This past week was rich and intense for the hundreds of thousands of young people gathered in Rome from July 28 to August 3, responding to the Pope’s invitation! I had the joy of accompanying a hundred young people from the Diocese of Bordeaux and of living this beautiful experience of Church with them.
I believe we were able to taste together the joy of a universal fraternity, with Christians from all over the world filling the streets of Rome… praying together in St. Peter’s Square or at the great vigil with the Pope at Tor Vergata, but also waiting together in queues or at traffic lights: so many opportunities to meet one another in joyful fraternity!
We were also immersed in the heart of the Church, discovering the city of Rome together, praying with the Apostles, Saints Peter and Paul, and crossing the Holy Doors at the Basilica of St. John Lateran. Indeed, we experienced the Jubilee pilgrimage together: by passing through the Holy Door, choosing once again to enter through the only Door who is Christ, allowing ourselves to be transformed, and proclaiming our faith with the Apostles’ Creed and with the whole Church. In a profound silence we lived this gesture, letting ourselves be transformed by the Lord… and this continued with the sacrament of Reconciliation, received by thousands of young people at the Circus Maximus on Friday. We also visited the other major basilicas: St. Peter’s, St. Paul Outside the Walls, and St. Mary Major, with their majestic works of art, which led us to wonder and prayer.
The vigil and the Eucharist celebrated with the Pope, gathering more than one million young people from all over the world, were also powerful and unique moments. We were able to meet our new Pope and let ourselves be touched and challenged by his words. Welcoming our enthusiasm and our songs, he reminded us that those cries of acclamation were all directed to Jesus Christ, and he invited us to be signs of hope for the whole world. Sharing with us the experience of St. Augustine, he encouraged us to encounter the inner Master and to live deep friendships in Christ. Finally, and this was perhaps the very heart of that beautiful weekend, we prayed together, celebrated the Eucharist… before the Blessed Sacrament, one million young people knelt with the Pope, adoring God, present in the Eucharist, so small and so great! This people gathered, from every nation, here is the Body of Christ, here is the Church! Silence filled the plain, and the Lord came to dwell in our hearts; we return rich in all the graces received!
With all this, we set out again towards our countries and regions, with flags of a thousand colors still waving in the Roman sky, and our hearts filled with all these encounters lived with the Lord and with our brothers and sisters from all over the world!