"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses"World Youth Day Motto for 2008  This year Maria Stacey, James Marron and Patrick Leonard will be travelling to World Youth Day (WYD08) as part of the Dublin Diocese Group in July.
World Youth is the brain child of Pope John Paul II. He recognised the importance of having a strong core of young people at the heart of the Church and with that in mind he wanted to come up with a way for the young Christians of the world to come together and celebrate their faith. The first of these events was held in 1987 in Buenos Aires in Argentina and since then has visited Spain, Poland, America, the Philippines, France, Italy, Canada and Germany. This year, three young people from our parish will be travelling to Melbourne for days in the diocese, before continuing on to Sydney from the 15th to the 20th of July. Through the WYD08 experience, young people from throughout the world will make a pilgrimage in faith, meet, and experience the love of God. Young people from all over the world will have an opportunity to share their faith with one another and to reaffirm their belief in their Catholic religion in today’s modern world. World youth Day has three main objectives:- Gathering together young people
- Placing trust in the young
- Meeting the international world on a human level
St Mochta's representatives are now in the middle of a six month preparation programme for WYD, which entails preparatory meetings with other pilgrims of the Diocese. These meetings are designed to prepare them spiritually and mentally for the opportunity ahead of them. One thing that has been emphasised in these meetings is to expect the unexpected, in both what we see, and to whom we speak. As an experience, WYD has enormous potential for young people and our cultural and spiritual development. It is a rare chance to meet so many people of a similar age group in one place, at one time under the banner of religious celebration. It is also a chance for our young people to meet some of the senior bishops in the Church in daily meetings and to talk them about religion and share both their experiences. Maria, James and Patrick will bring this experience back to our parish and share what they have learned. As representatives they believe this will be particularly invaluable when it comes to Faith Friends and the youth of the parish seeing them active in their faith in everything they do in life. |
