World Youth Day is a Pilgrimage not a holiday trip. The journey to World Youth Day and the Young Passionist Encounter requires personal and communal preparation. It’s a time to rediscover, or to discover for the first time, essential parts of the Christian and the Passionist Story. Like the Benedictine Rule, one of the most ancient and essential guides to the Religious and the Christian Life, there will be three aspects:

• Prayer
• Study
• Work

Prayer is about developing a deeper and more personal relationship with God , Father Son and Holy Spirit. Prayer is about encountering God in a contemplative way. Prayer is about joining with others, of sharing in their prayer. Prayer is about encountering the presence of God in the Sacraments. Prayer is about conversion of our lives so that they mirror Jesus life and action more and more. Prayer is about inviting Jesus, the Crucified and Risen One, to walk with us in our down and up times. It’s also about recognising
he is already with us, even before we ask him to be there.

Study is about reading in a contemplative way, so as to understand in a deeper way the Christian and Passionist sources and traditions that I have been invited to share in today. Study involves personal reading. Study involves conversation with others, so that I might depth the reading I have just done. Study is another way of Encountering the God who reveals himself to me today.

Work is about engaging in the lives of other people in some way, so that I might contemplate the presence of the Crucified and Risen One in the world of people’s lives today. For some, these opportunities will come from the paid work they are engaged in. For others, it will be through the voluntary work they engage in. For others, it will be through a combination of the above.

FORMATION AND PREPARATION

So that our Formation and Preparation might be more focused, all Pilgrims are invited to make a commitment during the final six months to one or more of the following:

• An hour a week reading the Word of God in a contemplative Way.
• An hour a week reading on Passionist History and Spirituality.
• An hour a week in discovering new forms of prayer, alone and/or with others.
• Forty (40) hours (ie. a week) immersed in service of others.

In some regions, there will be opportunities to gather with other pilgrims making this journey. From this local Encounter, new ways of preparing for the journey will arise.
The following pages are some resources to help us on the journey:

• Lectio Devina
• Ways of Prayer, both Old and New
• Passionist History & Passionist Spirituality
• Immersion Experiences

By John Pearce CP, WYDCP Co-ordinator
john.pearce@passionists.com