The Jubilee for Youth—held in Rome from July 28 to August 3—was a wonderful experience of prayer, witness, and mission for the Church, but also for the Pauline Family. Sister Bethany and I represented the Daughters of St. Paul from the United States, and we were just two of the 62 members of the Pauline Family from all over the world who made up the Pauline Jubilee Team: 15 priests and brothers of the Society of St. Paul, 10 Sisters from the Daughters of St. Paul, 5 Sister Disciples of the Divine Master, 7 Sisters of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, 4 Sisters of Mary, Queen of Apostles, as well as members of our lay institutes: 4 Annunciationists, 3 Gabrielites, 2 couples of the Holy Family Institute, plus 1 Cooperator and 11 young people. Between us, we spoke at least 11 languages, which allowed us many beautiful and fruitful conversations throughout the week with pilgrims from all over the world!
The Pauline Jubilee Team welcomed large groups of pilgrims from around the world at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls for four days. (Fun fact: According to tradition, the Basilica lies on the site where the Apostle Paul was buried. Image via Wikimedia Commons.)
Over a million young people attended the Jubilee of Youth! Confessions were available almost all day at 200 stations at Circus Maximus on Friday, August 1, the Youth Jubilee Day of Penance. To give you an idea of how many young people came through the Circus Maximus that day, the YouCat Foundation distributed 10,000 copies of YouCat Confession.
On Saturday, we made the pilgrimage to Tor Vergata, on the outskirts of Rome, for the prayer vigil and Sunday Mass. Volunteers handed us snacks, juice, and bottled water along the way, and the residents cheered us on. The crowds spent the night at Tor Vergata.
Imagine a million young people kneeling in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament in a quiet, open field at night! You could feel the Jubilee grace. I experienced a deep sense of communion and belonging to the Universal Church during the Jubilee of Youth Pilgrimage. Seeing different flags, hearing many languages spoken, and watching performances from various countries reminded me that the Faith is alive.
Through the pilgrims, I witnessed God at work in many ways and parts of the world. Lively groups of young people would stop by our camping area to converse, trade souvenirs, ask for a signature, and sometimes, request prayers. Their joy and openness struck me. I remember a group from Spain approaching me for prayers for their catechetical ministry and outreach. Their dedication to encourage other young people in the faith was inspiring. As they shared, I realized I would probably not see them or most of the million pilgrims again.
At 7:20 p.m., a roar swept through the crowd the moment we caught sight of the helicopter bringing Pope Leo. The Holy Father stepped from the helicopter and let the young people’s excitement wash over him as he rode slowly through the esplanade in the popemobile.
The vigil opened with three young people asking the Pope questions about friendship, the courage to choose, and the call to do good. The response that has stayed with me was this:
“Do you truly want to encounter the Risen Lord?” the Holy Father asked. “Listen to his word, which is the Gospel of salvation! Seek justice, renewing your way of life, to build a more humane world! Serve the poor, bearing witness to the good we always desire to receive from our neighbor! Remain united with Jesus in the Eucharist. Adore the Eucharist, the source of eternal life! Study, work, and love in the manner of Jesus, the good Teacher who always walks beside us.”
During the event, Pope Leo referred to the shining examples of soon-to-be-canonized Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis. As night descended, he led one million young pilgrims in a prayer vigil woven with hymns, Scripture, and silent Eucharistic Adoration. “Each time we adore Christ in the Eucharist, our hearts will be united in him,” the Pontiff told the pilgrims. He encouraged us to say to Jesus: “Stay with us, because without you we cannot do the good we desire.”
On Sunday morning the Pope once again joined us to celebrate Mass. His homily to the young people was so powerful:
“Dear friends, we are not made for a life where everything is taken for granted and fixed, but for an existence that is constantly regenerated in giving, in love. And so we continually aspire to something more that no created reality can give us, we feel a great and burning thirst, so great that no drink of this world can quench it. Faced with this thirst, let us not deceive our hearts by trying to quench it with ineffective substitutes! Let us listen to it, instead! It is beautiful, even at 20 years of age, to open our hearts wide to him, to allow him to enter, and then to venture forth with him, toward the eternal spaces of infinity.”
During the pilgrimage, I had several brief encounters with people. These were precious opportunities to catch and share the fire of faith and hope. We did not know each other, but in a way, we did. We were fellow pilgrims, brothers and sisters in Christ. I now appreciate in a new way our family of faith, an inheritance as baptized Christians. I believe this experience, these faces, and voices will prompt more earnest prayers for the Church, families, youth, vocations, the suffering, calamity victims, and world peace. Right after the Mass, as I looked at the sea of pilgrims, all I could say to the sister next to me was, “Imagine heaven!” Yes, heaven. That’s what the beautiful experience of the Jubilee of Youth Pilgrimage put before me through prayer, communion, and journey.
Featured Image by Matteo Cavallone via Cathopic; images of Saint Paul Outside the Walls via Wikimedia, public domain; image of Pope Leo by Nicolás Núñez LC via Cathopic; all other images from Sr. Neville Christine, FSP.