World Youth Day 4

Today´s schedule was very much like the previous: breakfast, catechesis and Mass.  Today we had Cardinal George from Chicago as our presentor at catechesis (a brief summary of his talk follows shortly).

It´s clear that our pilgrims are getting tired.  HEAT, HEAT, HEAT, sore feet, lack of sleep, long hours waiting for the pope to pass by, large crowds... it is all taking its toll, but our Saint Andrew group is doing GREAT!  Today at the Mass Steven Arena and Joey Barvir both served.  Our priests have been concelebrating each day.  It´s really been great!

After Mass our little group split up a bit.  I went with several other priests to have a ¨civilized lunch¨ rather than a pligrim pack (sandwich, pasta salad, water and an apple) then we priests went down to Plaza del Sol to look at some religous stores for vestments and black clerical shirts.  Some of us found some goodies.  The rest of the group made a trip to a local store whose name I cannot reveal right now - as it would ruin the surprise for the recipient of the gift - so you´ll have to ask me about it next week.

This evening was the Stations of the Cross presided over by the Holy Father.  We again stood along the street where the Holy Father would be passing by in the popemobile - and we got some really good pictures (but I don´t have my camera handy right now, so no pictures to post tonight... sorry).  Then we gathered in the Plaza de Colón and watched the Stations on the jumbotron.  We all commented on how policially charged we thought the stations were - making direct references to governments that oppress Christians and their expression of the faith.  How fortunate we are in the United States - although we certainly have aspects of our own government that refuse to acknowledge the Truth and the conscience rights of Catholics when it comes to some areas of public policy - but that´s a discussion for another day.

James read at our catechetical Mass

Tonight our seminarians went to bed VERY early, as they will be privileged to attend Mass celebrated by the Holy Father in the Cathedral of Madrid - only 5000 seminarians will be in attandance and they are very excited to get there early and get some good seats.  They have cameras - don´t worry!  I pray they have an AWESOME experience with Pope Benedict XVI tomorrow.

I on the other hand needed to walk to one of the other hotels where other members of our group are staying (Fr. Wayne had left some things in my room and I needed to get them back to him).  So I walked to their hotel then decided that I really wanted to go to Retiro park to pray before the Blessed Sacrament for a while - I needed some quiet prayer time with the Lord.  So I walked to the gate which, for security reasons, was closed.  So I walked to another gate and entered.  I walked and walked and walked searching for the adoration tent, but I felt much like the women on the Day of the Resurrection, ¨They have taken my Lord and I don´t know where they have put Him.¨  I never found it.  So, noticing that it was nearly 10:30pm, I turned around and headed back to the hotel, telling the Lord in my prayer as I walked, ¨Lord, I tried to find you.¨  So I just prayed a Rosary as I walked back to the hotel.

Tomorrow is going to be the beginning of our big days: our overnight vigil with and Sunday Mass with the Pope.  We´ll be eating breakfast early (7am) and going to a Mass arranged by the US Bishops for only American pilgrims.  then we´ll come back to the hotel.  They are telling everyone NOT to rush out to the vigil site because of the extreme heat - so our Saint Andrew group is planning to begin our 2 mile hike in at about 4pm.

This will have to be my last post until after the Sunday Mass - as I´ll not have computer and internet access until we get to Barcelona on Sunday night.  So, know we are all well and praying for you all.  Thanks so much for following us on our journey.  I´ll post what I can on Sunday night before our return flight to the States on Monday morning.  God bless you all.  Know of our prayers!  Please continue to hold us all in your prayers as well.

Now, a summary of today´s catechesis with Cardinal George:

Today´s theme: Witnesses to Christ in the World.

When you were baptized, before you made any choices of your own, you were brought into a relationship with Christ and the Church.  You are now not just godś creature, but His child!  In baptism you are brought into a real realtionship with God.  You can walk away from it, but the relationship will alway remain.

Confirmation seals your baptism and relates you to the world in a different way.  You are anointed with Chrism on your forehead rather than the crown of your head signifying that you are now given gifts to help you relate to the world more than to yourself.  You become a disciple, a missionary of Christ to the whole world.  People should look at you and see Christ!  The mission of the Church is to introduce the Savior to the world.  What changes over the course of time and centuries is not the message or the mission, but the circumstances in which that message must be proclaimed.  to announce Christ you must first know Him personnally and belive and trust (although that may not always be a full understanding).

The 2nd task of a missionary is to know the world around us.  Jesus used parables to tell us about the world and how the message would be received (for example, the parable of the wheat and the tares that we heard just a few weeks ago at Sunday Mass).  Many today believe that this world should not be open to Faith and to Christ.  The tragedy of this is that we then closee in on ourselves and are never able to know who God is and the freedom He offers us.  After a while, searching only for things of this world, despair sets in.  Our mission must be to bring hope to this despair - hope in something more!  In this world we must be messengers of hope - messengers of Christ.

Know Christ.  Know the world.  Bring the two together.  This is the task and the obligation of all the baptized.

How?  The Lord trust you to know who and when and what to speak (of course the Spirit helps us - thus the Sacrament of Confirmation). 

Here in Spain in the 1930´s seminarians were taken from the seminary out into the street and shot simply for being Catholic seminarians.  There are many people today who are killed for Christ - in fact there have been more martyrs in the 20th century than all the previous combined.  Think of that!!!  The age of the martyrs is not over!  Usually this opposition is not overt, but subtle.  So we must speak and be authentic witnesses to Christ.  We must strengthen and support one another (one of the goals of these World Youth Days) in our mission.  Remember that our goal is to have everyone live explicitly their faith in the Catholic Church.

The Lord gives us gifts to use in this mission.  Sometimes when you are unsure of what the Lord is asking ask Him just after you´ve received Holy Communion.  The external marks of the Church help us experience the inner urges of Christ to witness to Him.

 Know Christ.  Know the world.  Know and share your inner gifts so that they and be used to help the world know Christ.

 Good night!