5 . Prepare spiritually for your journey . 6 . Be open to the Holy Spirit , wherever he may be leading you . 7 . Keep the fire burning … the end of
World Youth Day is only the beginning .
These seven points provide an outline of the key aspects of the World Youth Day journey .
1 . Remember that World Youth Day is a pilgrimage ( not a vacation ).
It is vital that participants understand that World Youth Day is a pilgrimage , not a vacation or field trip . Pilgrimages are joyful and challenging journeys . Your participants have probably been on several trips throughout their lives and it can be tempting to approach WYD as one among many . The pilgrim journey is – or should be – so much more .
On a vacation , the goal is rest . On an excursion , the goal is adventure . On a pilgrimage , the goal is conversion .
People in the United States are often introduced to pilgrimages in high school literature class when they read Geoffrey Chaucer ’ s Canterbury Tales . The idea of going on
19 a pilgrimage , then , might be seen as old , archaic , even outdate . A modern pilgrimage story is the 2010 film , The Way , about one man ’ s journey on the Camino de Santiago . In this movie , the main character goes to Spain to identify the body of his son , who died making the pilgrimage . Initially skeptical of such a spiritual exercise , the father decides to continue the journey to honor his son . He finds his own faith illuminated along the path and is transformed in the company of new friends .
In Europe and the Middle East , pilgrimages have a very long tradition and are not limited to Christians ( as the Jewish people and Muslims also have strong connections to the pilgrim experience ). People go to the Holy Land to visit the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem , the Church on Mount Tabor in Galilee , and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem , among many other important sites . Pilgrims go to Italy to pray at the tombs of St . Peter and St . Paul or to the Basilica of St . Francis of Assisi . Pilgrims travel to France to visit the Grotto at Lourdes , to Portugal to visit the Chapel of the Apparitions in Fatima , and to Panamá to pray with Our Lady of La Antigua .
In the U . S ., it may seem as if there are not as many pilgrimage sites since it is such a young country and its religious history is still being