish pontiff wanted to achieve. Certainly, I can remember a moment at World Youth Day in Canada in 2003 which involved monks playing electric guitars at unearthly hours, but these episodes have been, in my experience, rare. What Benedict is inviting people to do – and YouCat mentioned in the Vatican radio’s report can certainly lend a helping hand – is to come and meet him; and he, who is himself “Rooted in Christ and firm in the faith” – the World Youth Day motto – will present Christ as the answer to all the questions and desires young people, and the not-so-young, have.

YouCat is published by the CTS in the UK & Ireland and priced £9.95

Of related interest:

Love and purity True Love – Passion & Purity - This booklet helps the reader gain an insightful understanding of our deepest need to love and be loved, and what place our sexuality has in this important aspect of our lives.
Way A Way of Life for Young Catholics – Written for young Catholics who want to live their faith more deeply but are not sure what steps to take, this booklet contains practical, down-to-earth advice on many aspects of daily life.
How to Discover Vocation How to Discover your Vocation - This booklet will help you to think and pray about your vocation and become clearer about where God is leading you. It answers many of the practical questions you may be asking: What are the different Christian vocations? How does God guide us and speak to us? How can I be more open to my vocation, and come to a decision?
Thursday, 28 July 2011 14:45

440,000 YouCats to be distributed at WYD & already a hit in the US

YouCat

Although YouCat was made with the coming World Youth Day 2011 in mind, it is already in widespread use in parts of the USA, UK and Ireland.

The US National Catholic Register has reported on a TV show to be based on it in Boston, following the format popularised by the game show Jeopardy. They have also reported on how the idea for YouCat came about.

“Cardinal Schönborn of Vienna said in a presentation on April 13 that the idea for YouCat came to him following a 2006 presentation on the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. ”It must be possible, after all, in a globalized world to give expression to the faith, too, in a common language, YouCat is one such attempt.’”

Ron Bolster, director of the Office of Catechetics at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio pinpointed the new Catechism’s appeal.

“Something like YouCat takes the universal and unchanging truths of the Church and delivers it to an always-changing audience; today’s audience is very different from yesterday’s, and the audience in the U.S. is different from the audience in Africa, Europe or China. YouCat is certainly adapted to the modern age, meeting the needs of the current culture with the questions that many young people have.”

YouCat is published by the CTS in the UK & Ireland and priced £9.95

Of related interest:

Love and purity True Love – Passion & Purity - This booklet helps the reader gain an insightful understanding of our deepest need to love and be loved, and what place our sexuality has in this important aspect of our lives.
Way A Way of Life for Young Catholics – Written for young Catholics who want to live their faith more deeply but are not sure what steps to take, this booklet contains practical, down-to-earth advice on many aspects of daily life.
How to Discover Vocation How to Discover your Vocation - This booklet will help you to think and pray about your vocation and become clearer about where God is leading you. It answers many of the practical questions you may be asking: What are the different Christian vocations? How does God guide us and speak to us? How can I be more open to my vocation, and come to a decision?
Tuesday, 12 July 2011 11:17
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