Pre-WYD Reflection

Being the Spiritual Director of the group can be quite challenging, especially given that I have never World Youth Day before and on top of that, we are talking about a group of young people coming from different walks of life and most do not know each other. How can we help them to bond better? How can we help each other to grow spiritually, to deepen our love for Jesus? Sometimes can be worst when we were being compared with other groups or leaders or even parish. Yet, such comparisons inspired us to want to do better and give our best we can for the group.

However, nothing comes by chance. I always believe that God put us together for a reason or reasons. In fact, rather than saying that I am guiding them, I had learned a lot from the young people, especially through our one-to-one session each month. Their sharings taught me about faith, trust and love for God. Their openness in sharing with me their vulnerabilities reflect the strength they received from Him. These meetings gave me opportunities to know them better and at the same time, help me to grow in my relationship with God and our Blessed Mother Mary. For the past 7 months, each day whenever possible, I would stop by Our Lady of Fatima in our parish on the way for Mass, to entrust all these young people to Her, asking Her to guide and lead them closer to Jesus. I believe she has been our guide and protection throughout our preparation and journey during WYD.

It has been an enriching year, filled with blessings and graces. Indeed, I enjoyed journeying with the young people and thank God for giving me this opportunity to be with them.