World Youth Day USA Guides Stateside Pilgrimage Leaders Guide | Page 67

carried with them since their World Youth



Provide an opportunity for each group to

Day experience and how they plan to share

share their experiences to the other group

that with the rest of your community. Having

(and possibly with those who did not

them work together on a presentation project,

experience World Youth Day at all).

or putting all the pictures together for a slide
show can be a fun way to get them to recap



Also consider how the event is, above all,

the experience but also begin to develop

an opportunity to celebrate and rejoice in

some tools for talking about it with others.

the Lord’s goodness and mercy, to pray

This also amplifies the stateside experience

together, and to recommit the community

and reminds participants that their pilgrimage

to a more intense life of missionary

continues onward.

discipleship and attention to the young
Church that gathered for the Jubilee.

The Sharing Experience


There are a variety of ways for sharing among

Because of social media and technology,

stateside and international pilgrims of World

the sharing can begin right away. People

Youth Day. This will take some planning and

will be putting pictures or quotes on

work on the leader’s part, but this sharing is

Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram during

necessary and can be very fruitful if done well.

the World Youth Day experience itself.

Some things to keep in mind:

Use these social media tools to engage in
meaningful dialogue by giving pilgrims



Timing is key. For most stateside pilgrims,

question to respond to on a regular basis,

they will wrap up and head home

or develop a social media community

immediately following the experience.

(Facebook group, etc.) for both groups –

International pilgrims may have a

so that they both see each other as fellow

schedule that has them visiting additional

pilgrims in the social media landscape.

sites in Europe or elsewhere. Trying to
plan a gathering as soon as international

Again, some stateside pilgrims may consider

pilgrims return can be challenging and

their experience “less than” if they hear about

dependent on schedules. However,

all the wonderful and exciting places that the

planning an event of sharing within one to

international pilgrims got to visit, or when

three weeks is highly recommended.

they hear about the numbers of participants
abroad vs. the numbers they connected with
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