World Youth Day's long-reaped fruits

I still remember the shock of the difference between Toronto, Canada and Cologne, Germany's World Youth Days.  The first was such a brilliant celebration, excellently executed, with a million young people joining St. John Paul II for his final World Youth Day.  But the second seemed flat, in my eyes.  The event took place in three different cities, limiting the amount of time the pilgrims were together.  Pope Benedict did not ride through the crowds for his entrance, but rather on a boat on the Rhine, which was difficult to see.  At the time, I was disappointed in my second World Youth Day experience.

Pope Benedict XVI at World Youth Day in Madrid.

But then we were participating in the walking pilgrimage to the all night vigil in Cologne, when I noticed the locals watching from their windows and porches.  They saw hundreds of thousands of young people from throughout the world making their way to an evening with the Holy Father.  They saw faith and sacrifice and trust and solidarity.

And then I realized -- the Germany World Youth Day was not for us, the pilgrims, in the way that Toronto's event had been.  No, this World Youth Day was for Germany.  This was a gift to a country whose faith was fading, an invitation to a greater love and joy.

So, when I saw the "First Things" headline, "Is Spain Regaining Its Faith?  And Why Isn't Anyone Else," I knew the answer had to involve, at least in part, World Youth Day.  The event was held there in 2011.  It was to be Pope Benedict XVI's final one.  It wasn't like Toronto's, at least for me, (though, admittedly, I was now a chaperone, not a soon-to-be freshman in college), but the streets of secular Spain were teaming with youth, the subways and buses were filled with song.  As we hiked to the field for the overnight vigil, generous Spaniards maneuvered their shower heads out their windows to offer some cool relief from the blazing sun.  


World Youth Day is the gift that keeps on giving.  Denver is a city transformed by Pope John Paul II's visit in 1993.  The cities chosen cannot just be the best logistical location for massive crowds.  The cities chosen become centers of renewal.  And these cities on a hill, popping up around the world, will undoubtedly contribute to the re-evangelization of many people, families and nations. 

Why is JPII a saint?

Quote book -- World Youth Day edition

"And then, Jesus did not say: “One of you go”, but “All of you go”: we are sent together. Dear young friends, be aware of the companionship of the whole Church and also the communion of the saints on this mission. When we face challenges together, then we are strong, we discover resources we did not know we had. Jesus did not call the Apostles to live in isolation, he called them to form a group, a community." -- Pope Francis at World Youth Day 2013

World Youth Day has begun!

Hundreds of thousands of youth from across the world are uniting in Brazil for World Youth Day.  Pope Francis arrived to great enthusiasm yesterday.  You can watch the major events live on the Vatican's You Tube channel.  Also check out EWTN for coverage of the events.  

The "don't miss" events include Thursday's papal welcoming ceremony, the prayer vigil on Saturday evening, and the papal Mass on Sunday.  

Standing in a field with a million friends ... and the pope

My latest is up at the Archdiocese of Cincinnati's blog, "Being Catholic."

A month away from my freshman year of college, I stuffed my backpack onto the bottom of a bus and took off with about 50 young people heading north to Toronto.

Three years later, I squeezed the same backpack into the overhead compartment on an airplane carrying excited young people to Cologne, Germany.

Another six years after that, I was chaperoning a group of high school students as they nervously boarded a plane – some for the first time – on our way to Madrid, Spain.

Each of these treks to other countries was ultimately for one evening, standing in a field with a million close friends (close by proximity), waiting to be addressed by the Vicar of Christ.

In 1984, Pope John Paul II invited young people to join him in Rome for Palm Sunday. On that day, 300,000 young people came. This set the stage for international gatherings every two or three years with millions of young people sacrificing everything from comfort to cleanliness to personal space to savings accounts in order to attend. As the leader for my first two World Youth Days insisted, “This is a pilgrimage, not a vacation.”

World Youth Day is not a 24-hour event. Rather, it involves three or four days of catechesis and a celebration of Catholic culture. Bishops and cardinals from across the world give dynamic lectures in each attendee’s native language. Mass according to native language is offered each day. Catholic musicians, artists and speakers lead concerts, art exhibits, movie screenings and presentations.


These preparatory days involve meeting strangers from throughout the world – trading miniature flags or pins to proudly decorate one’s World Youth Day backpack, attempting to converse with hand signals and smiles if words are misunderstood. Friendships are made. Pictures are taken. E-mails are exchanged. Meals are shared.

But on the Thursday of each World Youth Day event, a new guest arrives. The Holy Father enters the crowds of boisterous, exuberant youth, each touched by the witness of an elderly man who has made his own sacrifices to share time with them.

Read the rest here.

Touching scenes of JPII and the youth of the world

Pope Francis' first World Youth Day message

When John Paul II started World Youth Day, it had two components.  We are most familiar with the week long festivities at a different country every two or three years, with millions of young people gathering from throughout the world.  But there is another World Youth Day that is truly a day.  Palm Sunday each year is considered World Youth Day and an opportunity for the Holy Father to address the youth of the world in a particular way.  

Yesterday was the first World Youth Day for Pope Francis, and here is what he had to say:

Today in this Square, there are many young people: for twenty-eight years Palm Sunday has been World Youth Day! This is our third word: youth! Dear young people, I saw you in the procession as you were coming in; I think of you celebrating around Jesus, waving your olive branches. I think of you crying out his name and expressing your joy at being with him!


You have an important part in the celebration of faith! You bring us the joy of faith and you tell us that we must live the faith with a young heart, always: a young heart, even at the age of seventy or eighty. Dear young people! With Christ, the heart never grows old! Yet all of us, all of you know very well that the King whom we follow and who accompanies us is very special: he is a King who loves even to the Cross and who teaches us to serve and to love. And you are not ashamed of his Cross! On the contrary, you embrace it, because you have understood that it is in giving ourselves, in giving ourselves, in emerging from ourselves that we have true joy and that, with his love, God conquered evil. 

You carry the pilgrim Cross through all the Continents, along the highways of the world! You carry it in response to Jesus’ call: “Go, make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19), which is the theme of World Youth Day this year. You carry it so as to tell everyone that on the Cross Jesus knocked down the wall of enmity that divides people and nations, and he brought reconciliation and peace. 

Dear friends, I too am setting out on a journey with you, starting today, in the footsteps of Blessed John Paul II and Benedict XVI. We are already close to the next stage of this great pilgrimage of the Cross. I look forward joyfully to next July in Rio de Janeiro! I will see you in that great city in Brazil! Prepare well – prepare spiritually above all – in your communities, so that our gathering in Rio may be a sign of faith for the whole world. 

Young people must say to the world: to follow Christ is good; to go with Christ is good; the message of Christ is good; emerging from ourselves, to the ends of the earth and of existence, to take Jesus there, is good! Three points, then: joy, Cross, young people.

World Youth Day message 2012

While there is no World Youth Day gathering this year, the Holy Father always has a World Youth Day message. This year it's all about joy. What, specifically?

The Church’s vocation is to bring joy to the world, a joy that is authentic and enduring, the joy proclaimed by the angels to the shepherds on the night Jesus was

born (cf. Lk 2:10). Not only did God speak, not only did he accomplish great signs throughout the history of humankind, but he drew so near to us that he became one of us and lived our life completely. In these difficult times, so many young people all around you need to hear that the Christian message is a

message of joy and hope! I would like to reflect with you on this joy and on how to find it, so that you can experience it more deeply and bring it to everyone you meet.

Now, you can read Pope Benedict XVI's reflection here.

10 "Good News" moments of 2011

Last year, I celebrated the close of 2009 with a list of the top ten highlights of the year associated with Theology of the Body, Kenosis and Ruah Woods. I always enjoy remembering what God has done in the past 365 days, so I’m going to embark on the project again this year. What opportunities have we been blessed with this year?

10) Brian Butler coming to town

In April, Ruah Woods partnered with the Archdiocese of Cincinnati to host Brian Butler’s Theology of the Body for Teens training program. It was so refreshing to hear Brian speak, holding his audiences captive by sharing the hunger of teens for a challenging, beautiful message. It was also encouraging to see how many teachers, DREs, youth ministers and parents filed into St. Peter in Huber Heights and Immaculate Heart of Mary in Anderson Township to learn how to communicate TOB to the youth.

9) Kenosis Discipleship Week

In July we had our first Kenosis Discipleship Week – an opportunity for high school students to receive from the Lord and then to learn how to concretely give of themselves to their schools, parishes, family and friends. We had Mass every day, generously offered by local priests. We spent time in prayer, reflection, small groups and education sessions. We also had working groups, bringing their gifts and talents to the table to see how they can reach others in creative ways.

8) Tremendous range of speaking opportunities

It is such a joy to be able to share various aspects of Theology of the Body with an incredible range of audiences. This year, there were plenty of high schools, parishes, a couple of middle schools, Northern Kentucky University, Marian University, the Edith Stein Project at the University of Notre Dame, Theology on Tap, the first Parrhesia young adult conference in Cincinnati. With such a range of topics and audiences (junior high, high school, college, parents, academics, young adults), I am always given new opportunities to learn and to grow.

7) Kenosis Restore retreat: Encounter at the Well

This year’s Kenosis Restore retreat centered on John 4 – the encounter of Jesus with the woman at the well. It was a wonderful opportunity for the teens to pray, reflect in silence, spend time with other Kenosis teens, and learn about Christ’s thirst for union with each of us as a unique, unrepeatable person. These retreats are vitally important to our philosophy of first receiving God’s love in a relationship with Him, which enables us to give in whatever way the Lord invites us to give of ourselves.

6) World Youth Day

Madrid, Spain was my third (and quite possibly, last) World Youth Day, but my first as a chaperone. It was beautiful to watch the teens’ desire to be open to all that God had for them on the pilgrimage. It was also quite stunning to witness a million or more young people kneeling in the mud in complete silence during Exposition

of the Blessed Sacrament, led by Pope Benedict XVI. This is exactly what people need to experience when they accuse the young of an inability to rise to the challenge of faith.

5) Teaching at the seminary

What a tremendous gift it was for me to be able to teach a Theology of the Body master’s course at Mt. St. Mary’s Seminary of the West and the Athenaeum in Cincinnati this fall! It was an honor to be able to teach future priests, as well as two laypeople. I was also given the opportunity to further immerse myself in Theology of the Body and in the more precise theological aspects of the teaching that are not fit for hour-long talks or teen retreats. It is also exciting to see how an “adequate anthropology” might impact future homilies, marriage prep programs, and other parish initiatives.

4) Working with the Kenosis teens on various projects, retreats, etc.

This year, my fellow Theology of the Body education coordinator and I have striven to give the Kenosis teens opportunities to use their gifts and talents to build a culture of life and a civilization of love. We have had a junior core of six high sch

ool students on TOB for Teens retreats. Two teens created an incredible new promo video, which debuted at our September banquet. Some students have traveled with us to speak to junior high students. There are countless opportunities to use gifts of speaking, design, video work, writing, prayer and leadership to serve the youth of the Tri-state area.

3) Hearing a young man at TOB for Teens talk about his sudden desire to become a priest.

During a Theology of the Body for Teens program, one young man struggled to put into words the consistent call he felt during the program: “Even though you didn’t talk much about it explicitly, I kept hearing this voice say, ‘Be a priest! Be a priest!’ Then you brought a seminarian to speak to us, and I felt like he was talking to me. I want to consider going to college seminary next year, because I think this may be where God is calling me.”

2) Called to be More vocations pilgrimage walk

How to summarize one week of walking 150 miles with ten high school students and five adults in order to pray for vocations, discern personal vocations and to witness to the astonishing fact that God always calls us to be more? There were plenty of blisters, sore feet, injured knees and

ankles, long days of walking. But there were also beautiful churches (we stopped to pray in 30 of them), wonderful conversations with people along the journey, a wealth of community prayer and plenty of laughter. Even in the suffering, there

was joy. The teens are still talking about the pilgrimage walk and the ways in which it has impacted them.

1) John Paul II’s beatification

Not only was John Paul II beatified this May 1, but I was blessed to be present at St. Peter’s Square for the big event. How incredible to stand with a million or more people from around the world, as Pope Benedict XVI made the official proclamation. We applauded until our arms ached while they unveiled the portrait of Bl. John Paul II. The beatification gave me the chance to thank a man who I never had the opportunity to meet while he was on earth (though I did see him from a few feet away at World Youth Day 2002). Bl. John Paul II’s influence on my life continues to this day. How fitting to make a pilgrimage in order to thank him and to thank God for sending us such an incredible Holy Father in a unique time in the history of the Church and of the world.

An archbishop reflects on World Youth Day

Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who was such a joy to watch and listen to at World Youth Day in Madrid, shares his thoughts of the experience over at Catholic Exchange. His joy and enthusiasm for the youth is contagious!

Just got back from Madrid, the fifth World Youth Day I’ve been to. I feel as if I’ve got a million-and-a-half new friends from all over the world.

That’s how many young people packed the magnificent, sun-baked capital of Spain. To a person, these Catholic youth were beaming with joy, radiating exuberance, proud to be followers of Jesus, members of His Church.

“We’ve been dreading this,” confessed a resident of Madrid next to me at a coffee counter. Between his imperfect English and my lousy Spanish, we had a decent chat.

“We’ve been worried these young people would be noisy, disruptive, obnoxious. But, they’ve won me over with their happiness, their courtesy, their faith.”

Read it all here.

World Youth Day -- Sunday Mass

We survived our night on puddled tarps in brutal heat-turned-unpleasant-cold, passing from Saturday night into Sunday morning. Our wake-up call was not as jarring as an alarm clock, but it was a bit more disturbing: "Good morning, pilgrims! During the night, 26 children went missing. Please, if you find them, bring them to Section C-1." And this was quickly followed by, "During the night, the storm and heavy winds collapsed some of our chapels. Therefore, we do not have hosts for everyone to receive Communion. Only the concelebrants will receive at Mass today. Please offer up this sacrifice and make a spiritual communion instead."

We all wiped our eyes and attempted to remember where we were, simultaneously asking if the two announcements had been a dream or reality. They were repeated often, so their reality was confirmed.

But this is what was awesome -- Everyone prayed for the missing children, and since the announcements eventually stopped, it can be presumed that they were all found. And no one complained about not being able to receive the Eucharist. Certainly it's not because people did not want to receive Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. But there was an understanding, and a patience and a surrender that was a rare sight for such a large group.

Mass was beautiful! Only God could have timed it so that the regular Sunday reading was Matthew 16 -- "You are Peter, and upon this rock I build my church." And there was Peter's successor to address us. We couldn't really understand the Spanish, but there before us was the witness of a man who loves the Lord without limit, and, consequently, loves His bride, the Church, without limit too.

Once again, there was perfect silence during Communion, even though we were unable to receive.

There was incredible joy and enthusiasm when Brazil could officially celebrate that they will host the 2013 World Youth Day.

There was a mad scramble to gather all religious articles for a papal blessing at the end of the Angelus.

And there was a relief, joy and contentment when World Youth Day was officially over, and we could all begin trekking back to our accommodations for a bit of sleep before the next day's flight.

Madrid's radio stations reported that 2.5 million people were present for the papal Mass. It's a number that the U.S. media apparently found uneventful, but for anyone who spent nearly 24 hours in a field with the other 2,499,999 pilgrims, it was an event that one cannot ignore, should not forget and must not downplay.

Best images from World Youth Day 2011

World Youth Day -- Who says youth don't like a challenge?

Yesterday I tried to paint the picture of the oppressive heat before the Saturday World Youth Day vigil. We stayed on our 10x2 area, lethargic and less than enthusiastic. But everything changed.

The sun was no longer as oppressive, because the sky became dark. This wasn't the type of dark that occurs when it is 9 pm, however. It was only 6 or 7 in the evening. And the dark was accompanied by a strong wind. The dust and rocks that covered the airfield became live and active, dancing in the air, encircling our faces and sending people to find a way to cover their mouths or eyes. We saw the clouds, we saw the lightening, and we also saw the Pope. There was the Holy Father -- the man who brought us to this spot in the first place -- the man we wanted to see. But across the sky we could see that the vigil was not going to be smooth sailing.

The vigil began, and the first formalities were undertaken. Then the rain began. It poured. The wind made it fall horizontally. We grabbed our ponchos, covered our heads, ensured that our backpacks were covered by the copious amounts of plastic tarp that our Italian friends made sure we had available to us, since we were relegated to a tiny sliver of space for the night.

The vigil had stopped. The Jumbo-trons no longer worked. I wondered for the first time if perhaps we would all be sent home, though the nightmare of evacuating 2 million people couldn't be any better than our current situation.

And then the rain slowed. The Holy Father offered a few brief reflections, much shorter than what he would have liked to have said. It was determined that really only one thing was necessary for the vigil, and that one thing was speedily brought to the stage: Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.

Suddenly, the crowd of 2 million pilgrims dropped to their knees in silence. In silence. Has it ever been possible to gather 2 million people who speak dozens of different languages and to witness their complete silence, even those who are so far back they cannot see the monstrance? And they knelt. They knelt in puddles of water accumulated on tarps. They knelt in mud. They knelt on rocks. They knelt on ant hills. But they knelt. And I did not hear one complaint.

The time of Adoration didn't seem to last very long. It was then time for Pope Benedict XVI to get his rest for the evening. The emcees told us that we had all prayed for relief from the heat, and that God had given it to us. The rain continued for a while, but not with the same intensity as before.

We found our little spots for napping that night -- spots that now had puddles, or dirt, or piles of ants. Spots that we normally wouldn't find worthy of sleep. But to see the Pope, well, yes, we found it worth it.

World Youth Day -- Here comes the sun

The pinnacle of World Youth Day -- as I adamantly related to my fellow chaperones who were a bit reluctant to participate in this pinnacle experience -- is the Saturday vigil and Sunday Mass, both with the Holy Father. This was my third World Youth Day, and so I've had my share of adventurous overnight vigil experiences, as well as powerful Sunday Mass encounters with the Vicar of Christ. Madrid's experience, however, was in a class all its own.

Most of our group left the hotel at 12:45 pm, walking to the Metro with our backpacks full of overnight supplies and our hands full of grocery bags. We each had our 1.5 liter bottle of water, a quantity that would have to be doubled or tripled in order to counteract the possibility of dehydration and heat exhaustion that was imminent in Madrid's extreme heat. The Metro, of course, was jammed with pilgrims. I watched sweat literally drip off of people's faces and onto the floor. But eventually -- perhaps after close to an hour -- we arrived at our stop.

But the Metro was not the end of the journey. We next began the walking portion of the pilgrimage, traversing a couple of miles with our gear in tow. And what a beautiful sight! Yes, it was hot. Yes, we were tired. Yes, the backpacks became heavy. But what a wonderful, jolting image of our pilgrimage to heaven -- thousands of people from every possible background and country, joining together in their walk toward a common goal, encouraging each other and meeting one another and enjoying the walk on the way to the destination. We had an image of the saints too -- the men and women who stood from their tall apartment windows, splashing water on the pilgrims below. There they were -- one's who had "arrived" at a destination and

were equipped with more than we currently had -- and they were encouraging us and cheering us and giving us what they could. They hung shower heads out of the window, emptied cold water from bottles on us and used their cupped hands to disperse refreshing water out of

buckets. With the extreme heat, even a small splash of cold was a welcome encouragement along the way. One women stood at the side of the road and quickly dunked pilgrims' hats in her icy bucket, giving them some cold water to last awhile.

We continued our trek to the airfield, where the vigil would be held. Eventually we made it to the line heading to "security" checks. The firemen rode around in trucks and hosed us down with water. We made it onto the field and scurried to find our section, C-4, as quickly as possible.

We arrived at C-4 (this whole process had taken more than three hours), and were rather stressed to find no home for our meager sheets, blow-up rafts and ponchos-turned-blankets. There was a small strip of empty land -- perhaps 10 feet long by 2 feet wide -- that we decided to claim. But the Italians around the small space were not pleased. "Walking path! For walking!" they cried, gesturing, and placing their hands in their hair in frustration. We argued with them for a bit, but how does one argue when neither party really speaks the other's language? They wanted "walking space," and World Youth Day veteran that I am, I wanted them to know that

"walking space" does not exist within the vocabulary of the Saturday vigil. They tried arguing by kindness, "Por favore, you cannot fit nine people there!" And I calmly replied, "Actually, we have twelve. And in any event, where else do you suppose we can go?"

We pitched our clear tarp on the ground, piled up our backpacks and then realized that it truly was 102 degrees in Madrid that day. Oh the heat! There was no shade, no cold water, no more fire hoses gushing free showers. There was a great big sun beating down on the masses, heating up our plastic tarp and leaving us exhausted.

"Water! Drink more water!" I had to command my group every 10 minutes. We had experienced a case of dehydration the day before, and I wanted to ensure that everyone stayed healthy in this particular predicament. Still, commanding others to drink water that feels as if it were made for hot chocolate or Ramen noodles, not a refreshing drink, is a bit of a challenge. When two of our pilgrims returned with our World Youth Day meal sacks, we took the ham and salami that was still cold, and held it to our faces for a few seconds of refreshment.

"Whose bright idea was it to have World Youth Day in Madrid?" I asked myself. And I think we all prayed for a break in the heat. Oh yes, I think the Lord wanted to show us that He does listen and He does answer prayer.

To be continued ...

World Youth Day -- Who wants to see the Pope?

For those who travel to World Youth Day, a great moment of anticipation is seeing the Holy Father, in real life, feet or yards or half a mile away, and to hear his voice and know he is speaking to you. In fact, as we spent a day in Burgos, Spain during our pre-WYD pilgrimage, I told our teens that Pope Benedict, an eighty-something-year-old man was undergoing the rigors of travel for them. Very beautiful, very moving, very true.

So, when Thursday arrived, and every young pilgrim knew that the Holy Father would be in their midst by the end of the day, I asked our group if any of them would like to spend the afternoon in the blazing Spanish sun with the chance (not the guarantee) of a good spot to see the Vicar of Christ. Four of them said yes.

Following our morning catechesis and Mass, Fr. Tim Ralston (our group's chaplain) and I set a brisk pace through crowds of pilgrims, seas of flags and chants about the Pope in order to attempt to secure a good spot. Eventually we arrived at the plaza where the Holy Father would begin his welcoming ceremony. We followed the barricade until we found what I do believe was the last remaining three feet of space along the winding barricade. And like a veteran of scouting ideal places to see the pope, I barked out commands about not moving for any reason, not letting anyone invade the space, how to create our own personal barricade of backpacks and where the most strategic places to sit for the next five hours would be.

Yes, we had five hours in Madrid's intense heat to wait for a glimpse of Pope Benedict XVI. And the heat was so great that volunteers began running near the barricades to spray people's faces with little spray bottles. But this was not enough. So they brought out plastic containers typically used to distribute lawn chemicals, but instead they sprayed us with water. But that was not enough. Eventually, the firemen came onto the scene, lugging their fire-hoses and grinning with glee. Yes, the fire-hoses were enough! We were showered with enormous gushes of water as we all cheered on the firemen, "Agua! Agua! Aqui! Aqui!"

With our hats dripping and our sunscreen battling the effects of the makeshift Madrid waterpark, we waited for the big moment. There was music and videos and reports and footage of Pope Benedict alighting from the plane earlier in the afternoon.

And then it was a little after 7, and we watched on the screen as Papa B came through the streets of Madrid in his popemobile. We readied our cameras and steeled ourselves for the crushing enthusiasm (literally crushing) of those around us who wished to be a centimeter closer to the Pope as he drove speedily by.

He drove by, smiling and waving. We cheered with the Spaniards. We cheered with the French. We cheered with those from the British Islands across the way from us. We cheered with the girl from Cincinnati who happened to be near our group. We cheered with people from every populated continent.

And then? We collapsed. Yes, all six of us didn't last in our prime spots because there was no longer room to sit. We had been standing in the exhausting heat for so long, and the Holy Father's gentle voice in Spanish was not jolting us with renewed energy. So, we sat along the side, followed along with the prayer service as best we could, and then attempted to beat the crowd. This attempt was thwarted when one of our teens spotted her first "real life" Missionaries of Charity. As a great fan of Blessed Mother Teresa, she had meeting some of the sisters at the top of her World Youth Day wish list. It's a good thing we stopped to chat ... they informed us that the Holy Father would be passing by the road on which we were standing. So, we found an opening in the crowd and watched as he sped by again.

So, the six of us had our close encounter with the Pope. One girl said the waiting and the watching were worth all of the money that it cost to get to Spain. I can only hope that the close proximity to the Vicar of Christ will continue to inspire the teens' faith as they grow in holiness for years to come.

(Yes, it's zoomed in, but yes, it's also a picture that I took. A picture that I waited five and a half hours to take.)

World Youth Day -- Catechesis

For three days prior to the culmination of the World Youth Day experience (the Saturday night vigil and Sunday morning Mass with the Pope), catechesis sessions are offered for pilgrims according to language. It is humbling to have bishops and cardinals serving young people by offering these sessions, and it is beautiful to see the respect young people have for their Shepherds.

At World Youth Day in Madrid, the Sisters of Life and the Knights of Columbus partnered to offer a home for English-speaking pilgrims throughout the week. They had 12,000 people packed into the arena each morning for music, a catechetical talk, fun with the Sisters of Life (who knew a sister would lead a "wave" race ... yes, the "wave" of baseball game fame), and Mass with hundreds of priests and dozens of bishops and cardinals.

It's absolutely incredible to celebrate the faith with 12,000 other people speaking the same language but from every continent of the world. Many of the teens in our group commented that their time at the Love and Life Centre was a favorite of the trip.

So, what did we learn during our time there? Here are some snippets of wisdom gleaned from the bishops/cardinals and other speakers:

• Sr. Mary Gabriel, SV: "In Baptism, you are promised two things: 1) That you are loved without limit; 2) That you can love without limit. Because Baptism promises the very life of God living in me.
• Cardinal Pell (Australia): It's when Peter looked around when he was walking on water and considered how ridiculous and impossible his situation was that he dropped.
• Jason and Crystalina Evert: Women can lead a man toward heaven through their modesty.
• Archbishop Miller (Canada): When trials and sufferings come, as they inevitably will, when you are built in Christ, then all you have to do is what Peter did in Matthew's Gospel -- cry out, "Lord, save me."
• Archbishop Dolan (New York): Sometimes we see the Church, the Body of Christ, as radiant, knock-down-dead-beautiful, and other times we see the side of the Bride with curlers in her hair and Noxema on her face. The nails that pierced Christ's hands on the cross have held His Church together for 2,000 years. We are heirs to the nails.

And we're back -- World Youth Day report begins

We tend to be appalled every year by the lack of coverage of the March for Life, where 200,000 or so people descend upon the nation's capital in the defense of human life. But how can one even begin to imagine landing after a 9 hour and 14 minute flight from Madrid to Atlanta (waiting to fly home to Cincinnati), greeted by national papers that include a paragraph or two referring to an international event with 2.5 million attendees? So, in the next few days, I hope to offer coverage of the event that was not covered.

For now, let me say this: Our pilgrimage to World Youth Day -- seven teens, four adults -- was a wonderful adventure. We had our share of challenges along the way, as any pilgrimage gladly offers, but we also had many joys, sometimes even in and through the challenges. The Pope was there. God was speaking. Young people were listening. Spain was watching. Fruits will come.

Stay tuned for stories, reporting and pictures ...

World Youth Day -- heading home

Please keep the Cincinnati pilgrims (and those from the whole world, while you're at it) in your prayers, as we return from Madrid today. Long flights make for plenty of reflection time on the good that the Lord has started in our lives.

Quote book

"Dear young people, the Church depends on you! She needs your lively faith, your creative charity and the energy of your hope. Your presence renews, rejuvenates and gives new energy to the Church. That is why World Youth Days are a grace, not only for you, but for the entire People of God." -- Pope Benedict XVI

Quote book

"Dear friends, the Cross often frightens us because it seems to be a denial of life. In fact, the opposite is true! It is God's 'yes' to mankind, the supreme expression of his love and the source from which eternal life flows. Indeed, it is from Jesus' heart, pierced on the Cross, that this divine life streamed forth, ever accessible to those who raise their eyes towards the Crucified One. I can only urge you, then, to embrace the Cross of Jesus, the sign of God's love, as the source of new life. Apart from Jesus Christ risen from the dead, there can be no salvation! He alone can free the world from evil and bring about the growth of the Kingdom of justice, peace and love to which we all aspire." -- Pope Benedict XVI