Day 1 of World Youth Day Pilgrimage 7-25-23

Happy Feast Day of St. James, and welcome to Day 1 of our World Youth Day Blog. Today we began our pilgrimage to Portugal with Mass. The fact that we are celebrating St. James seems appropriate. He is the patron saint of pilgrims and the Santiago de Compostela, the pilgrimage named after him, has been traveled for well over 1,000 years. Going on a pilgrimage is a very ancient tradition and not just in our Catholic faith. There is something deep within our human hearts, that desires to make a journey when a spiritual need arises. In the early years after Christ’s death and resurrection, the first pilgrims would consistently travel to three locations. The site of Jesus Christ’s birth, the location of his crucifixion and the tomb where he was resurrected. Because the first Christians immediately began visiting these sites, we have no doubt that they are the true locations. We humans seek to be connected to our creator and going on pilgrimage to places of religious importance is one tangible way we can connect to God.

The late Pope Benedict XVI explains it this way, “To go on pilgrimage is not simply to visit a place to admire its treasures of nature, art or history. To go on pilgrimage really means to step out of ourselves in order to encounter God where he has revealed himself, where his grace has shone with particular splendor and produced rich fruits of conversion and holiness among those who believe.”

One of the most exciting parts of our pilgrimage will be to go to Fatima, where Our Lady appeared in 1917 to three young Portuguese children. There we will kneel and pray for all of you who have supported us, who have prayed for us and who have given us specific prayer intentions to lay at the site where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared. The personal reasons each of our pilgrims has decided to go to World Youth Day are as varied as the pilgrims themselves. It might be for a specific intention, it might be a penance for a past sin, it could be in thanksgiving for answered prayers or the reason may actually change as the pilgrimage unfolds. Ultimately each pilgrim hopes that the journey taken will lead their heart to a place of greater hope and peace, that can only come from God. Please pray for us as we begin to board our flight and make the final preparations for the first stage of our pilgrimage. You are all very much in our prayers. 🙏🙏

God bless,

Fr. Tom

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World Youth Day - Portugal

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