Stay tuned for a visit from us to your parish to share more of our photos and stories from the WYD in Poland. Thank you to all our readers for your comments and prayers! God Bless.
All the pilgrims have arrived safely back in Montreal after a day of traveling. The day started off smoothly check-in at the airport in Prague was smooth. Our first flight was delayed by 45 minutes which started to make us a little worried as we had a short window to make our connecting flight to Montreal. Luckily our flight to Montreal was also delayed so we made the connection with time to spare! We were created with great fan fare from all our families as well as Bishop Claude Hamelin who greeted us at the airport.
Stay tuned for a visit from us to your parish to share more of our photos and stories from the WYD in Poland. Thank you to all our readers for your comments and prayers! God Bless.
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We are currently sitting at the gate waiting to board our flight to Zurich. The day is a bit gray here in Prague but we are all in good spirits and excited to be coming home. At the same time we are sad to be leaving such a beautiful city and wished to have had more time to visit. Our next post will be in Zurich! Au revoir Prague!
The pilgrims have arrived in Prague!! It was a lengthy bus ride yesterday but we all made it from Krakòw to Prague. After settling in to the hostel, we went out for a group dinner. Some of the pilgrims from the French group in our Diocese also joined us. We shared a wonderful dinner all together and everyone enjoyed themselves fully. We also celebrated the birthday of another one of our pilgrims!
Shortly, we will be heading out for a walking tour of Prague. On Saturday we walked to the site of the vigil mass which was held out at an area known as Campus Misericordae. We left extremely in the morning but it was worth it as we got a fantastic spot to be able to see everything. A big thank you to Robin Béliveau and his group from the parish of St-Bruno de Montarville who left late the night before to save our diocese a spot. The walk to the site was uneventful. The sun was shining and we managed to beat the crowds. Due to the sun and heat we needed to make shade. The Vigil mass started at dusk, setting the tone for a wonderful evening. The mass started with a few powerful testimonies. One which was particularly powerful was from a Syrian Christian who spoke of her difficulty living in Syria during the civil war and maintaining her faith in God. It highlighted how much we cannot take our lives for granted, and how we need to help our fellow men and women whenever we can. There was such a feeling of serenity during the vigil. A short concert followed and we were off to sleep. The next morning we were up early again getting ready for mass with the Pope. Again the day promised to be bright and hot. The mass with the Pope was touching he spoke about being open and merciful to everyone around us. He also highlighted the importance of welcoming our Syrian brothers and sisters. The Pope announced the location of the next WYD which will take place in Panama in 2019! We waited a bit before leaving the site as all the exits were congested. Unfortunately due to the heat we ended up walking through a number of thunderstorms and downpours. We were very soggy and it took us a while, but 6 hours after leaving the site we made it back to our host families where we able to finally change into some dry clothes! They prepared a lovely party for all of the pilgrims they hosted in the parish. We were treated to traditional food and Polish music! Thank you Poland for your wonderful hospitality! Next time we blog, it will be from Prague!
The day started off in true WYD style; our attempt to get to the designated English catechesis at Tourin Arena was thwarted by the trams being shut down this morning. So instead we caught a bus out to the nearest one. What divine intervention. We arrived at a church which was hosting an English catethesis animated by two youth groups from the UK, "The Ascent" and the "One Hope Project". They did an amazing drama about mercy thoughout the bible. We then heard Bishop Richard Malone speak to us about the theme of Mercy and how to let it come to us. He shared some wonderful personal antidotes and how it can relate to our daily lives. We then travelled to the city to Błondi park to await the official welcome by Pope Francis for the WYDs. His speech to the youth was exceptional! He really wants to get the youth moving forward and working not only in the church but also remembering to make links to those in the community and our families who have a lot of knowledge about life, like our grandparents. He further stressed the need for youth to show their joy to others around them, especially in today's world of tumult and fear. Here are some of our "one word summaries"; Pope, trust, mercy, moving, inspirational, interesting. Tomorrow, some of the group will go and visit the Shrine of Divine Mercy (St-Faustina) while others will attend morning catechesis. In the early evening we will participate in Stations of the Cross with Pope Francis.
Today we visited Auschwitz. What an experience! There were many emotions felt and we were all moved. It is too soon to talk about what we experienced during our visit. We visited both Auschwitz and Auschwitz- Birkenau. Only WYD pilgrims were able to visit the site. only the outdoor exhibits were available to us. The site today was averaging 1,000 visitors an hour as compared to 50-60 per hour during regular visiting times. During our bus ride back to Auschwitz, as a Diocese we shared a bilingual prayer as a group. For each member of the group, Fr. John prepared a card and small lanyard which contained the story of an individual who went through Auschwitz. The lanyard contains a small bead representing Auschwitz, followed by a silver spring representing a spark. The next bead has the colours of the individual's country of origin. The last two beads are the initials of the individual. We arrived back at the parish and celebrated a bilingual mass together as a Diocese. Every joined together to get the mass organized within 10 minutes, what a wonderful show of unity amongst our group. In the evening we had free time to explore the city. Tomorrow promises to be a full day between catechesis then welcoming Pope Francis. Luckily the group is staying near the airport so on our way back to the church this afternoon we saw Pope Francis' plane on the tarmac!
And the pilgrims kept coming. Today we started the day with a trip into the city centre for a guided tour of Krakòw. There were many many pilgrims along the way. We visited the university that Pope John Paul II attended and studied theology. Our tour ended at the Wawel castle. We had lunch between the castle and the river, then started our walk to Błonia for the opening mass. Our walk to the site was quite easy as there police officers available to help us on our journey. We joined pilgrims from 180 countries. As we were waiting for mass to start, the skies opened....with the largest raindrops we had even seen. People became very creative about how to keep dry. We also managed to find Fr. John's twin. We managed to stay dry and now mass is about to start so we sign off for now!!
We left our host families bright and early this morning. On our way to Czętochowa, we made a quick stop to the shrine of St-Hedwig. She is one of the patron saints of Poland. 3 hours of travel later, we arrived in Czętochowa. There were many pilgrims from all over the globe visiting Jasna Góra, shrine of the Black Madonna. There were too many things to see in a short amount of time, especially with the large crowds. We saw many beautiful altars, the shrine of the Black Madonna and a statue of Pope John Paul II. There were multiple masses going on throughout our visit with many priests and bishops in attendance. Luckily the rain held off until the end of our visit! We are waiting to commence the final leg of our journey into Krakòw. The group has a more relaxed day here in Wrocław. A "late" start for the pilgrims with a mass at 10 am with all the parish WYD pilgrims, from Canada, France and Senegal. A completely bilingual mass, said in both French and Polish may all feel welcomed and included. As it was a regular Sunday morning mass the church was absolutely PACKED both top and bottom. The mass was presided by the Bishop from Annecy. Following mass, there was a festival of song and dance given in the pilgrim's honour. The afternoon was spent with our respective host families. We had the chance to visit the city a bit more and just hang out with our wonderful families. Tomorrow will be quite a busy day as we start off with mass at 7 am. At 7:45 am we board the bus to visit the church of the Black Madonna in Częstochowa. Following our visit we will be continuing on to Kraków where we are again being warmly welcomed and hosted by families. Stay tuned for tomorrow's update. |
AuthorSHi all! Welcome to the JP2's World Youth Day Group's blog about our Pilgrimage to Krakow, Poland for the 2016 WYD! Different pilgrims will be blogging about their experiences on our pilgrimage! ArchivesCategories |