WORLD YOUTH DAY 2023

The Chardos family is back from their pilgrimage!

We received so many blessings on our trip across the Atlantic. Highlights included daily mass in beautiful cathedrals, speaking to young people from all over the world and getting to see Pope Francis in person!  We were fairly close to him when he rode through a park where he then spoke to more than 800,000 young (and not so young) pilgrims.  In his talk, he proposed a simple but profound way to start our day each morning.  He said as soon as we wake up we should say, “Lord, thank you for my life. Lord, make me love my life. Lord, you are my life.”  He said to then pray an Our Father and think about the fact that you are a beloved son or daughter of God.

It was an absolute privilege and honor to take the prayers of our church family (and prayers of our friends and family) with us to different sites.  As you can see from the photos, the 500 prayer cards (divided into four envelopes and protected by plastic) came with us to some very holy places.


We held the intentions under the miraculous water in Lourdes, France.  The site where Mary appeared to St. Bernadette was humble and peaceful and so simple.  A candlelight rosary procession was one of the top experiences the four of us had on the entire trip. Seeing the grotto in the dark is unmissable if you have the chance to go.
 
At the Shrine of Fatima, we held the intentions by the Chapel of the Apparitions, a very small building that marks the location where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to the three shepherd children.   We then entered the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima and placed the prayers before the tomb of St. Francisco Marto who died at the age of ten only two years after witnessing the apparitions.

We were blessed to be able to attend mass at The Church of St. Anthony in Lisbon Portugal.  The saint is buried in Padua, Italy but a first-class relic (a bone) lies at the church in his birthplace of Lisbon and is venerated by countless pilgrims year-round.  We walked down a very narrow set of stairs to the location of the relic and stopped to place the intentions before it. We then prayed each of the prayer cards in the main sanctuary of this church before mass.

One of our biggest lessons from the experience was that life is like a pilgrimage. Sometimes you’re hungry, tired, weak and want to give up. But just when you don’t expect it, some kind of respite comes along.  Our hardest day came when we were at an event very far from our hotel.  There was a long line for food and it was getting late in the day.  All of a sudden, a man and two college-aged boys sat down next to us in the food court where we were. They were a family from Florida!   When they found out we were from Columbus, one of the boys said he knew Ziemek!  He had recently discerned out of the seminary where Ziemek is now and was telling funny stories about playing pool with our beloved seminarian.  Our respite came in the form of a family that lives a state away who reminded us of a friend we love and miss back home.  It’s a big world, this is true.  But our Church, our Lord and our prayers for one another make us all united…even when we’re separated by an ocean.