MH GOES TO WORLD YOUTH DAY

by Paulette Curran

Toronto, Canada’s largest city, is not too far from Combermere—three and a half to four hours if you drive with nothing more than a couple of brief stops. So when Toronto was host to World Youth Day 2002, it was a once-in-a-lifetime event and opportunity. Of course, we got involved.

One of the ways—and certainly not the only one—was to attend. Fifty-three of us did so. Those of World Youth Day age—16-35—like the others of their age, went for the whole week. Those of us who are older generally went in shifts. We all went to meet the young people, to serve in any way we could, and to share with them what we have been given.

We served in a variety of ways. Cynthia Donnelly put on two performances of her play, A Woman in Love, about the life of Catherine Doherty, and several staff accompanied her to be available after the play to talk with and answer questions by the people in the audience. Plus several of our priests were among the hundreds who answered the call to come and hear confessions.

But most of us served at our two booths. One booth was in the vocations pavilion at Exhibition Place (where most of the “action” took place from Monday through Friday). There in that pavilion along with numerous religious communities, and lay organizations, communities, and movements, we introduced whoever came to our community and way of life. We had MH literature (including the July-August vocations issue of RESTORATION) available, and we ourselves were available to talk with people and to answer their questions. Many, many came, and we were amazed at how open they were. Some from other countries were moved to tears that we had literature in their language.

Many friends who somehow or other heard that we had a booth, also came to visit. Some we hadn’t seen in a long time, and it was wonderful to see them.

The second booth, at Downsview, the site of the vigil and the papal Mass, was an MH Publications booth where we sold our books, pamphlets, tapes, CDs, and so forth. It, too, of course, was a place for people to visit and talk.

Then whenever we weren’t officially “on duty,” we were apostles in any way we could. The atmosphere, not only at World Youth Day itself, but throughout the city, was amazingly open and friendly, and it was so easy to meet people. As we travelled about the city and within Exhibition Place, we made contact with many, chatted, and when it seemed appropriate, shared with them about Madonna House and our spirituality.

Plus, like at a huge fair, there were seemingly limitless things to do and places to go. In the morning, there were catechetical sessions and Mass, and in the afternoon and evening concerts, lectures, films, celebrations of various cultures, get-togethers of people in particular areas of work (farmers, for example), a museum exhibit, adoration chapels, etc., etc., etc. Some of these we attended as time allowed.

But since events were scattered throughout the city as well as at Exhibition Place, there was less time than one would have thought to take them in.

So what’s it all about? What was it like to be at World Youth Day Toronto 2002? It was certainly not like anything I had ever experienced. It has been likened to many things: a large fair, a retreat, a Woodstock experience, a charismatic conference, an educational conference or workshop, a catechetics program, a trip to a foreign country.

Yes, but mostly no. It was so vast, so varied, so multi-facetted, that even to get words around its surface level is extremely difficult. On the spiritual level, the real level, it’s impossible.

For what happened at World Youth Day is infinitely far above the sum of its tangible parts. World Youth Day was incredibly shot through and penetrated with grace, power, joy, life, and beauty. It was, in short, an act of God.

Many of the graces people received came in snippets, in moments, in little experiences, experiences that so often went beyond words. Sometimes just a sentence of the pope’s was anointed—shot through with grace, for a particular person. Such was the case for one man staff worker with the words: “We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures. We are the sum of the Father’s love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son.”

Sometimes, many times, these graces came through encounters with people —through the love and generosity of someone (more than once, a bus driver) or in the form of a deep sense of oneness with an individual, a group, or the whole crowd. One of our priests felt this on the hike to Downsview—a deep oneness with all those walking, walking, walking to the papal Mass.

Many times they came through the pope himself—in whose very being the love and presence of God himself was palpable.

And many times graces came through the young people themselves. Already at World Youth Day, they were, as the pope prayed they may be, “salt of the earth and light of the world.”

For on the streets, on the buses and subways, their joy burst out in exuberant waving to strangers, in laughter, and in songs. At times, they were almost dancing. Where did all that joy come from, people wondered? Did some see the truth—that it came from God?

Oh those young people! Had I been blind before or was it a special grace of World Youth Day that I saw God shining in their faces? Those fresh, open faces came from all over the world: Canada, the United States, Russia, El Salvador, Vietnam, Brazil, Italy, Poland. How could those faces, those eyes shining with such joy and innocence come from communist countries, from war-torn countries, from countries in which the culture of death is everywhere? Those faces gave me a hope that is still singing in my heart.

Yes, hope. That was one of my big gifts from World Youth Day. And hope, and so much else came very powerfully through the Holy Father.

Shortly before World Youth Day, I began to read Witness to Hope, a biography of Pope John Paul II by George Weigel. And suddenly I understood something about the pope. When he was a young man living first under Nazi and then under communist oppression, he belonged to an underground movement—not a fighting underground, but a cultural and religious one. He wrote and acted in illegal, underground plays and studied in an illegal, underground seminary.

Instead of fighting the enemy directly, the people in that underground were drawing on their faith and their culture to lay the foundations of a new life when the oppression would be over.

This is what the pope does now. Times are terribly dark and often, these days, it looks as if the culture of death is winning. But the pope is concentrating his forces on laying the foundation for a new springtime. And one way he does this is by fathering the new generation.

What a bond there is between him and the young people! Even if you just see it on television, it is palpable. Imagine it live! Who could put words to it?

And what love—the love of Christ—shines through him! You don’t even have to see him. One person said he felt “a wave of something” when the pope stepped out of the helicopter; another said that as he moved through the crowd, she could feel where he was. So often, when people saw him, they could only cheer and weep.

What God has done and continues to do through just one man who has given him his life completely!

So what did I experience at World Youth Day? Many things, but most of all, I experienced hope. At a time of such great darkness in the world, I saw the forces of Light. What a palpable reminder of what we know in faith: Christ is the Light of the world, a Light no darkness can overcome.

AN OLD MAN AND SOME STAIRS

by Cheryl Ann Smith

One day this past summer, I watched an old man descend some stairs. I listened to him falteringly speak a few words. I watched him reach out to a child and to a man in a wheelchair. And I wept.

These ordinary actions were so shot full of God that I was overwhelmed by Love.

The man, of course, was Pope John Paul II, and I had watched him on television. When he landed on Canadian soil for this, his third visit to our country, we had been told he would exit the plane on a lift away from the eyes of the camera and of the people.

But suddenly, there he was, at the top of the stairs, beginning his journey down to ground level. Step by slow and painful step, his face reflecting the strain, he labored to come and meet us.

What was he saying to us in that descent? No effort is too much for me, as I come to my spiritual children. Never be ashamed of your own infirmities and weaknesses.

True dignity and strength cannot be equated with being able-bodied and of superior intelligence: it comes from Love propelling us through any obstacle so that we can love more. Do not allow anything to prevent you from moving in love. Blessed are the poor, the meek, the sorrowing.

Was there a dry eye anywhere among the people watching?

I couldn’t help but think of Christ’s descents—first to earth to be one with his children, and then to Hades to lift up all souls to his Father. No agony, no obstacle, no humiliation was too much for him.

As I beheld the courage, determination and indomitable love of Pope John Paul as he made his way towards his people, I began to weep. Already, without one word uttered, he had preached a most powerful sermon.

As our foundress, Catherine Doherty, used to say: “What you do matters, but not much. Who you are matters tremendously.” Staretz Silouan put it another way: “Acquire inner peace, and a multitude will find salvation near you.”

And then, Pope John Paul spoke. With his speech somewhat slurred and face partly frozen from his illness, he radiated the fire of his love —an overwhelming love that embraced us all.

Speaking in both French and English—Canada’s official languages—he reminded us of his first visit here when he had won our hearts, especially those of the Aboriginal peoples. He quoted a line from a French version of our national anthem: “As thine arm is ready to wield the sword, so also is it ready to carry the cross.”

John Paul had already given an example of carrying his cross as Christ did—bent under the weight, but allowing nothing to prevent that paschal walk. Now in just a few sentences, he pierced the heart of our modern pain: “Too many lives begin and end without joy, without hope. This is one of the principal reasons for World Youth Day.”

Our shepherd, whom the Italians call, “il Papa Sofferente,” or “the suffering Pope,” had seen the pain of his people. He had somehow found a way to draw together the young ones, the future, from all corners of the earth —to speak a word of hope to them, to draw out joy.

By his words and actions, he spoke of true love and faith, not a faith and love that avoids the cross and suffering, but one that marches through it. As he later said, “There is no joy without suffering.” We follow a crucified Lord, but the paschal journey leads to Resurrection. This is the joy our pope proclaims.

Various people then came to greet the pope: statesmen, Churchmen, lay people. Cardinal Carter (the former head of the Toronto Archdiocese, who invited Catherine Doherty to open a Madonna House in Toronto in 1980), was wheeled up in his chair. These two great men of God, broken in body, visibly connected in the Spirit, as they always had.

Then Georgia Giddings, a ten-year-old girl, approached John Paul and the dam burst. Love, which could no longer be contained, poured out. Gently, he pulled the child to himself, caressed her face, and kissed her. Overwhelmed by his love, she burst into tears.

Later, Georgia described her experience: “I told him I loved him, and he said it back. I felt so excited. I thought he was going to burst out with love. I felt really safe and I felt he was my best friend.”

No wonder Jesus said, Let the children come to me, for to such belongs the Kingdom of God (Mk 10:14, Lk 18:16). In total simplicity, this little girl expressed the essence of prayer and union with God.

André Frossard, a French writer, wrote, “This pope does not come from Poland. He comes from Galilee.” Georgia expressed the same thought: “He’s the closest one to God, and God is very special to me.”

Pope John Paul II lives a life of such complete union with God that he can say with St. Paul, I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me (Gal 2:20). That love of Jesus, flooding through the humanity of his vicar, broke through the television screen, piercing our hearts. Nothing could stop it.

Moments later, a young man in a wheelchair, Anthony Ramuscak, was brought before the pope, and John Paul strained with all his might to reach him. Out came his arm —reaching, reaching, reaching to touch, to embrace. Physically, the two men couldn’t quite connect, but as his heart drank in the fountain of divine and human love pouring from our Holy Father, Anthony began to sob.

An old man, a few stairs, a few words, a few gestures. Simple, ordinary things. But shot through with such a power of divine love that my heart will never be the same.

Our country will never be the same. Our Church will never be the same. Georgia and Anthony, and each one of us will never be the same. Through Pope John Paul II, God broke through our blindness and gave us eyes to see and hearts to receive him.

My Dear Family

WHY DON’T WE TELL THEM?

by Catherine Doherty

Catherine wrote the following about the youth of the late 1960s. Though many saw them as rebellious trouble-makers, she saw in them a tremendous hunger for God. Like the pope today, she loved the young, had faith in them, and showed them the face of God.

———-

There is a great sadness, but also an immense joy in me these days. When I look around and see youth turning toward God in meditation, prayer, and fasting, I rejoice. And I see them doing this in ever-increasing numbers.

Some of them talk about meditation and contemplation, about Zen Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and other Eastern religions. This is the cause of my sadness.

It is good to turn one’s face toward God, as long as the face is turned toward God. But, I say to myself, why don’t we tell them how?

For us Christians, prayer should be like breathing. The people of God have known meditation and contemplation since Old Testament times. Why are we not answering the cry of the young by teaching them these fundamental ways of reaching him?

Prayer is such a simple thing. It has its own rhythm. You get in touch with God and then you get in touch with yourself.

Throughout the day, one should pray with the totality of one’s self on the inner journey, penetrating deeper and deeper into the silence and solitude of one’s inner being. Contact with God and human beings takes place on an ever-deeper plane, for God is love, and our relationship is a love affair between God and us.

Making contact with God inevitably must lead to making contact with others. In other words, prayer is for the service of people.

In the process kenosis takes place. Kenosis is the Greek word for emptying ourselves in order that Christ might grow in us.

What does that mean? It means that the dimensions of our heart must constantly increase. Because Christ became incarnate in humanity, we too can truly take humanity into our hearts. We can serve humanity in a thousand ways, including fasting and prayer.

Fasting and prayer can never be for oneself. They are always for the other. Modern youth, but not only youth, are seeking ways and means of emptying themselves of the self-centeredness and greed which permeate our North American culture.

They want to empty themselves so that God might fill them, and so that “through him, with him, and in him,” they might be of service to others.

Why then are we not giving them the answers? Why are we not preaching the glad news of Christ himself, so that people might recognize in us the features of the God we claim to worship and believe in? Why do they have turn to other religions to find food for their souls and lives?

Some years ago, the bishop asked me to attend a theological conference in Toronto. One day, I was wandering around in the sunshine when I came across a group of hippies sitting on the grass at Toronto University where the conference was being held.

One girl spotted my cross and asked me if I was a nun. When I answered that I was not, that I was “a person,” it started a whole discussion about Jesus Christ and how he was better than drugs.

I spent ten days with that girl. I told her all about St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross and all the great mystics of the Church. “Gee whiz,” she kept saying. “They’re better than Zen Buddhism!”

That was one of the most amazing things that has happened to me. It was beautiful. They wanted me to be their guru. “What about the generation gap?” I asked. They assured me that with gurus it made no difference.

Those were the years when the hippies started coming to Madonna House. They were searching; they were hungry for God. They fell in love with Our Lady. Many of them gave up drugs.

If that kind of thing could happen to me, at my age, just imagine what could happen with younger people, solid in their faith, going out to reflect the fact of Christ and preach the Gospel with their lives.

It is time we thought of that. It is time we stopped discussing peripheral issues and plunged into the abyss of faith which so few of us wish to enter. Yes, it is time, and the time is now.

Excerpted from Soul of My Soul, pp. 67-72, available from MH Publications.

“JOHN PAUL II, WE LOVE YOU!”

by Alma Coffman

The pope was speaking: “You are young and the pope is old.” A chant arose from the crowds of youth: “The pope is young. The pope is young.” He smiled and said, “The pope is 82, 83, and you are 22, 23, but when he is with you, he is very young.”

He continued “I praise and give thanks to God for World Youth Day…. You know the answer and are saying it by your presence here this evening…. Christ alone is the cornerstone on which to build one’s existence…. Only Christ is the faithful friend who won’t let you down….

“Don’t be afraid to follow Jesus Christ to the cross….”

From the hundreds of thousands of people again came the chant and the clapping, “John Paul II, we love you. John Paul II, we love you.”

The scene was Downsview Park at the beginning of the vigil of the pope’s Mass. An old man with shaky hands, slurred speech, crooked posture, and shuffling feet stood before us. And the crowd went wild with cheers, waving flags, smiles, and yes, even tears.

For the vast majority of us, he was a small figure or a tiny speck in the far distance or an image on a screen high over our heads. But we were gripped by the power of this vicar of Christ.

But he was not attracting us to himself. He was bringing us to Christ and telling us that we are to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

Then we entered into the prayer of vespers: “We shall praise the risen Lord, the Light that shines in the darkness.” “Dear young people,” said the pope, “Let yourselves be taken over by the light of Christ and spread that light where you are…. You too are called to be transformed….

Along with the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from many nations, about a dozen of us from MH Combermere had trudged seven kilometers in the hot sun from a distant subway station.

Like the others, we had searched for a little spot to lay our sleeping bags and had walked distances to toilets, food, and water. And we entered into the excitement of first the coming and then the presence of the Holy Father. Now we were praying vespers with him.

Later we waited long hours in the night and then heard the music and words of the delayed vocations concert.

A violent storm had been predicted, and we prayed for protection. (We later heard that what had been predicted was so violent a storm that an evacuation of Downsview had been considered.)

Towards morning, we were awakened by rain which had us pulling plastic sheets, bags, and ponchos over ourselves for shelter. It was still raining when, in the midst of the storm and the people singing, “Alleluia! Alleluia,” the h

The wind, rain, and thunder continued. The big cloth-covered lights were torn off the high utility towers and flew away. The loudspeakers swayed and crackled.

But just as the pope started his homily, a spot of blue appeared in the west. Then the sun came out.

We were with the “Papa” as his beloved children. And he said, “No fear is so great that it can suffocate the hope in the hearts of the young….”

He ended his homily by praying, “O Lord Jesus Christ, keep these young people in your care. Let them hear in my voice that you alone have the words of life…. Make them new people of the beatitudes so that they may become the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Mary, keep us all close to your maternal heart. Amen.”

This far-distant figure, dressed in the green of Ordinary Time, kept up an individual dialogue with the hearts of each of the persons present as he added words not in the prepared text: “We have been happy together in the Light we have shared.”

Soon after that, surrounded by the Body of Christ in the form of the biggest outdoor gathering of people in the history of Canada, we received the Body of Christ in the Eucharist.

As I stood at the Mass with the crowds, I looked at the small distant figure of the pope. I thought of Jesus with his disciples and his saying to Peter, You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it (Mt 16:18).

Before my very eyes was the man who now holds the keys of the kingdom of God, the rock upon whom Christ continues to build his Church.

Pope John Paul II, the apostolic successor to St. Peter, was here in Toronto to strengthen our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why he came.

At the end of Mass, the pope blessed the wooden crosses that had been given to each of us. He asked us to wear them around our necks as a symbol of our renewed faith.

Then inviting us to the next World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany in 2005, he concluded: “As pilgrims, your spiritual journey to Cologne starts today. Christ awaits you there for the twentieth World Youth Day in 2005. May you always treasure the memories of Toronto. But as we leave one another, let us not leave him.”

Combermere Diary

WYD COMES TO COMBERMERE

by Paulette Curran

Summer around here is always busy, but because World Youth Day happened “in our backyard” so to speak, this one was especially so. Though we eliminated one thing from “the usual”Cana Colony, our vacation-retreat for familieseverything elsefarm, gardens, gift shop, tours, visitorswas business as usual. All in all, it was a full, intense, busy summer.

And we didn’t just go to World Youth Day. We also participated in another integral part of itDays in the Diocese. In that part of it, in the form of pilgrims from all over the world, World Youth Day came to Combermere. But I’ll tell you about Days in the Diocese later in this article.

Though lots connected with World Youth Day happened both before and after it, I suppose you could say that World Youth Day per se began in Combermere on July 21st at our Sunday evening vespers when we, like parishes throughout the world, had a blessing and commissioning ceremony for the pilgrims who would be going. (Actually a few had left already to set up the MH booth and check out the site of the MH Publications booth at Downsview.)

Then on Monday morning the first group left for Torontofive vans of staff, applicants, and guests.

On Tuesday and every day that week, the usual after-breakfast world news report by Mary Davis included a report from “Toronto Correspondent,” Mary McGoff, the chief organizer of our WYD activities. Every day she phoned in news about our peoplenews which included the homey details that the folks back home love to hear. Example: On the trip down, one van was separated from the general food supply and so they ate Fr. Louis’ cookies instead!

On Tuesday at 1 PM, as the Canadian bishops had requested, we rang the bells for five minutes to mark the arrival of the pope in Canada. Then we had the early part of the afternoon off so that we could watch the arrival of the pope on television.

Television. That was one feature of WYD week in Combermere. All week we re-scheduled to allow us to watch the events in Toronto. On Thursday, we even brought the TV up to the dining room (It usually lives under a cloth in the basement) and watched the pope at the Welcoming Ceremony while we ate! I’m sure it’s the first time ever that we as a community ate in front of a tv set!

On Wednesday and on Friday some vans of staff returned from Toronto and others left. On Sunday morning, we watched the papal Mass on television during breakfast. Then on Monday morning those who had returned from Toronto on Sunday night had no time to rest. For that day, World Youth Day came to Combermere in the form of Days in the Diocese.

Days in the Diocese was set up by the Canadian Church so that pilgrims from other nations could, while they were in Canada, have more input. Basically, in practice what it meant is that parishes and religious communities throughout Canada took in groups for a few days or so and arranged various activities for them.

We had, as we told you in the last Combermere Diary, some pilgrims before World Youth Day. We had lots more after it.

MH Combermere worked in conjunction with our parish, Canadian Martyrs, and with a nearby community, Mother of Mercy Farm. The three groups together hosted for a few days, two groups of pilgrims, one from Italy and one from Austria. Each group consisted of about a hundred people.

The Italian group stayed with usthe men at Cana Colony and the women at St. Mary’s. Throughout the week, a variety of activities were arranged for them and for the Austrian group.

Both groups spent Tuesday at Algonquin Park, a provincial park not far from here. They had never seen so much forest. Then on Tuesday evening the Italians and a few English pilgrims who were staying with some families in our parish joined us for a bonfire and singing and dancing.

Wednesday was a day of relaxation. The Italians, along with some of the staff, swam at Cana. The Austrians wanted to canoe. So our pastor, Fr. Grant Neville, quickly phoned some of the parishioners and borrowed some canoes. These pilgrims were thereby able to enjoy that quintessential Canadian sport.

Then the parish hosted an evening for all the pilgrims. It began with an outdoor Mass celebrated by the new bishop of our diocese, Bishop Richard Smith. It was his first visit to our parish, and he delighted both the Italians and Austrians by speaking in their languages.

After Mass there was a sharing by the pilgrims of their World Youth Day experiences followed by a typical rural Canadian parish supper and an evening of entertainment.

On Thursday the Italians joined us for an outdoor buffet lunchpasta, of course!

And of course, during their time here, all were given tours of and told about Madonna House. For some it was their first visit to a farm. One of their priests told us that the imagery of sheep and the Good Shepherd in the Bible will mean a lot more to them now.

And these two groups were not the only people with us the week following World Youth Day. Our guest dorms filled up with people who were including a stay at Madonna House in their World Youth Day pilgrimage.

These included a few who had just heard about us while in Toronto. And besides the guests who stayed in the area, there were others who spent a day here or came for a tour. Forty pilgrims from Ukraine and Turkmenistan, for example, came for a day.

All in all, the whole thing was quite the people-filled, multi-cultural, multi-lingual experience.

The two weeks of World Youth Day ended on Friday evening. All the groups had left and now all at MH, staff and guests alike, had an evening of sharing of World Youth Day experiences and graces among ourselves.

Then it was more or less back to the usual, which actually had been going on all along: the gift shop, the farm, the cooking, the cleaning, the maintenance, the carpentry, and all our other work.

It was a hard summer for many of us individuallyspiritually, psychologically, or physicallyas well as a joyful and exciting one. This wasn’t surprising. We have known for a long time that even within our community, a period of grace, such as a major feast or Promises Day, is often preceded by difficulties. The evil one doesn’t want these graces and tries to interfere with them, and also as Catherine Doherty used to say, “The price of souls is high.”

But what a privilege it has been to have been so involved in so grace-filled an event as World Youth Day 2002!

HOPE FOR THE CITIES

by Tom Kluger

What did I receive from my pilgrimage to World Youth Day? Hope: hope for myself and hope for Toronto.

Though now an applicant in Combermere, I lived 33 out of my 35 years in Toronto and I thought I knew the city very well. Before WYD if asked how Toronto would receive it and the pope, I would have replied “Not very well.”

I thought that Toronto had become thoroughly secularizedmore interested in gay pride parades than in God, let alone in the Catholic Church. I imagined feminists and liberals picketing events and a lot of other unpleasantness. But during the days of World Youth Day, God showed me otherwise.

It was not the first time he has proven me wrong. Seven years ago I would never have predicted that I would have embraced Catholicism let alone joined a Catholic religious community.

I was baptized Catholic when I was four months old, and that was about it for me and the Catholic Church for the next 28 years, I never went to church on Sundays and my education was in a secular school. When I was an adolescent I became a strident atheist.

It wasn’t until I was 27 that my restless heart finally began to admit to itself how much it longed for God. Two years later I finally received the other two sacraments of initiation first communion and confirmation.

After my change of heart, I saw Toronto as heading in the opposite direction than I was. I wrote the city off as steeped in the culture of death.

What I didn’t realize was that if the Holy Spirit could reach my hardened heart, he could reach others as well. And this is precisely what I saw during World Youth Day.

Ordinarily, when Torontonians are on streetcars or subways they are in their own world. Whether they have their noses buried in a book or are listening to a Walkman, the attitude seems to be, “My space is mine, and don’t you cross over into it.”

I should know, for that was my attitude. It’s a survival strategy, typical of most big North American cities, but one not at all good for the spiritual life.

But during World Youth Day in buses, streetcars, and subways I saw Torontonians softened by the charm, energy, and joy of the pilgrims.

We had been told at Madonna House that our time in Toronto, including time on public transportation would be a great opportunity to “evangelize.” But my Torontonian instinct to avoid eye contact and keep my mouth shut while on mass transit was difficult to overcome.

Whenever I hopped on board a train or bus I had to force myself to socialize. But I had some good experiences.

On one occasion I chatted with a businessman who couldn’t resist putting down his newspaper to talk about what was going on at Exhibition Place. With a big smile on his face, he asked me about the events of World Youth Day what they were and what they were like. We were two men emerging from our protective shells.

I also talked on the streetcar with a woman who had just come from the stress of a job interview. A streetcar packed with WYD pilgrims could easily have felt even more stressful to her. But these pilgrims, though boisterous, were not even remotely dangerous. In fact, unlike most crowds, they were joyful. And she too asked about the events of WYD and what they were like. But what she was really asking was: “Where did all this joy come from?”

That’s when I started to realize how my native city was being transformed. It wasn’t just the joy of the mass of pilgrims, as impressive as that was. It was just the ordinary Torontonians getting caught up in what was happening who really taught me about the power of grace.

My fondest memory of World Youth Day was also a memory of joythe joy on the Holy Father’s face as he rode into Exhibition Place in the popemobile. The smile on his face was like that of a child on Christmas morning.

I was pressed in by the crowd, the heat was intense, and I was very tired. But the joy in his face erased my feeling of discomfort. And remembering the smiles on the faces of the ordinary people of Toronto, it seemed to me that joy had captivated an entire city. And that gives me hopefor myself, for Toronto, and for the world.

The Pope’s Corner

STAKE YOUR LIVES ON IT

by Pope John Paul II

The following is taken from the pope’s homily at the papal Mass of World Youth Day, July 28, 2002.

———-

The “spirit of the world offers many false illusions and parodies of happiness. There is perhaps no darkness deeper than the darkness that enters young people’s souls when false prophets extinguish in them the light of faith and hope and love.

The greatest deception, and the deepest source of unhappiness, is the illusion of finding life by excluding God, of finding freedom by excluding moral truths and personal responsibility.

The Lord is calling you to choose between these two voices competing for your souls. That decision is the substance and challenge of World Youth Day.

Why have you come together from all parts of the world? To say in your hearts: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life (Jn 6:68). Jesus, the intimate friend of every young person, has the words of life.

The world you are inheriting is a world which desperately needs a new sense of brotherhood and human solidarity. It is a world which needs to be touched and healed by the beauty and richness of God’s love. It needs witnesses to that love. It needs youto be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

Salt is used to preserve and keep. As apostles for the third millennium, your task is to preserve and keep alive the awareness of the presence of our Savior Jesus Christ, especially in the celebration of the Eucharist, the memorial of his saving death and glorious resurrection.

You must keep alive the memory of the words of life which he spoke and the marvelous works of mercy and goodness which he performed. You must constantly remind the world of the power of the Gospel to save (Rom 1:16).

Salt seasons and improves the flavor of food. Following Jesus, you have to change and improve the “taste” of human history. With your faith, hope, and love, with your intelligence, courage, and perseverance, you have to humanize the world we live in, in the way that today’s reading from Isaiah indicates: Loose the bonds of injustice… Share your bread with the hungry… Remove the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil… Then your light shall rise in the darkness (Is 58:6-10).

Even a tiny flame lifts the heavy lid of night! How much more light will you make, all together, if you bond as one in the communion of the Church! If you love Jesus, love the Church!

Do not be discouraged by the sins and failings of some of her members. The harm done by some priests and religious to the young and vulnerable fills us all with a deep sense of sadness and shame. But think of the vast majority of dedicated and generous priests and religious whose only wish is to serve and do good!

There are many priests, seminarians, and consecrated persons here today. Be close to them and support them! And if, in the depths of your hearts, you feel the same call to the priesthood or consecrated life, do not be afraid to follow Christ on the royal road of the cross.

At difficult moments in the Church’s life, the pursuit of holiness becomes even more urgent. And holiness is not a question of age. It is a matter of living in the Holy Spirit, just as Kateri Tekakwitha and so many other young people have done.

You are young, and the pope is old and a bit tired. But he still fully identifies with your hopes and aspirations. Although I have lived through much darkness, under harsh totalitarian regimes, I have seen enough evidence to be unshakably convinced that no difficulty, no fear is so great that it can completely suffocate the hope that springs eternal in the hearts of the young.

Do not let that hope die! Stake your lives on it! We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures. We are the sum of the Father’s love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son.

MH Toronto

CLAPPING, CHEERING, CRYING

by Elaine Dalton

Bishop DeAngelis of Toronto wanted members of lay movements and groups to be among those near the Holy Father at the Thursday welcoming ceremony at Exhibition Place. This is how Elaine, of MH Toronto, had “a front row seat” at the first get-together of the Holy Father with all the pilgrims.

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How to describe what met our gaze when we arrived? The immense crowd, an ocean of enthusiastic young humanity stretching limitlessly away from us, wind whipping color in the flags of nearly two hundred nations, songs, chants, excitement, tears, cries for Pope John Paul II in Italian, English, Frenchlanguage upon language.

The sudden sound of helicopters triggered an exultant cheer. Arms, flags, banners waved furiously at each helicopter in turn for what seemed a long time. They seemed to be decoys to distract or confuse. Finally the Holy Father stepped out of one of them, and the crowd thundered.

Our section, too far away to see the road, watched on a large screen the slow journey through the crowds of the popemobilethe progression of the pope clearly indicated by the direction and intensity of the roar.

At our first sighting of him the volume rose, and then he walked to his chair! How high can it risethe height, depth, degree of response proclaiming, recognizing, acknowledging that the Holy Father in his pained, bent body, walked to meet the youth of the world!

Then the instant he began to speak, that tumultuous throng was utterly, totally silent.

But he had only to begin, “Dear young friends,” and everyone eruptedclapping, chanting, cheering, yelling out their love, gratitude, and esteem for him in the only way possible. This was the way of the welcoming ceremony: he spoke; we cheered him.

His initial greeting and later address were interspersed with presentations of songs and words from young people, about thirty of them, who sat on the stage near him.

When the Holy Father concluded his talk and was about to end the ceremony, several of these young people ran up to him, hugged and kissed him on the cheek, and grabbed and kissed his hands. One girl held his hand on her head for a blessing. They seemed determined to encamp at the feet of their father.

Again we roared, clapped, and cheered “our representatives.” But we all knew that he had to leave, and the security people were gentle as they extricated the Holy Father from the grasp of the young.

Again he walkedaway from his chair to the rear of the stage while everyone cheered.

Immediately the young people on the stage, kneeling or standing silently around his vacated chair, began to touch their heads and hands to it lovingly, kiss it, and bless themselves, treating it the same way they had the World Youth Day Cross, as a beloved and holy relic.

World Youth Day

Why We Walked

by Gudrun Wegner

A former guest tells about her WYD experiences in Denver and Rome.

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At a planning meeting for Toronto World Youth Day, someone suggested arranging for a bus to take us to the papal Mass site so that we wouldn’t have to walk. My heart jumped and I objected. It is a long walk in the heat, and some of those present may have thought that I am a glutton for punishment.

But I was blessed to have attended two world youth days in Denver, Colorado in 1993 and in Rome in 2000and I have learned that hardship and sacrifice are an essential part of the experience.

The hardships of world youth days (and in fact of any pilgrimage) are many. One of them is the stifling heat. At Denver it was 36.6 degrees C (98 F) and in Rome 42 C (107 F). And that was in the shade!

Other unavoidable hardships include thirst, lack of sleep, long line-ups especially at the “port-a-potties,” and no real menu selection. And in Rome, packed like a sardine into the metro and trying to avoid the highly skilled pickpockets, I learned a whole new meaning of the word, “crowd.”

Then there is the endless walking and the nightly stripping off of socks and discovering the new crop of blisters.

You might think it’s gross to mention this, but the smell of sweat is a biggie, and the worst, of course, is everyone else’s!

But I must admit that, though none of these things was at all pleasant, had I not experienced them, I would have missed a large part of the heart of World Youth Day.

If I hadn’t gotten thirsty, I wouldn’t have experienced the generosity of others who gave me water. If I hadn’t been so tired, I might have rushed past that incredible person I was meant to meet. In fact, if I hadn’t waited in long line-ups, there are many people I wouldn’t have met.

As for the food, the days when it was a little less than desirable (to put it politely), well, those were the days I got into fasting. And fasting, like all the other hardships, could be offered to God for souls.

If I hadn’t walked all those miles with my brothers and sisters from around the world, I would not have met them as friends and swapped national flags with them. Swapping pins and flags while walking side by side with people from other countries is a small gesture, but when you do it, even without your noticing it, your prejudices melt away and your heart learns to welcome people from everywhere.

Standing in a long line-up to receive the sacrament of reconciliation was very consoling. I saw that we are all sinners in need of God’s mercy and rejoiced in knowing that we all have the same Savior. And praying the rosary and singing to God in “every language under the sun” was an incredible experience. I really experienced the universality of the Church.

For the biggest journey in these World Youth Day pilgrimages is the journey that begins with “me” and “them,” and ends with “us.”

The hardships and sacrifices of world youth days are indeed many. But it is through these very hardships that God teaches us that we are one. Everyone in the Church belongs to one family and it is together that we can go forth to be the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world ” that our beloved pope, John Paul II, calls us to be.

Graces of Two Young Staff

One of my biggest graces from World Youth Day came through people, and another came through the pope.

I was overjoyed with meeting so many people in the streets, on the bus, and on the subway. And I was touched by the love people gave me during our short encounters.

I was given a flag of the Dominican Republic, a rosary ring, a sticker proclaiming the reign of the Sacred Heart in Spanish, a bracelet, a Filipino coin purse, and many prayer cards and pamphlets. One family even gave me their pen which had the name of their parish and town on it. It was their pen that they were writing with. I was so touched. I hope to remember to pray for them whenever I use it.

I had so many wonderful conversations with people from all over the world. They gave me hope for the future of the Church. Already now we are experiencing the first fruits of the “springtime of the Church.”

Another grace, an incredible one, was to see the pope up close. Just before the pope was due to arrive, I left the spot where I was waiting with five other people to go and get our supper. As I was returning, I was stopped by a fence that had just been put up to stop people from crossing the path the pope was going to pass by. I was stuck, forced to wait until the pope passed by. I literally had no choice but to see the pope up close!

When I saw him, I was given an inner glimpse of how he tirelessly lays down his life for the Church, for th

Michael Weitl

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“You are not coming to World Youth Day to meet the pope,” the pope told us. “You are coming to meet Jesus Christ.” He told us this before World Youth Day. And when I was there, that’s what happened to me.

World Youth Day culminated in the papal Mass on Sunday morning. The public had been invited, and so the throng of approximately 200,000 pilgrims had tripled or quadrupled to 600 to 800,000 people.

I was far from the altar, and everywhere I looked there were people. And there were no aisles. I thought, There is no way a priest can possibly get anywhere near here to give us communion. And even if he did, I wouldn’t know where to find him.

I just accepted the situation and decided to make a spiritual communion.

Then I noticed that a small group nearby had opted for the same thing and were standing in a circle praying. I was delighted to join them.

When I returned to my place, I looked up and had a direct view of the Holy Father in his chair far away. But I felt as if I were kneeling right in front of him. It was a powerful experience of union in Jesus Christ. I had just received Jesus in my heart and now he was giving me a union with him in his vicar or earth that I had never experienced before.

World Youth Day has helped me grow in love for Christ both in his vicar on earth and in his Mystical Body, the Church. I will never forget that moment of mystical union that only God could have arranged.

Petra Muller

ON PILGRIMAGE

by Fr. Tom Zoeller

In the pressure cooker of getting ready to leave for WYD, two words came to me. First “pilgrim” and then, soon after, “disjointed.” The first gave me a focus, the second told me what the experience would be like.

Being a pilgrim meant that everything I’m used to in my ordinary, daily life, everything that is routine and gives me security would be gone. I decided to leave behind even my footnoted Bible and the Catholic Catechism, tools I use in my daily prayer, trusting that what I would experience at WYD would be God’s word to me. My part of the work was to be attentive.

“Disjointed” my pilgrimage was. There was no schedule, no regular meals, no community life. Everything and every day was new and different.

I thought it would be an easy trip on the GO Train to get to Exhibition Place from the rectory where I was staying, only to discover that that train only ran at certain times. This meant that, much of the time, I had an hour and a half bus, subway, and streetcar ride instead.

And where was “Duc et Altum” Park where we priests were hearing confessions? And at Exhibition Place, which was huge, where was anything?

For the opening Mass, I had to find my way through thousands of packed people to where the priests were gathering behind an eight-foot wire fence. Then after the Mass, where was the food? I went east when I should have gone west and finally gave up and went back to the rectory and ate a can of soup.

As the days went on, it didn’t get any better. In all of this, I was one with all the other pilgrims. But at least I spoke English, which many of them did not.

But what did I really experience at World Youth Day? That’s not easy to say.

Too much was going on to stand outside of it. The sounds and sights were too pervasive. It was all too big, too much, too universal, too all-embracing to capture in words.

Being pilgrim and disjointed made me deeply connected to the present moment. For how could you miss and not be affected by the thousands of young, beautiful, hopeful faces? How could you avoid the beat of music that was never far away or the crowds and the crush of people on the Bathurst streetcar, at the gates of Exhibition Place, at the subway stations, or between the purple and yellow sections at Downsview?

But I can say that the week indeed was life-changing for me, for Christ was at the center of everything and the material and spiritual were one.

And what words did God give me in Toronto? A week later, the day of the Papal Mass, I wrote about the following three words in my journal:

“Solidarity.” There were many levels of solidarity: the solidarity of the youth from throughout the world, the solidarity of local churches with one another and with the universal Church, the solidarity among the lay people, priests, bishops, and pope.

“The cross.” The Pilgrim Cross was always thereat the opening Mass with Cardinal Ambroziac, at the ceremony welcoming the pope to Exhibition Place, at the Stations of the Cross in downtown Toronto, and at Downsview. And in sending the young people back to their own countries the pope blessed their small wooden crosses and asked them to wear them as a symbol of their renewed faith.

“Transfiguration.” At one point in the papal Mass, the pope paused and looked at the hundreds of thousands of youth before him and through them to every young person in the world, and as Christ had loved the rich young man in the Gospel, he loved them.

The youth knew this and loved him in return. It was a moment of communion. The pope’s face became radiant “transfigured.” God shone in his face. No wonder the young love him!

All in all, it was great to be at World Youth Day. It was great to be part of a never-to-be forgotten, never-to-be-repeated experience. It was great to smile at people on buses and subways and not be afraid. I was proud to wear my Roman collar through the streets of Toronto and to carry my red and tan WYD knapsack on my back.

Stories of Grace

When I was working at our MH booth, I was nervous. I am a young staff worker just learning to live this vocation, and I had no idea what to say to people. I prayed for the grace not to say anything that would turn people off!

But, oh the look on people’s faces when they saw that we had literature in their language! One Chinese woman took ten or twelve copies of the prayer to Our Lady of Combermere in Chinese.

When a couple of Filipino ladies took copies of the prayer to Our Lady of Combermere in their language, I wanted to hear it and asked them to say it. They stood on either side of me and they prayed it together. I felt Our Lady’s mantle around us, and by the time we finished, I didn’t know what language I was praying in.

Jo-Ann Treige

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About 8:30 one night I saw a young Sister in religious habit starting to eat her supper. When I asked her why she was eating so late, she said, “So many young people were coming to talk to me while I was in line to get our food that I’m only able to eat now.”

Her face was radiant, and I saw in her the Church as the radiant Bride of Christ.

Toni Austin

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My time at World Youth Day confirmed for me our vocation of humble service. There was such a throng of people there, so many people using so many toilets. And they weren’t cleaned by volunteers. They were cleaned and beautifully so by a paid staff. They were serving us in such a humble, hidden way. I felt so grateful. I kept wishing I would meet even one of them just so that I could say “thank you,” but I never did.

a staff worker

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At Mass with our morning catechetical group the bishop, just before his homily said, “I know I’ll embarrass her, but I want to introduce to you a woman in the third pew. She lives in Montreal now, but she’s from China. She spent 28 years in prison there because she’s a member of the underground Church.”

Almost as one, the entire congregation stood and began to applaud. It felt as though an electrical current went through us. We clapped and clapped for I don’t know how long, tears streaming down our faces. We only stopped gradually when the bishop finally motioned to us to stop.

Bonnie Staib

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I began praying for this World Youth Day about a year ago. I prayed the chaplet of mercy every day for all who would participate. Mainly I was moved to pray for conversion of heart for them.

I didn’t get to see much at World Youth Day. I spent all my time there hearing confessions. It was so great. The kids poured out their sins and I was able to give them absolution, get to the root of the sins, pray over them, and deliver them.

I experienced mercy pouring out on people, and it filled me with joy. It’s such a wonderful thing when someone confesses and unloads it all.

Fr. Bob Sharkey

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How good that convenient accommodations were generally either too expensive or filled up early! And for us MH people that some of the friends we stayed with lived far from the events of World Youth Day! The place where Joanne, Nikola, and I were staying was two and a half hours awayby walking, streetcar, two different subways, and finally being picked up by our kind hosts.

I encountered more people on public transportation than I did anywhere else. It started quite simply. All you had to do was ask someone wearing the WYD pass where they came from. Then others would join in saying, “Oh, I have a sister living there, or some such thing. Then they’d ask us the same and we’d get into talking about Madonna House. Next, passengers not going to WYD would join in.

I think God had the inconvenience all planned out because with all those pilgrims filling the buses, streetcars, and subways, the Word of the Lord got out to the uttermost ends of Toronto.

For those few days Toronto lost its usual withdrawn, private face and began to be young at heart. That was a joy for me to see, especially since I am originally from Toronto.

Toni Austin

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I have M.S. and usually go and rest after lunch. But on Tuesday while waiting for the opening Mass of World Youth Day, I wasn’t able to. So I lay on the grass and just watched group after group arriving.

It came to me: The Holy Father is such a father. He says, “Don’t be afraid to live.” He has his weaknesses and I have mine. He’s not afraid to live. I don’t need to be either.

Helen Porthouse

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At Exhibition Place on Thursday, we were waiting for the pope to come. Ruth, Tom, and I had good spot near the pathway where the popemobile was to come. We were only four or five people from the fence and had a clear view.

But by the time the pope came, there was an 18 inch “wall” in front of mea tall man and next to him a man from Austria with his nine-year-old son on his shoulders.

After the pope passed, the father helped the boy down. The boy said, “Thank you, papa. I saw him.” And there was such a look of love and gratitude on his face. Though I didn’t see the pope, I did see the face of love.

Bonnie Staib

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On Friday night I was in Queen’s park in the downtown heart of Toronto watching the Way of the Cross. The CN Tower was looming in the background and there was a sea of people as far as I could see. The pageant of Christ’s passion and death was unfolding in a most stirring fashion.

Suddenly a strong impression hit me: This is a taste of the way it was in the Middle Ages, in the days of Christendom: Christ in the centerin the center of the city, in the center of the people, at the center of our lives. I felt a surge of hope that perhaps this will come again: Christ at the center everywhere.

Peter Anzlin

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I didn’t see the pope during World Youth Day. In fact, at the Welcoming Ceremony, my one chance, I was so far away that he wasn’t even a speck in the distance. Worse, the loudspeaker near us wasn’t working and I couldn’t hear him.

But during that time, God gave me a very precious grace. By “accident,” one of God’s accidents that aren’t accidents at all, I met and stood with a group from Russia. With a tall billowing Russian flag almost directly above my head, I watched three young Russian and three young American girls shyly give one another pins and stickers. And because one of the Russians had a simultaneous translation radio, I “heard” the pope, who was speaking in English, in Russian!

The power of that experience and the oneness I felt with these people with most of whom I could not speak was so deep that it brought tears to my eyes. It could only have come from God. And I suspect that it came from Catherine Doherty, too.

a staff worker

Elders, We Need You!

by Martin de Jerphanion

Martin, a recent guest, is French, 22 years old, and a member of Emmanuel, a new lay community in France. He said this at one of our after-lunch spiritual readings.

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Catherine Doherty said, “Either you love or you hate, but you cannot sit on the fence.” We young people do not know how to love. We are confused by our feelings and abused by the society.

We need the elderly to teach us. Old people are not useless! You are not a museum piece. You can help build the future of the Church!

Our broken generation does not need criticism. Our fellow young people are dying from lack of truth. How can you teach us? By loving unconditionally and by teaching the Gospel without compromise.

Yesterday, the schools, the society, the governments, did not give us the message of Christ. Today, you grandmothers and grandfathers, please give it to us. Be not afraid!