WYD with the student parish in Toulouse

20/09/2023

Sr Sara from France sharing the experience of the World Youth Day - fragments. The full article will be presented later in the Inter-Ursuline bulletin.

25th to 31st July: a week in the diocese of Coimbra
1st to 6th August: week in Lisbon
7th August: a day for reviewing

… We were hosted by the diocese of Coimbra. We were truly touched by the generosity and the kindness of the host families. (…) We took part in local services such as cleaning up the forest and other services for the parish and town (putting up a notice board in the parish halls, painting public benches, collecting rubbish, etc...).

Each day we had the prayer times offered to young people, Mass and a spiritual time together called "paso", which means "step" in Portuguese. We also had the opportunity to meditate on the rosary with those who wished to do so. At the end of this wonderful week, we made an express stopover in Fatima before heading on to Lisbon. (…)

The WYDs are also a time for meeting new people and getting to know each other again. In addition to the many young people from the Serviam and Merici hostels (from France), we were able to meet up with family and other acquaintances, including one of Sr Claire-Marie Vincent's students and some sisters from Slovakia. During the week in Lisbon, Sr Agnès-Marie Duchesne and I, along with another religious, were lucky enough to stay with the Sisters of Charity. (…)

In the morning we had catechism workshops in French with the dioceses of Toulouse and Évreux and a group from Madagascar. In the afternoon, we took part in the joint programme with young people of all nationalities! (…) The key events were the arrival of the Pope with the opening Mass, the Way of the Cross and the final weekend.

I really enjoyed sharing these two weeks with the diocese of Toulouse. I was able to experience the depth of the pastoral care offered to young people and the desire of these young people who are so thirsty, whatever their origins are. (…)

On the way back to Toulouse, the stop in Spain was a good opportunity to review everything we had experienced over the past two weeks. There had been one particularly beautiful moment: various commitments were named (service in the parish, in the chaplaincy, service to the poorest people, etc…) and according to the call that each of us felt in our heart, we were invited to stand up.

Thank you for your prayers!

Sr Sara