Hope, and letting our hearts rest in God

This morning, we went to the Vivo Rio Centre, where Cardinal Timothy Dolan gave the catechetical session on hope.

He opened by telling us of a 26 year old lady who attended WYD in Toronto in 2002. Her life had not only been transformed through WYD, it had been saved by WYD! She got into drugs and took to the streets and fell into prostitution. Many men told her they loved her for $50 for her prostitution services, but she had never been told by a man that she was loved until she met Blessed John Paul II. And he not only told her that he loved her, but that God loves her! She was tempted to overdose on drugs and end it all, but that changed through going to WYD!

Like this lady, our souls are restless and are constantly searching for God. Have you ever worked with people with cancer? There, you will see hope. You will see people smiling with their friends and family, always looking to something.

St. Augustine put it very well, said Cardinal Dolan, when he said: "We come to you, oh God, and our hearts are restless until they return to you for all eternity."

The greatest temptation in life is that something or someone else can completely satisfy us, but they can't. Only  God will never let us down. Cardinal Dolan believes that's why God made this the first commandment. When we worship idols and false gods, we brake the first commandment.

There are four threats, or enemies, to hope:

1. Ourselves - We are aware of our sins, our imperfections, our failures. That can damage our hope. Recovering alcoholics and drug addicts can only overcome their addictions when they put their hope in someone else. They need to learn to accept and forgive themselves for the mistakes they make.

2. Other people - Our family, our friends, and the people in the Church let us down   . It renews in us the profession of faith that our hope is in God and Him alone.

3. The world around us - The bad news in the world, including the poverty and violence.

4. Time - God takes His time and we're impatient people, especially when we pray! We like a microwave, but God uses a crock pot and food from a crock pot tastes better! God's will always triumphs, even when it takes time. Very often, God only fulfills our hope in eternity in heaven. 

There are some things in this life, like tragedies, which will only be answered in the next. Cardinal Dolan  told us about a woman, a doctor who travelled to French   Guyana with her husband and kids and her son died from drinking the water! That tragedy ended her marriage with her husband. Then, her seven year old daughter died from a brain tumour, even though Cardinal Dolan and others were praying for her healing. After she had passed away, Cardinal Dolan got in prayer that the girl is being held and rocked in God's arms for all eternity.

The session was followed by a question and answer period, and then followed by Mass. Some of us also went to Confession before Cardinal Dolan spoke.

Adoration eucharistique et périples

Hier fut une journée très pleine! Il y avait la messe le matin, le spectacle Brésilien en après-midi puis nous avions sorti nos bagages de l'hôtel vers 17h et nous avons mené l'adoration eucharistique à la basilique à Aparecida à 18h! 

Le bus est seulement arrivé à 18h30, donc Michael et moi avions resté avec les bagages et nous nous sommes joint au groupe à la basilique vers 18h45. Imaginez qu'il fallait montrer nos passeports au chauffeur pour mettre nos bagages dans le bus! Bonne chose qu'un des employés de l'hôtel pouvait expliquer que la plupart des membres de notre groupe étaient parti à la basilique, donc certains d'entre nous ne devaient pas montrer leurs passeports... Chanceux!

Ensuite, nous avions soupé à la basilique et nous sommes allés au centre d'événements pour la clôture.

Nous avions quitté Aparecida à 1h ce matin et sommes arrivé à Rio à 6h, ensuite il fallait attendre une demi heure pour le taxi pour une autre heure de trajet pour nous rendre à notre hôtel! La plupart d'entre nous sommes très fatigués et je ne me sens pas très bien... Veuillez garder notre santé et notre sécurité dans vos prières. Nous continuons de prier pour vous!

An international festival at the centre of events

Last night, WYD pilgrims from Brazil and different Brazilian states, from Australia, Venezuela, Peru, Uruguay, Mexico, Paraguay, South Africa, Swaziland, Poland, Italy, U.S.A., and Canada, among others, participated in the international festival that was held at the centre of events in Aparecida. The dances and songs were very well done! Below are some of the photos taken last night.

Tonight, we are leaving Aparecida for Rio de Janeiro in the middle of the night and should arrive in Rio at 4 am, but it might be an hour or more later as things only actually start at least an hour later than scheduled here.

These are some photos from the international festival :

Deux messes et un film sur la vie de Saint Eugène de Mazenod en portugais

Hier soir à 18h, nous avons célébré la messe à la basilique à Aparecida. Ensuite, nous avons souper ensemble à l'hôtel et nous sommes allés au centre d'événements pour voir un film sur la vie de Saint Eugène de Mazenod. Avant le film, Zacharie Thompson a cherché des copies du DVD pour le Canada.

La messe de ce matin a duré trois heures et Mgr Daniel Berniquez a concélébré. La messe a eu lieu au centre d'événements car la basilique était beaucoup tro pleine pour accueillir les pèlerins. Les stationnement était plein avec des autobus et des voitures. Le supérieur des Oblats a donné son homélie en portugais, français, espagnol et en anglais. 

Dans son homélie, il nous a parlé de la croix dans le sanctuaire de la basilique. De la croix nait les vocations par l'eau vivante du Saint-Esprit. On voit la silouette du coeur du Christ dans la croix. Pendant nos journées en mission  avec la communauté Oblate, nous célébrons les jeunes qui sont des missionaires et nous célébrons aujourd'hui la famille Oblate et sa mission envers les jeunes. Le coeur qui embrace le monde et le coeur qui embrace les pauvres est le coeur que nous devons avoir pour continuer dans cet amour missionaire pour annoncer la Bonne Nouvelle. Nous célébrons la jeunesse et le charisme missionaire. Saint Eugène a eu un coeur à coeur avec Jésus. Son coeur avait soif de Jésus et était rempli d'amour pour le monde pour sa famille missionaire.

Voici des photos prises ce matin :

Stations of the Cross Brazilian style and a tour of Aparecida

Last night, at the centre of events, the Brazilian volunteers organized and acted out the Stations of the Cross in Portuguese, Spanish, French, and English, among other languages. They connected the youth's sufferings from around the world to Christ's sufferings. It was beautifully done!

This morning, we toured Aparecida and had the chance to light 2 m high candles! It was an experience we will never forget. We also visited the old basilica and crossed the long and high blue bridge to get there by foot.

These are some photos from last night and this morning:

La messe à la basilique et la catéchèse ce matin à Aparecida

Ce matin, nous sommes allés au Santuário nacional pour la messe et ensuite au Centro de eventos pour des chants et la catéchèse. On nous a dit que rencontrer l'amour de Dieu est le charisme des Oblats, et ce fut le centre de la catéchèse d'aujourd'hui. Nous sommes tous appelés à évangéliser les pauvres, les sans-abris et les personnes abandonnées. Les Oblats font beaucoup pour aider les pauvres. Notre approche aux pauvres, comme Chrétiens, doit venir de Dieu qui nous a touché. Jésus n'est pas venu pour condamner le monde, mais pour le sauver. Nous avons besoin d'avoir un coeur nouveau, transformé par le Christ. L'amour de Dieu nous transforme et nous motive pour partager l'amour de Dieu que nous connaissons de manière personnelle avec les pauvres.

Des photos prises aujourd'hui:

After 29 hours of waiting at airports, taking two planes and riding a bus, we have finally arrived in Aparecida!

We met at the Ottawa international airport at 5 pm yesterday evening, where Archbishop Prendergast saw us off and blessed us. We definitely needed a blessing to get us through this long journey to Aparecida, which took a total of 29 hours! We arrived at our hotel at 10 pm tonight. Our flight from Toronto to Sao Paulo was delayed by approximately 3 hours, so we waited in Toronto for a total of 5 hours, and finally left the Pearson airport at 3 am. Then, when we arrived in Sao Paulo at 1:48 pm, we had to wait for a bus organized by the Oblates to bring our group of nine to Aparecida, and we finally left that airport at 8 pm, and arrived in Aparecida two hours later. We were supposed to arrive here at 2 pm today.

We are blessed to have pilgrims in our group who manage fairly well in Spanish, including Jonathan who is fluent in Spanish, as none of us speak Portuguese and we have been using as much Spanish as possible to get by, and Msgr. Daniel even said he spoke Latin with the Oblate priest as that seemed to be their only common language. I have personally been practising my Spanish to order food at the airport in Sao Paulo, to help Erin purchase a bottle of water at the airport, to speak with the Oblate priest and seminarians who organized our bus transportation, and with a cleaning lady at the hotel as I was having trouble accessing the Internet. All of these were necessities and we couldn't have managed without them.

We will try to catch up on sleep tonight and the next few nights. We have an early morning tomorrow with breakfast at 7 am and Mass at 9 am.