Oblate News

How was your experience of the Lisbon World Youth Day?

By Paige and Bekah

When asked how our experience of the Lisbon World Youth Day was, in short we would say;

Encouraging, inspirational, overwhelming at times, but that it set a better foundation in faith for ourselves.

Picture this, it’s Saturday and the evening is drawing in, bringing with it a well welcomed breeze. The day had reached an outrageous 37 degrees (but not as outrageous as the next day which topped 40 degrees) in which we walked several hours in the midday sun.
Around us, nearly 1.5 million people lie, sit or stand in anticipation for The Pope’s final messages to us. People chant “Esta es la juventud del Papa!” – Spanish for “This is the Pope’s Youth!”, and the WYD theme song is played almost a little bit too much.

Throughout this week, The Pope has brought inspirational messages of openness, a refreshing call to faith that is based on inclusivity and compassion for all, especially those who have been marginalised and those who historically have not felt welcomed by or found a home in the church. This is beautifully illustrated when in The Pope’s opening speech, he said “En la Iglesia hay espacio para todos” – “There is room for everyone in the church”, and we all repeated after him “todos todos todos”, “everyone everyone everyone”.

It was clear that this compassion and inclusivity should be the only possible outcome of truly following the joy and love that Jesus spoke of throughout his preaching and that our church is based upon. Crucial to all of this, is of course, friendships and social bonds. This week was an incredible coming together of cultures and backgrounds, from all over the world, gathered as one faith community. The relationships with those around us enriched our experience and knowledge through conversation, prayer and song, and was often an important addition to the teachings of various bishops and priests, that sometimes needed greater discussion and the chance to share our own opinions and outlooks.

The Pope spoke to us about God’s call for us to renew the faith in the church and how this can’t just happen inside the four walls of a church, but by truly living out what it means to be followers of Christ; as one Bishop said last week, “We must be the Gospel on two legs”. A faith community is not an insular existence, but rather an active and loving one, working towards social justice enacted within our local communities and beyond.

How do we turn the enthusiasm and energy we gained from being part of such a lively and energised space where everyone was so joyful about their faith into actively living out the message of Jesus in our own communities?
How can we bring healing and renewal into our churches that for a long time, have been struggling with numbers? We hope that the enthusiasm and inspiration we gained from our trip, will help us make a positive contribution to the challenges that we face together as members of the island catholic community.
We are very thankful for the financial support from the OMI Anglo-Irish province who helped make this trip possible for all of us.