Pilgrimage

Many people say human life is a journey. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in explaining the purpose  of this journey,  quotes Saint Ignatius of Loyola.

“God freely created us so that we might know, love, and serve him in this life and be happy with him forever” the saint said.

“God’s purpose in creating us is to draw forth from us a response of love and service here on earth, so that we may attain our goal of everlasting happiness with him in heaven.”

Cebu Archbishop Emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal of Cebu recently  deigned to provide the youth of the archdiocese with written  counsel for their spiritual journey.

This Saturday, Aug. 27, the cardinal  will launch his fourth book at a benefit dinner in the Cebu Grand Convention Center.  Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma will grace the affair, Msgr. Arturo Navales, archdiocesan Commission on Youth chairman told me.

Titled “You’re still young, I’m old: A conversation with the youth of Cebu,” the book features dialogues between the cardinal and the Cebuano youth in Local World Youth Day celebrations that he led as archbishop.

Those  conversations covered a wide range of topics like  spirituality to sexuality, entertainment to environment, fraternities to responsible media consumption.

A ticket to the 7 p.m. dinner costs P1,000 apiece inclusive of P250 for the book. Proceeds will fund  the cardinal and monsignor’s brainchild—the construction of the  archdiocese youth center.

Workers build the two-story center along Urdaneta Street just behind the Cathedral Museum. Monsignor Navales told me that in the upper story, trainers will teach mainly out-of school-youth   means of livelihood like bar tending, baking, tour guiding, housekeeping  and associated skills like using the English language.

The ground floor, meanwhile, will house the Blessed Sacrament, as Cardinal Vidal stipulated. There,  young people can  pray and encounter Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of Reconciliation so that they will stay strong in spirit in their journey. Arrangements are underway for priests to regularly offer confession in the center.

The center is a labor of love, the monsignor said. Youth volunteers partly funded the building by collecting and selling used plastic bottles and old newspapers to buyers of recyclables, holding rummage sales and placing coin banks for donations in some parishes and Catholic schools.

Ma. Teresa Singco, a young lady who works with the youth commission, said volunteers went as far as Argao town, southeast Cebu to collect recyclables, or lingered after playing badminton at the Cebu City Sports Center to gather throwaway bottles for sale.

It’s great to see young people giving themselves to a cause greater than self as they grow. It would be great if more of the once-young contribute to the youth center project.

Monsignor Navales delegated leadership of the archdiocese’s delegation to the the XXVI World Youth Day in Madrid, Spain to his assistant, Fr. Kit Sestoso, largely to see the youth center project through.

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Some friends of mine are in Spain  to represent the Verbum Dei Missionary Family  in the World Youth Day.

I’m glad God blessed them with  this opportunity  to see the vibrance and universality of the Church. The World Youth Day tells young people that living the Christian  faith is neither a  go it alone or senior citizens only affair.

Reports characterizing the event  as a big party or  jamboree are utterly misleading. The  gathering of millions of young Catholics is essentially a pilgrimage; “a journey,” in the words of the Catholic Encyclopedia, “made to some place with the purpose of venerating it, or in order to ask there for supernatural aid, or to discharge some religious obligation.”

Organizers led by the Pontifical Council for the Laity took from a letter of Saint Paul the event’s theme: “Planted and built up in Jesus Christ, firm in the faith.” (Colossians 2:7)

Young pilgrims in Madrid have so far participated in, among other things, catechesis led by bishops, the praying of the Via Crucis or Way of the Cross with His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI  and  the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

The pope yesterday heard the confessions of four young pilgrims in one of hundreds of temporary confessionals set up in Madrid’s Retiro park, says a  British Broadcasting Corp. report.

In his Via Crucis message last Friday, the pope urged pilgrims “not to pass by on the other side in the face of human suffering, for it is here that God expects you to give of your very best: your capacity for love and compassion.”

That’s pithy inspiration for us all to journey well in this world.

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For more information on helping build the archdiocese youth center, call Monsignor Navales at +63922 2842050.