The following is a repost I wrote for the St. Joe Youth Pilgrimage blog. Please feel free to watch that blog as well as this one. Other pilgrims will be posting on the St. Joe’s site!
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Vacation: A time to hope on a plan (or car or train…or whatever mode of transportation you fancy) kick back, disconnect and relax from the typical stresses of daily life
Pilgrimage: A time to dedicate towards journeying to a sacred place with the purpose of growing closer to God
By these definitions, the millions of believers who will be travelling to World Youth Day will not be taking a vacation. Rather, they will reach the culmination of a pilgrimage.
Our group leader, Aaron Pohlen, made it clear from the beginning that while we don’t board plan for another four days, our pilgrimage began when we said “yes” to God’s invitation to meet him in Krakow for World Youth Day 2016.
With that in mind members of our group have been meeting on Saturday mornings to hike Badger Mountain. Sometimes there were two of us; other times there were 7 of us. No matter our number, we felt the Spirit among with each step as we challenged one another and shared our excitement and concerns.
On this mountain, we grew closer to God because we grew closer to one another. This group of strangers got a chance to recognize that no matter where we went (whether we took the short steep path or the long windy path), God was with us and God was before us, standing on the top of the mountain, ready to greet us with open arms.
This is what we hope to see on an even grander scale…travelling halfway around the world to meet not only millions of other Catholics but a loving and merciful God who has accompanied us from the beginning even when we didn’t realize it.
This journey, without a doubt, is a journey of trust. We trust each other. We trust those we have yet to meet. Above all, we trust God, that the fruit that will come from this trip will far outweigh the struggles. We trust that among the little frustrations, amid the rocky roads, we will find opportunities to lift each other up and allow ourselves to be uplifted as well. We trust that there will be peace and that this experience will teach us how to be greater witnesses to a God who loves us so much that he would rather die than be without us.
Just as this journey began way before we even got onto a plane, it will continue long after we return our homes. After all, aren’t we all on a pilgrimage until the day we see God face to face?
Roamin' Catholic 