World Youth Day 2016 - Pilgrim Sharing

World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland, was an incredible faith event. It was off-the-charts spiritually – a mountaintop experience.  As exhilarating as they are, mountaintop experiences aren’t really for private consumption. They are to be brought down and shared.  

I have sliced out some of my World Youth Day journaling in hopes that it allows you a look into this life-changing trip!

Mercy & Love

-    Mercy is given for the sake of love and trusting. Trusting Jesus with weaknesses is how one receives mercy.
-    The greatest tragedy of life is not to know how much you are loved by God.
-    We all spend so much time trying to find joy, yet we seek it in places and from people who don’t really understand it.. Stop asking the wrong people about where to find joy. There is only one person who offers complete joy and that is Jesus. 
-    You don’t have to be the go-to-person on faith matters to experience God’s love. 
-    Every step taken toward God is worth it!

Auschwitz & Birkenau

-    Impossible to wrap your head around all the evil. 
-    A deep sadness touches you here. The most somber place I have ever visited.  It is rightly uncomfortable!
-    Some daunting questions here: Who would I have become if I was brought here? What would faith in God have looked like here? How does one condition one’s self to look at another and no longer see them as a human being? How do people become a disease, a group to be eradicated? 
-    Where was the mercy of God? Everything here opposes mercy. 
-    I just left the building Maximilian Kolbe laid down his life. Mercy was not completely absent!
-    The victory of humanity involves love in the midst of evil.
-    God gets the last word about Auschwitz & Birkenau. God gets the last word against all evil!
-    Take away message: Don’t lose trust in God and don’t ever lose the ability to love!

Divine Mercy Chapel

-    We exist to encounter Jesus in a profound way.
-    We are called to know Jesus, experience his mercy and then witness this mercy.
-    No way to really know Jesus without reading the Bible. 
-    Mercy is a great deal about restoring the dignity of the human person.
-    All of the works of mercy (Corporal & Spiritual) are not just acts to participate in. Each reveal man’s inhumanity. They tell us that the world justifies that certain lives don’t matter. Jesus’ message of mercy is all life matters! And in a particular way, the lives pushed to the margins need even more attention. (Matthew 25 31-46)
-    I give you a new commandment, love one another…(John 13:34). The only way to love like this is to be convinced that you are loved by God and to be moved by that love.
-    Looking at Jesus on the Cross – to love is to allow one’s self to be hurt. You have to become vulnerable. There is pain in loving.
-    What is the meaning of having enemies and having to love them? Good alone is what overcomes evil.
-    Mercy – there is no life at all without it. I don’t deserve anything, but I am worthy of everything because of God’s love. 

Maybe the most important thing I can share from the World Youth Day experience in Krakow is this; extraordinary events are exhilarating and fun to be a part of, but the most powerful experiences of God are often found in the ordinary of life. When we allow ourselves to stay in the moment of the ordinary God places many possibilities for us to encounter Him: in people, places, and options. In so many ways we encounter mercy. Each of these is a loved filled moment where we encounter God.