World Youth Day | Lisbon, Portugal | August 1-6, 2023

You could not but be impressed by the hundreds of thousands of young people who have come to Lisbon for the 2023 World Youth Day. Like Mary who got up and went in haste into the hill country because she wanted to be with her cousin Elizabeth, these young people have travelled because they want to be here and it looks very much like they are enjoying every moment of it.

They walk for hours. They stand and sit and form human chains and dance all in the heat of the Lisbon sun. They join in the music provided by very good musicians as they wait for the religious ceremonies to begin and in every case once the call to prayer is heard silence, respect and participation take over. That’s the way it was at the opening Eucharist on Tuesday evening, the welcome for Pope Francis on Thursday evening, and the Stations of the Cross on Friday. Now we wait for the Vigil and the Mass for World Youth Day, also referred to as the Mass of Sending Out, on Sunday morning.

The Carmelite Youth Day on Wednesday gave us the same experience of excitement at seeing young Carmelites accompanied by sisters, friars, and older lay Carmelites, converging on the Parish of Sao Antonio dos Cavalheiros, some distance from the centre of Lisbon. They came from the four corners of the earth, Australia and Timor Leste, the Philippines, Zimbabwe, Canada, Honduras, El Salvador, Malta, UK, Italy, Spain and the host country Portugal.

The hospitality provided by the parish was wonderful, which lent to the joy that people felt just in being together as people for whom Carmel is their spiritual home. We were all blessed by this way of visiting one another, attentive to one another, with words and expressions that are born of the faith and love we have received.

Photographic memories will abound, including those taken by a drone. The other memories of feelings and inspirations will also last for a long time.