The guides and young people from Prayer & Life Workshop who have attended these WYD in Lisbon want to convey with great joy what they have lived and experienced these days in Lisbon.
With the message of our beloved Pope Francis, we reaffirm the certainty of the Father’s love, who loves us only because we are his children, without a why or for what…says one of the young people.
They also share this message written by a father who, together with his son, attended this world youth day;
“Dear young people, and when I say young I don’t mean physical age, but spiritual age. Every person in the TOV group that was involved in WYD 2023 became young during this long process. WYD was not only those who were physically in Lisbon, Fátima, Borba, Évora, etc. But all those who put their effort, dedication, enthusiasm, sleeplessness, time, money, looking for suppliers, checking flights, organizing virtual meetings, putting together teams. They prayerfully supported this project, before, during and after, they are also part of WYD.
Today that everyone returns to their place of origin and to their daily routine, they feel a nostalgia, a lump in their throat for leaving the friends they have created; we arrive as strangers and we leave as brothers in Christ. We will miss the sleepless nights, the discomfort, the screams, the overflowing energy that goosebumps the skin of thousands of young people united in the same place.
From now on, each one will be responsible for keeping this flame burning. WYD does not end, but begins with a new personal life plan, asking what is next for me? Where do I plan to take my spiritual life? Will I keep getting stronger, or will I let that flame that shines bright today grow small and after a while be just a memory?
Will I be the seed planted on solid ground that bears fruit, or will I be the one that fell on the rock and when it grew and dried up? Now you will return to your reality, thank the Father for having chosen you, as the Pope said -You are not here by chance, Jesus calls you by name-”
Let us continue to ask in prayer for the fruits that he left in the young people and in the Guides that accompanied them.
Here we share photographs and a video that they made these days at WYD
