“Father, where are you from?” a young girl from Chicago asked.

“I’m from the Philippines,” I replied.

“That’s really cool!” she exclaimed. “Can you please sign something on my World Youth Day bandana?”

“Sure,” I agreed as I took her pen. “I will not only write something, I will also give you my blessings and I will pray for your parents.”

She suddenly became speechless and I noticed how her eyes started to become watery.

“Are you alright?” I asked quite concerned.

“Yes, Father. It’s just so surprising that you should say a prayer for my folks. My mother’s sick, you know.”

“Then, I have more reasons to pray for her. What is she sick of, if I may ask?”

“She has cancer and she underwent an operation yesterday.”

“What’s her name?”

“Claudia… [SNIFFLE]”

“Listen, Lisa,” I comforted her, “will it make you happy and serene if I include her in my Mass tomorrow morning?”

“Yes, Father, very much! Thanks so much!”

* * *

I was waiting for a relative in front of Milson’s Point when a woman and her companion greeted me. “Gud evenin’, Fathe’!” Hope yu’r njoyin’ Sydney durin’ this World Youth Day!”

“Of course madam!. Thank you and God bless you!”

She stopped when I said these words and slowly walked back to where I was standing. “Father, please pray for me, because God will never forgive me.”

“But our Lord loves you, daughter of God. And there is no sin that His love cannot forgive.”

“Thank you, Fathe’! But I have so many sins and above all it’s been 20 years since I last went t’ confession.”

I smiled at her and made the sign of the Cross on her forehead. “Is there anything that God’s love cannot do?” I then reminded her.

“Yu’r right, Father. But our parish priest is new.”

“But Christ who hears your confession in the priest is always the same one who loves you and forgives you.”

“Thank yu, Fathe’! God bless yu too, Fathe’”

“God bless you,” I repeated as I traced another sign of the cross on her forehead. Then I added, “I will never cease to keep you in mind till you go to confession!”

“Thank yu, Fathe’ and I will also pray for yu alwayz.”

* * *

These are the few moments of grace among so many, that made us experience God’s proximity, through the Holy Father and the pilgrim faithful from all over the world, during the brief but intense days of the World Youth Day in Sydney.

Pictures, videos, the endless list of signatures, e-mail, YM, Facebook and Multiply addresses, etc. will not be enough to contain the transforming moments of that historic event. These will, perhaps, only suffice to bring back fleeting remembrances of those spiritually charged days. But they will never replace the spiritual novelty that every World Youth Day impresses ever stronger in the hearts and minds of every Christian.

Every World Youth Day redefines and actualizes what a pilgrimage is in the Christian’s life. Its historical notion still holds true and further reinforced: a penitential journey to some geographical point of sacred nature (e.g. Jerusalem, Turin, Lourdes, Fatima, etc.) or a holy person’s remains (e.g. St. Pio, Blessed Mother Teresa, St. Maximillan Kolbe, St. Josemaría Escrivá, etc.)

Only now, however, the difference would be in awaking the reality of a person’s daily pilgrimage towards God. World Youth Days do not only spiritually transform the places –converting these into spiritual refuges– where they are held like Colgne or Sydney. They also reveal the mission of every Christian to be a witness through his pilgrimage within his family, work, rest and social dealings.

The dichotomy or division between one’s faith and life disappears and there is but one life –a unity of life– that moves and carries the noble realities of the world towards God. Thus, converting these ordinary events, places and engagements as divine havens where God –the Father, Son and Holy Spirit– become truly present in the midst of the world.

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