World Youth Day USA Guides International Pilgrimage Leaders Guide | Page 29

3. World Youth Day is a celebration

understood. The pilgrim leader, then, must help

in community and communion.

to direct such energy towards true celebration,
so that pilgrims themselves do not fall into the

Being in the midst of millions of young people,

temptation of seeing such a gathering as a fun

all wildly enthusiastic about their Catholic faith

overseas excursion. This is why spiritual

and their love of Christ and the Gospel, is

preparation and accompaniment is so crucial to

breathtaking and truly exciting. Throughout the

the pilgrim experience, so that the joyful

week, as one walks through the streets of the

aspects of World Youth Day are contextualized

host city, the contagious buzz of young pilgrims

in authentic happiness.

meeting each other, singing songs, praying with
one voice, and experiencing new things is quite

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, patron of young

palpable. World Youth Day is truly a

adults, once remarked: “true happiness, oh

celebration, and that energy can be felt by not

young people, does not consist in the pleasures

only the participants, but by local and

of the world, or in earthly things, but in peace

international observers, the media, and

of conscience which we only have if we are

bystanders – Catholic and non-Catholic alike.

pure of heart and mind.”31 In a note to his
sister (which Pope Benedict XVI referenced in

Massive events like this can sometimes gain a

his 2012 WYD message), Frassati commented,

reputation of being just a party, or as some

“You ask me if I am happy. How could I not

have put it, “Catholic Woodstock.” This misses

be? As long as faith gives me strength, I am

what is really going on at World Youth Day: it

happy. A Catholic could not be other than

is a celebration of faith, of being in community

happy... The goal for which we were created

and communion with fellow believers and

involves a path which has its thorns, but it is

travelers, all seeking the Lord, and perhaps

not a sad path. It is joy, even when it involves

pleasantly surprised they do not have to walk

pain.”32 Happiness at World Youth Day, then,

that path alone. All of this expresses itself in a

is about naming and finding joy in the graces

joyful energy that is hard to contain and can be

given to pilgrims – that all blessings have their

misinterpreted if left unchecked or not

origin in God.

Frassati, Pier Giorgio, “Letter to Members of the Catholic
Youth of Pollone (July 29, 1923),” qtd. in Blessed Pier Giorgio
Frassati: An Ordinary Christian by Maria Di Lorenzo. Trans.
Robert Ventresca (Boston: Pauline Books & Media, 2004), 123.

32 Frassati,

Pier Giorgio, “Letter to Luciana Frassati (February
14, 1925),” qtd. in “Message of the Holy Father on the
Occasion of the Twenty-Seventh World Youth Day” by Pope
Benedict XVI. (Vatican City: Liberia Editice Vaticana, 2012), 6.

31

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