July 17 2011
Issue 3
A WYD Prayer Newsletter
The Road to Madrid A faith journey for those who go and those who stay at home
A service from Church Resources
www.johngarratt.com.au
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Issue 3 A WYD Prayer Newsletter
On the Road to WYD
Third of a series of six newsletters
In this issue SECTION 1: FOOD FOR PILGRIMS Cathedral of Saint Mary, Toledo (built 1226 – 1493)
A prayer for all pilgrims God of hope and grace, send your Holy Spirit upon us as our helper and guide. As we prepare for World Youth Day in Madrid, help us to build upon the many graces and experiences that were the fruit of World Youth Day in Sydney. Send forth the power of the Spirit upon us so that we may continue to be your witnesses in service and love to other youth in Australia. May we journey together in the great south land of the Holy Spirit and share in this pilgrimage of faith to the ends of the earth. Pour your grace into our lives so that we may be apostles of reconciliation and builders for the new creation. Nourish and unite us through the Eucharist, so that firm in the faith we may be planted and built up in Jesus Christ. We ask this through the intercession of Our Lady of the Southern Cross and in the healing name of our Lord Jesus, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit one God forever and ever. Amen. Mary, Help of Christians. Pray for us. Saint Mary MacKillop. Pray for us.
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Prayers & reflections to sustain pilgrims as they travel the inner journey – on the road to Madrid or at home
SECTION 2: WORLD YOUTH DAY Experiences from earlier WYDs & getting the most out of WYD at home or abroad
Next issue: ‘Do this in memory of me’
SECTION 1: FOOD FOR PILGRIMS Pilgrimage – A Time for Conversation On a pilgrimage, fellow pilgrims talk with each other, sharing the journey – and the reasons they have chosen to be there. WYD is a celebration of faith. It is a unique opportunity to speak about what is important in one’s life. When we speak, the words we find help us to take hold at a deeper level of what we are feeling and what we believe. When we listen without interrupting, we affirm the other person – and at the same time we allow the Spirit of God to speak to us through the words of the other person.
Prayer: ‘Lord, help me to follow in your footsteps – to speak the way you speak, to think the way you think, and to show the same compassion to others that you show. Amen’
Getting to know Jesus better ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life!’ Extraordinary words that no human being, apart from Jesus, has ever dared to utter! How more clearly could Jesus have expressed it? ‘Without the Way, there is no going; without the Truth, there is no knowing; without the Life, there is no living.’ (Thomas A’Kempis) Jesus, being the Way, will lead us, guide us, and accompany us on our journey - as he did with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. ‘What is the meaning of life?’ we ask. Jesus alone has the answer. Being the Truth, he and he alone can give us a true understanding of what life is about. And it is Jesus alone who can lead us into the fullness of life: ‘I have come that you may have life and have it to the full.’ (John 10:10) 4
The Many Forms of Prayer There’s a wise saying: ‘Pray as you can. Don’t attempt to pray as you can’t.’ Find the form of prayer that suits you. Here are some of the many different forms of prayer: • Vocal prayer. Acts of adoration, contrition, thanksgiving and supplication, praying for the Church and the world, praying for our needs, for those in pain and those lacking the basics of life. ‘Come, Lord Jesus, come! Come and comfort those in pain and in need!’ • Lectio Divina. A prayerful reading of the Word of God, using short texts from the Gospels, Psalms or other sacred books, allowing the words to echo deep within one. • The Rosary. Go for a walk, say the Rosary and be refreshed physically and spiritually. • Meditation. Sit in a quiet place, perhaps light a candle. Offer God the time you are going to spend – 5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes. An excellent meditation is the Holy Hour – prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. • Prayerfulness. During the day be aware of the presence of God with short aspirations such as: ‘My Lord and my God!’ Or the Jesus Prayer: ‘Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.’ • Prayer in time of need. There can be times when we are deeply troubled, either through grief, or depression, or some personal hurt. We may feel unable to pray in our usual way. Then it is time to put ourselves into the loving arms of God and say simply, ‘Lord, help!’
‘Christ has no body now on earth but ours, no hands but ours, no feet but ours; ours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion looks out on the world, ours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good and ours are the hands with which He is to bless us now.’ Saint Teresa of Avila
Champions of the Faith – St Teresa of Avila -
1515-1582
One of the patron Saints of WYD Madrid 2011
Unable to obtain her father's consent, Teresa left home without his knowledge in 1535, to enter the Carmelite Convent in Avila. In 1562, after much opposition she founded a reformed order, the ‘Discalced Carmelites’. Renowned for her spiritual writings on the contemplative life and prayer, she was a spiritual companion of St John of the Cross. She was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1970. St Teresa spoke of prayer as ‘nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us. The important thing is not to think much but to love much and so do that which best stirs you to love. Love is not great delight but desire to please God in everything!’ 5
SECTION 2 WYD – EXPERIENCES and TIPS He winked and smiled at me
Inspiration from WYD Toronto The Theme for WYD Toronto 2002: ‘You are the salt of the earth... You are the light of the world...’ (Mt 5:13-14)
Inspiring words of John Paul II in Toronto..... ‘On a hillside near the lake of Galilee, Jesus's disciples listened to his gentle and urgent voice; as gentle as the landscape of Galilee itself, as urgent as a call to choose between life and death, between truth and falsehood. ‘The “spirit of the world” offers many false illusions and parodies of happiness. There is perhaps no darkness deeper than the darkness that enters young people's souls when false prophets extinguish in them the light of faith and hope and love. The greatest deception, and the deepest source of unhappiness, is the illusion of finding life by excluding God, of finding freedom by excluding moral truths and personal responsibility. ‘The Lord is calling you to choose between these two voices competing for your souls. That decision is the substance and challenge of World Youth Day. ‘Why have you come together from all parts of the world? To say in your hearts: "Lord, to whom shall we go?" Who has the words of eternal life? "You have the words of eternal life" (Jn 6:68). Jesus - the intimate friend of every young person - has the words of life. ‘Salt is used to preserve and flavour. As apostles for the Third Millennium, your task is to preserve and keep alive the awareness of the presence of our Saviour Jesus Christ, especially in the celebration of the Eucharist. ‘Following Jesus, you have to change and improve the "taste" of human history. With your faith, hope and love, with your intelligence, courage and perseverance, you have to humanize the world we live in. Then your light shall rise in the darkness..." (Isaiah 58:6-10).
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Our group wasn't really there for spiritual reasons, but God works in mysterious ways. There was rain, thousands of people, and long lines for the toilets. I wouldn't trade anything for my life especially after the look I got at the Holy Father on the day my camera was stolen. He looked right at me, winked and smiled at me. His gaze at me made everything so worthwhile. I met a lot of wonderful young people as well as Religious who were very thrilled to be a Religious. These people showed me that there is happiness in religious life and thus made me continue to pursue my vocation. WYD was an unexpected thing - I was invited to go, with expenses paid. This was definitely God calling me to go, since I had no money as I was starting a new job at that time. James Crichton, a pilgrim from the USA
Chris Nolan was at WYD Toronto.... Originally, I had never planned to go to World Youth Day. As with most spontaneous moments in life it had a profound effect on me and was instrumental in shaping future events. When my now-wife first told me she planned to go overseas to Canada for World Youth Day in 2002, I thought it would be a great opportunity for her. It wasn’t until she told me more that I started thinking that it could be a great opportunity for me as well. Little did I know what kind of impact the experience would have on me. Going to Toronto involved a lot of preparation. As I was going with other young people from my parish, we quickly began raising funds the old fashioned way – car washes, donut and chocolate drives, raffles and a trivia night. One great benefit of this hard work was the fact that it brought us closer together and enabled us to get to know each other better before heading off to Toronto. When going to an event like World Youth Day, it’s essential that you have people to debrief and share with. As World Youth Day is a pilgrimage, my journey to Toronto went via Mexico and the United States. This offered me the chance to experience Catholicism within two very different cultures and contexts. From visiting the site of Mary’s visitation at Guadalupe and trying tequila at the Teotihuacan pyramids to feeling the spray of Niagara Falls and playing water polo with Cardinal Pell, the World Youth Day experience not only enabled me to see the world but gave me a sense of the global church that I am part of. It has offered me the chance to encounter other young people within the Church, many with a similar desire to nourish their own faith development. Since my time in Canada, I have had the opportunity to be a World Youth Day Coordinator, working with a group of young people in their preparations for World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008. Walking the journey with them has let me see how World Youth Day can shape and strengthen the lives of young Catholics. World Youth Day still continues to play a role in my life today. This year World Youth Day will be held in Madrid in August with more than 2 million young people expected to attend. I have been given the opportunity to take a small group of secondary school students to Madrid. This will be another chance to witness the effect of World Youth Day on a different group of young people, all of whom are on unique faith journeys. World Youth Day continues to be a relevant and exciting experience for young people from all over the globe. Host cities come alive with the enthusiasm of youth and the diversity of cultural and personal experiences. It is my hope that World Youth Day will remain a life-changing force for many people and have a profound effect on the vitality of the Catholic Church. 7
Fascinating Spain Roman Era: c. 200BC – 400AD In this period of Roman influence, roads were built and gold, wool, olive oil, and wine went sent to Roman markets. Christianity was introduced in the First and Second Centuries. Spain's language and law date from this period. Islamic Era: 711 – 1492. From 711, most of Spain (right) was conquered by Muslim armies from North Africa. Churches were turned into mosques. The re-conquest, begun in 722, was completed in 1492 with the overthrow of the last Emirate – at Grenada. Spanish Empire: 16th to 18th Century Spain became a unified country in 1469 with the marriage of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon and emerged as the first world power. With wealth from colonial possessions, Spain was a leading power throughout the 16th Century and most of the 17th Century. General Franco’s Era: 1936 - 1975 In the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939, rebel 'Nationalists' overthrew of the ‘Republican’ Government – with the loss of 500,000 lives and a similar number who fled the country. After the war General Franco set up a conservative, authoritarian regime which lasted until his death in 1975. Modern Era: 1978 to present Since the restoration of democracy in 1978, Spain has been a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament. The Constitution of 1978 recognised King Juan Carlos as King of Spain.
The Spanish flag. Historical national motto: Plus Ultra! (To go further beyond)
Forms of Spanish Dance The six forms of Spanish dance are Flamenco, Classical Spanish Dance (Estilización), Folklore, Eighteenth Century Dances, Ballet (Classical Dance), and Castanets. Flamenco is the best-known. ACU students (right) hone their Spanish dancing skills.
Vaya con Dios! (May God be with you!) This newsletter can be photocopied. It can also be found under the caption WYD Madrid Prayer Newsletter on the CathNews website at www.cathnews.com Our thanks go to all who’ve are contributing to the series, especially Lisa Bright, Sarah Coppola, Robyn Gallagher, Chris Nolan, Bernadette Toohey – Anthony Neylan editor@churchresources.com
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