Kracking on to Krakow (World Youth Day Part IV)

After arriving in Krakow on Monday evening and trying pierogi for the first time (delicious - who knew?  Well... other than all Polish people), it was time to settle in for World Youth Day proper.

Tuesday
The first big event, held on the Tuesday evening, was the Opening Mass.  We had a beautiful morning, but then a bit of a disaster getting there.  We had someone in our group who had difficulty walking, so got public transport as close as possible.  Turned out this was still a good half an hour away... To make matters worse, on the way it started pouring with rain, so out came our fetching ponchos thoughtfully provided in the pilgrim packs.

The ever so delightful ponchos... Photo WYM

When we arrived at Błonia Park we discovered we were on the complete opposite side to where we should be.   Not so helpful... So we asked around and were directed back to a different entrance where someone might be able to help, and help they did!  We ended up being taken through the park by a couple of girl scouts, and led to the right zone, where we were able to meet up with the rest of our party as we waited for Mass to begin in the pouring rain.

Then something miraculous happened.  As Mass began, the rain stopped.  It went from torrential rain to bright blue skies!  Oh, and Mass was in Latin. FYI, Latin Novus Ordo is my favourite, particularly when combined with music as beautiful as we were treated to in Błonia Park.  I think God must agree with me, because during Mass we ended up with a heaven meeting earth moment!

A trapdoor to heaven? Photo mine

Getting home afterwards was less than fun, but you don't need the details. To summarise, we had some absolutely amazing people on our pilgrimage, including a talented Polish speaker, not enough places accepted the meal vouchers, and myself and a good friend ended up getting a meal from the traditional Polish restaurant of Burger King where we were served by a lovely gentleman who was delighted to be able to use the English he'd learnt while living in the UK for a few years.  Also turns out taxis are super cheap in Poland, just like everything else.

Wednesday
Wednesday morning saw us heading to the JPII basilica and the Divine Mercy Sanctuary for the pilgrimage of mercy. The JPII basilica contained two relics of Pope Saint John Paul II (is it Pope Saint or Saint Pope? - I can never remember!).  A vial of his blood, and the cassock he was wearing during his attempted assassination in 1981.  Having passed through and asked for his intercessions, we headed outside into the glorious sunshine.  I say glorious, too hot may have been more accurate... We followed behind the trail of pilgrims making their way along the way of mercy to the Divine Mercy Sanctuary.  The walk itself wasn't particularly long, but as a few of us said the Divine Mercy Chaplet along the way, and I did it barefoot, it was very moving.  At the end of the walk was the opportunity to walk through the Holy Door. Never have I been so glad to have been to confession recently.

The Divine Mercy Sanctuary and Holy Door. Photo WYM

We spent a beautiful afternoon sitting in the main square of Krakow, confusing the waitress by asking for tap water, eating more pierogi, obvs and people watching.  The joy and love all around was absolutely incredible!

The main square in Krakow. Photo WYM

We headed back up to our accommodation in time to have a short nap before going to the church of Jesus, The Good Shepherd where we celebrated Mass with the Cardinal. It was again a lovely Mass, and particularly special as the chasuble worn by the Cardinal had been worn by Cardinal Wojtyła (who you may know better as Pope John Paul II...) for the consecration of the Mass. Coming only a day after the tragic martyrdom of Fr Jacques Hamel, he devoted a large part of his homily to reflecting on this sad event and St Paul's words, where he encourages us to have a greater understanding of the depths of the mystery of Christ. Full transcript can be found here.  Well worth a read! I think our attempt to sing Abba Ojcze may haunt me for a while though...

The Cardinal being welcomed by locals of the Parish. Photo WYM

Thursday
Having missed it the day before due being up at the Divine Mercy Sanctuary, it was nice to be able to head to our catechises session where we were treated to a talk from Tonga's first cardinal Cardinal, Soane Patita Paini Mafi.  Coming two days after the martyrdom of Fr Jacques Hamel, the mention of the fact that the blood of the martyrs is the seeds of our faith, and this is what makes our faith bloom was very touching and what many gathered there needed to hear. This was particularly so when he followed this with a reminder that there are many types of martyrs, not just from the blood we shed.

Did I forget to mention? Catechises was held in a circus tent... Photo WYM

Far more exciting though, was the fact that Thursday was the day Papa Frankie was coming.  Hooray! As our catechises session was held fairly near Błonia Park, we decided not to venture too far away, so we found lunch nearby and then sat in a little café just outside, and then slowly meandered towards our section.  The pope was still a long way away, so there was no rush.  As the weather took a turn for the worse again, once more out came the beautiful ponchos.  While we were waiting I decided to make a quick trip to the loo (not the most pleasant experience as they were longdrop portaloos...) sure that I'd make it back before the Pope drove past.  I came back aaaaand had just missed him.  Missed him by seconds!  On the other hand, I was so far back, and not being the tallest would probably not have seen him anyway, so I don't feel like I missed too much.

This wasn't a day when the weather cleared up, but that's okay, because the pope was there!

#grumpypope? Photo mine.

His address can be found in full here, but the point that struck me enough to make a note on my phone was this: He sees our frantic running about like Martha, and waits for us to sit and listen like Mary.

I know that this is something I am often guilty of. My life can be so busy that I don't have (or make) time to just sit and be with the Lord. It's amazing how easily even seemingly free time can be taken up with netflix or facebook or blogs... So one thing I'm attempting to do (although not so successfully so far) is take more time to just be. But you know what, as I heard somewhere else (although I don't seem to have written down where, so if anyone remembers who said it/where it was said, please let me know!) the important thing is not to not fall down, but to get back up again once we have fallen down.

But now this post is plenty long enough, so if you've made it to the end well done!  Coming up next, the prayer vigil and final Mass!

So what now...? (World Youth Day Part I)

If you've been paying attention, you'll have spotted that one of the newly ticked off items on my 30 before 30 was World Youth Day.

If you're looking at this blog, I guess it's likely that you know what World Youth Day is, but in case anyone's glancing this way without that knowledge, the basic gist is this.  World youth day is a huge gathering of Catholic young people (which for the Church is 18-35), which has been held every 2-3 years since 1987. You get people attending from all over the world. Part of the draw of the whole thing is that the Pope goes and leads the final Mass. Now when I say this is a huge gathering, I really do mean it! At the final vigil/Mass with Papa Frankie, an estimated 1.5-2 million people attended. To put that into some kind of context, Glastonbury tends to have around 150,000 - 200,000 people.

Yep, that's right.

I'll just let that number of people sink in for a minute.

Given how well the media reports on the event, particularly in the UK, you'd be forgiven for not realising what a big deal it is. Being at home during the previous one, held in Rio in 2013, I found it really interesting how the media would report on some of the things Papa Frankie was up to, without actually mentioning the reason for him being there, and from what I can see, the same thing happened with Kraków.  One fantastic example of this was this article, reporting on the tragic martyrdom of Fr Jaques Hamel where the quote from the Bishop of Rouen was taken while he was at "a Catholic gathering in Poland". To be fair to the BBC though, they did also publish some video diaries from a few of our pilgrims.

Being surrounded by that number of young people who all have the same passion for God that you do can be incredibly intoxicating. Right around now, all over the world, young pilgrims will be feeling the WYD come down. This is the key moment for them. For a large number of those 2 million people, this will be a life changing experience. Some will have found their vocations - whether to religious life, the priesthood, or marriage. Others will still be searching, but will have discovered what their next step should be. There will have been some there who have been struggling with their faith, for whom this will have been a call back into the embrace of the church. Some pilgrims will have been to confession for the first time in years, some will have found a new devotion to a particular Saint or saints, and for some this may have been their first experience of the universal nature of the Church.  There will be others for whom this will not feel like a massively life-changing event, but simply another step on their faith journey.

No one can attend a World Youth Day and return unchanged. The important thing now is to keep hold of that change.  It is so easy to love your God, your faith and your Church when you're in that high place. Now is the time to bring that love and joy back and share it with the rest of the world.

As Papa Frankie said in his final homily, what Jesus desires is for us, like Zaccheus, to "Come down, for I must stay at your house today" (Luke 19:5). (If you've not read his homily, go do it. It's challenging and comforting in equal parts, as all good homilies should be! It can be found here.

In today's world, we have a terrible tendency to be Sunday Catholics. We compartmentalise. We say "God, I'm all yours.

...On a Sunday... During Mass."

And  then ignore Him the rest of the time. This is always the danger when it comes to events like World Yourh Day, that's these all consuming, super intense events will be just another Sunday, and we'll go back to our everyday life just as before. Zaccheus was forever changed by his encounter with Jesus, and so too must we be.

I'll write another post soon with more content on what we actually got up to at world youth day, but for now, I'd like to recommend a temporary fix for the WYD comedown... Youth2000 do fantastic retreats, and the big one is coming up - in Walsingham over the bank holiday weekend.

More details can be found at Youth2000's website