Eleven young people from the Palmerston North Diocese experienced the trip of a lifetime when they attended World Youth Day in August this year.
Their pilgrimage took them to sacred sites around France and Portugal before attending the week-long Days in the Diocese and World Youth Day celebrations in Lisbon.
Have a read of what some of the pilgrims had to say about their travels!
Jasmine Breheny-Anderson, Palmerston North
What was your favourite place to visit on the pilgrimage?
Paris.
What was the most interesting encounter during your travels?
Meeting new people.
What was the most prayerful or spiritual moment for you?
The World Youth Day mass.
What was the most challenging aspect of the pilgrimage?
Having to keep on walking when my legs were really sore and I was exhausted.
What was the best and/or worst meal you ate?
Worst: Stuffed Calamari (I thought it was a form of stuffed sausage). Best: Soo many including sweet pastries for breakfast.
What song or piece of music sums up the pilgrimage?
The World Youth Day theme song (Há Pressa no Ar).
What item of clothing did you wear the most?
T-shirt and track pants.
What home comfort did you miss the most while you were away?
Mochaccinos.
What’s the best souvenir you brought home?
Lourdes water.
Now that you’re home, how do you think you can use this experience to make an impact on your local community?
I can help out with overnight stays and other overnight trips.
Zita Barrow, Dannevirke
What was your favourite place to visit on the pilgrimage?
Lourdes.
What was the most interesting encounter during your travels?
Meeting all the people on our pilgrimage and getting to know one another.
What was the most prayerful or spiritual moment for you?
Mass at all the different places we visited.
What was the most challenging aspect of the pilgrimage?
Moving around so much because I packed too much.
What was the best and/or worst meal you ate?
Worst was the chicken liver in Lourdes when we started eating pilgrims food.
What song or piece of music sums up the pilgrimage?
The ‘Papa Francisco’ chant and Mo Maria
What item of clothing did you wear the most?
A dress.
What home comfort did you miss the most while you were away?
Nothing!
What’s the best souvenir you brought home?
Miraculous St Anthony’s bread.
Now that you’re home, how do you think you can use this experience to make an impact on your local community?
I plan to talk to people about it.
Isaac Harris, Palmerston North
What was your favourite place to visit on the pilgrimage?
Lourdes, France. You could really feel the wairua in the place – it was a deeply spiritual experience.
What was your most interesting encounter during your travels?
Meeting and getting to know better the 120 other pilgrims from New Zealand was really cool, because it’s those relationships that are going to be the most important going into the future in terms of spreading the Good News here in Aotearoa.
What was the most prayerful or spiritual moment for you?
In Ars, where we spent a very relaxed afternoon after a busy morning exploring Lyon – we could just chill out, pray and receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation if we wanted to.
What was the most challenging aspect of the pilgrimage?
The food – I’m Coeliac (gluten free), it was challenging but I got through it!
What was the best and/or worst meal you ate?
A fellow pilgrim cried actual tears when we got to the hotel buffet in Lisbon – and I completely understand why: it was such good food (especially after what we’d had most recently to that)! Worst was probably the pâté in Lourdes.
What song or piece of music sums up the pilgrimage?
Toss up between “Há Pressa no Ar,” the official song of WYD23 and “Such a Happy Day” by the Monroes (if you know, you know).
What item of clothing did you wear the most?
Apart from my wide brimmed hat so as not to burn, probably my black NZ WYD Pilgrim t-shirt, which we got made to wear on important occasions.
What home comfort did you miss the most while you were away?
Definitely my own bed!
What’s the best souvenir you brought home?
Memories! And I don’t know if they should be called “souvenirs” necessarily, but getting rosary beads from Lourdes and Fatima blessed by the Pope was pretty cool.
Now that you’re home, how do you think you can use this experience to make an impact on your local community?
Just continuing to step up and be a witness of faith to my students and colleagues. And obviously I’m telling everyone younger than me that they should go to Korea in 2027 🙂
Flora Gao, Levin
What was your favourite place to visit on the pilgrimage?
Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Paris. A sign there shows: ‘For over 135 years, here, night and day, someone has been praying to the Lord.’
What was your most interesting encounter during your travels?
Wherever people come from and whatever their first language is, they all communicate in English.
What was the most prayerful or spiritual moment for you?
The vigil night with the Pope. I enjoyed the silence during adoration amongst over 1.5million people.
What was the most challenging aspect of the pilgrimage?
It was hard to stand people’s snoring in the beginning, but later I was too tired and couldn’t hear anything (even without earplugs)!
What was the best and/or worst meal you ate?
The best meal was in a hotel in Fatima – the baked octopus with potatoes.
What song or piece of music sums up the pilgrimage?
“Há Pressa no Ar” (“There’s a Rush in the Air”), the theme song of WYD 2023. To encourage youth people to say yes like Mary.
What item of clothing did you wear the most?
I got many free t-shirt from different communities. The one I wore the most was the WYD t-shirt from St. John. Our New Zealand green one.
What home comfort did you miss the most while you were away?
The flavour of home-cooked Chinese meals.
What’s the best souvenir you brought home?
A mini statue of Mary and Joseph, and a water bottle with Lourdes water.
Now that you’re home, how do you think you can use this experience to make an impact on your local community?
Share my experience with the parishioners. Also willing to share my time and talents with the parish, as I’ve realised there are many things I can help out with in my parish.
Rain Forest, Whanganui
What was your favourite place to visit on the pilgrimage?
Lourdes, it was the most beautiful place I’ve ever been to: both aesthetically and the atmosphere there. I felt such a sense of peace, but also a wonderful joy. I met heaps of people from around the world at Lourdes, both young and old from all walks of life, and hearing their stories about what brought them to Lourdes was a gift. The candlelit Eucharistic procession was incredible – just looking out on a sea of candles and people of all nationalities and languages singing together in worship of Jesus.
What was the most interesting encounter during your travels?
I met Paul, a young guitar player from Mexico who had come to Lourdes with a few of his friends (a piano accordion player and singers) to sing in the Eucharistic procession. He wasn’t going to World Youth Day but had dreams of going one day.
What was the most prayerful or spiritual moment for you?
I have two: Spending time in prayer at Sacré-Cœur basilica in Paris. I could’ve stayed there all day! The couple of hours we had felt like 10 minutes, I was just in the zone with Jesus.
The other is when I went to the Life Teen XLT (Exalt) worship event in Lisbon. It was so great, I got to sing my heart out and I really felt the Holy Spirit moving in that place.
What was the most challenging aspect of the pilgrimage?
Sleeping in the gym with around 250 other female pilgrims in Pampilhosa da Serra for 5 days. The lights didn’t turn off, there was no ventilation and the symphony of snores was a whole orchestra! We also weren’t allowed to swim in the river there until our last day because they didn’t have lifeguards available and it was so hot. The heat was probably the biggest challenge for me, it was very very hot which obviously affects tiredness, dehydration, feeling overwhelmed and causes headaches. I love summer but 39-42 degrees is a bit too much summer!
What was the best and/or worst meal you ate?
We had some pretty bougie meals in the hotel in Fatima, they were buffet style so I got to try lots of different Portuguese salads and main dishes. The French pastries were also delicious.
What song or piece of music sums up the pilgrimage?
Yeshua – Jesus Image. I had it stuck in my head for almost the whole pilgrimage, it was running around in there during our silent prayer in the chapels and basilicas we visited. I use it as a prayer focus and a way to slow my thoughts down and tune out distractions. I also listened to it on repeat to get to sleep. It was played at both the Life Teen XLT worship event and The Change worship event, and both times it was so powerful because people of every language could understand and sing it together with one voice.
What item of clothing did you wear the most?
My dungarees, painted especially for World Youth Day and with sewn additions to make them length-appropriate for churches in France.
What home comfort did you miss the most while you were away?
My bed, my boyfriend and my dog.
What’s the best souvenir you brought home?
A beautiful statue of Mary from Coimbra, Portugal.
Now that you’re home, how do you think you can use this experience to make an impact on your local community?
I have been sharing my experience the last few weeks at Youth Group in Whanganui: one week on Marion Apparitions and the significance of the Marion sites we visited; one of World Youth Day itself and the pope’s message; and one coming up on Suzanne Aubert and Bishop Pompallier, and the places we went in Lyon that have special significance for the Church in Aotearoa. I am also planning to have a night of sharing with the wider Parish community.