PILGRIMAGE is a time to step back from your worries and cares, to stop thinking about the mundane and ordinary things of everyday life, to draw back from the physical in a concrete way, and to concentrate on the spiritual.
It is not so much about the destination – it is how you get there that is important.
Pilgrimage for us wasn’t just about walking through the streets of Ephesus towards the house of Mary, celebrating Mass at Anzac Cove with the New Zealand pilgrims, or standing in the marketplace in the old city of Corinth where St Paul addressed the crowds.
Our pilgrimage offered chances for quiet reflection and huge celebrations.
It was the chance to discuss catechesis with young people from Cameroon to Canada, to share your Taize songbook with the young man from Germany and the teenager from Spain, and a chance to meet the Pope!
To join with the Pope and more than 1 million people for Mass was definitely the experience of a lifetime.
It was an opportunity to travel with nearly 100 young Queenslanders, who looked forward to daily Mass and sought out churches for a quick hello, to share a profound faith experience with an amazing group of young people.
It was a chance to meet our archbishop and bishops (close up and personal), to talk to priests to discover that they are regular people too!
It was a chance to discuss vocations, be it a call to priesthood, motherhood or a new job.
It was a chance to know that you are not alone on your journey through life – that all these people who feel the same way, believe in the same God, and are searching for the same thing.
It is a big thing to know that we are not alone in our quest for answers and meaning in life – someone else out there understands.
One message from World Youth Day is to not think of youth as the future of the Church, with a role to play at a later stage.
Make young people a part of your community now.
Do not wait for some later time – the time is now, do not separate youth from the main body of the Church.
They are an integral part of Church as well, with their own vital role to play. Include them in your liturgies and fellowship, and appreciate their energy and enthusiasm.
World Youth Day is not a once in a lifetime experience.
This celebration has been held every three or so years since 1984, in a different location around the world.
In 2008, we have a great honour to host World Youth Day in Sydney.
Wouldn’t it be a great thing if the parishes of Bundaberg, my hometown, and all around Queensland were represented in good numbers?
