Go! Make Disciples of All Nations!

Hello Blog!! Here's the long-awaited World Youth Day post, but I have a disclaimer. It was written for the parish magazine, and unashamedly copy-pasted here so that some people (ahem, Victoria) would be appeased. Enjoy!

 “Dear young people, please, don’t be observers of life, but get involved.  Jesus did not remain an observer, but he immersed himself.  Don’t be observers, but immerse yourself in the reality of life, as Jesus did.” These are the words our Holy Father, Pope Francis, proclaimed on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach last month. His passionate command to live fully a life of truth was met with the cheers of 3 million pilgrims, joined together from all over the globe to celebrate World Youth Day. I was privileged enough to be there. My pilgrimage to World Youth Day (or Jornada Mundial da Juventude to the locals) began nearly a year ago, born out of a desire to be part of the biggest Catholic youth event in the world, to serve those less fortunate, and, of course, to meet the Holy Father. In a generation obsessed with One Direction and the Kardashians, there are still a few of us who fangirl the Pope!

On July 6^th, I joined a group of twenty girls from around Australia and New Zealand and flew to Santiago, Chile. Here we spent two weeks doing community service and sightseeing, all the while growing in our relationship with the Lord through prayer, daily mass and our friendships with each other. Hardships, too, were offered up for the glory of God; I’m sure we rescued many a soul from Purgatory during the fourteen nights sleeping on the ground! While in Santiago, we had the opportunity to work in schools, in poor towns, an orphanage, a resthome and a medical clinic. In addition to this, we spent a fair amount of  time playing the tourist- sightseeing, visiting Chilean markets and hiking in the beautiful Andes mountains. Poverty in South America is strikingly different to that in New Zealand – slums aren’t constricted to certain areas of town, but continue alongside skyscrapers and malls. Our experiences working with the poor brought home many of the truths taught by the Church about Social Justice. We have such a responsibility, as Christians, to alleviate the sufferings of those less fortunate: for in doing so, we are alleviating the sufferings of Christ. Chile taught me many lessons; first and foremost, that if each person is thinking of others more than their own self, everyone is still being thought of.

After an incredible, life-changing fortnight in Chile, we flew on to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to be a part of ‘the world’s biggest Catholic beach party’. World Youth Day is actually a week long- made up of official events, such as the opening mass on Copacabana beach and Stations of the Cross with the Pope; catechesis classes consisting of music, prayer, discussion and talks from Bishops; and hour upon hour of waiting – for buses, for food, for the Pope to arrive. The latter of course, had the best fulfilment!

World Youth Day is unlike any other experience: suffocating in vast crowds, crying tears of pure happiness, waiting for a bus in the rain for two hours; flags from all around the world, faces radiating joy, singing, shouting, cheering, chanting, priests, nuns and youth, all there for one purpose: Christ. Every person I met was on fire with God’s love, radiating a youthful energy and eager to take Jesus to every corner of the globe. Standing in the middle of a crowd the size of New Zealand’s population, I knew that we were a part of something even bigger. We were not observers of life. We were immersed in the reality of Christ.

Krakow, 2016, here we come!

A very crowded Copacabana Beach!

AMDG