A month after World Youth Day, Archdiocesan pilgrims inspire others by sharing their experiences

On the morning of Aug. 6 in Lisbon, Pope Francis celebrated the Closing Mass of World Youth Day in front of a congregation of 1.5 million people. Many in attendance were young, exhausted pilgrims who had just experienced a week of life-changing spiritual events and slept overnight at Parque Tejo to get a good spot to hear the Holy Father.

In his final words to those pilgrims, Pope Francis anticipated their eagerness, as well as their uncertainty, for what lay ahead of them after World Youth Day. He began his homily, saying: “It was good what we experienced with Jesus, what we lived together, and how we prayed. But after these days, we ask ourselves: What will we take with us when we return to the valley of daily life?

“I want to answer this question with three verbs: shine, listen, do not fear,” he said.

Upon returning to the Archdiocese of Newark, pilgrims from World Youth Day have taken the pope’s call to action to heart, sharing their experiences with others in a variety of ways.

Stephanie Miles, 30, who began teaching at Sacred Heart School in Lyndhurst following World Youth Day, said she will bring what she has learned to the classroom. Miles will also share her experiences with her parish community at Saint Rose of Lima Church in Short Hills.

The highlights from her pilgrimage include Fatima, spending time with the elderly, hearing the Holy Father, and being with like-minded faithful people.

“To be at the spot where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to little Francisco and Jacinta Marto and Lucia dos Santos was awe-inspiring. To witness Pope Francis repeatedly tell millions of young Catholics, ‘Don’t be afraid,’ at the concluding Mass was uplifting. To accompany the sick and elderly of the local community, some of whom hadn’t left the home in many years, to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima for Mass was fulfilling. To watch young people from all different countries sing, dance, and clap together outside of St. James Cathedral in Spain was exhilarating,” she recalled.

For Miles, giving back to young people in the hope that they will be inspired is the goal she takes away from World Youth Day.

“Young people are the future of the Church. We need to be open to them,” she said. “If sharing my story inspires just one young person to want to grow closer to God and/or make their faith a priority, then that would mean the world to me.”

World Youth Day pilgrims accompany the sick and elderly to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima. (Ricardo Casimiro)

Claire Shubeck, 22, a recent graduate of Columbia University who is now a clinical research coordinator in New York, shared her experiences in a reflection for her university’s Catholic community newsletter.

“At the start of the pilgrimage, I set out on a mission to encounter the universality of the Church and to gain insight into how to build the young adult ministry at my home parish [Saint Helen Church in Westfield] that generously supported my trip,” she wrote.

She noted that, before her pilgrimage, her faith life felt slightly chaotic in splitting her time between Catholic groups in New York and New Jersey. In contrast, the pilgrimage group gave her a firm community from the Archdiocese of Newark that she hopes to stay connected with long after World Youth Day ends.

“I am grateful that I will always be able to reflect back on these fruits from the pilgrimage as I continue my journey in faith in the United States,” she wrote. “Although there were people in each of our lives that encouraged our participation in World Youth Day, in Portugal I understood how Jesus drew us all toward Him while His mother Mary directed us there.

I have faith that He will do the same at my home parish and more of us will attend the next World Youth Day.”

She now brings those experiences and lessons learned to foster more young adult involvement at Saint Helen’s in Westfield. Shubeck will appear on the parish’s podcast to discuss her pilgrimage and then work with the young adult ministry’s leadership to create engagement initiatives.

Louis Nicastro, 31, a member of the Archdiocese of Newark’s Italian Apostolate, wanted to give back to the youth of his community at Our Lady of Mount Virgin Church in Garfield. He was invited to give a talk about his pilgrimage to the church’s youth group, Upper Room Youth.

The presentation he shared with the youth was called “Witnessing Christ in My Travels,” which discussed escaping the distractions of life and focusing on Christ during the pilgrimage.

“Your travels are full of prayer, fasting, and works of mercy,” he recalled. “Once you remove the clutter of your life that covers up your faith in Christ, that is when the encounters can truly begin.”

Nicastro relayed to the youth how the pilgrimage increased his love for the Virgin Mary, the guiding light towards Jesus, and the importance of Her intercession along the journey. For Nicastro and many of the pilgrims, this was felt most powerfully in their experience at Fatima. They spent multiple days at the location of the Blessed Mother apparitions, participating in a vigil procession of Our Lady, followed by Mass with Pope Francis.

The World Youth Day pilgrims spent multiple days at Fatima, participating in a vigil procession and Mass with Pope Francis. (Marian Hervias)

Marian Hervias, 24, a nursing student at Seton Hall University, wanted to acknowledge those who supported her pilgrimage, including Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, Father Kevin Kilgore, and Seton Hall faculty. She created a letter, filled with pictures from her pilgrimage, detailing her World Youth Day journey from start to finish.

“I have gone on multiple mission trips where I created letters to ask friends and family to help me fundraise for the trips,” Hervias explained. This letter would be a similar way of saying thank you, she said.

She concluded her letter by noting the sacrifices of others that made her trip possible.

“Human plans and schedules were shifted to have me attend World Youth Day, where I had a powerful encounter with the Lord and also with Our Mother,” she writes. “Mary always points to Him. It was phenomenal to see the universality of the Catholic Church. You were in my thoughts and prayers at every holy site.”

As Pope Francis emphasized to the pilgrims in his closing homily, the experiences in Portugal with Jesus were good, and the pilgrims should not be afraid to share those experiences, to shine in their faith, and to listen to others. The pilgrims of the Archdiocese of Newark are doing exactly that as they return to the “valley of daily life.”

“I am now attempting to get more youth [from my parish and school] interested in both the Jubilee and for the next World Youth Day, so that they can attend,” Hervias said. “I hope to invite youth who aren’t involved with the Catholic faith and walk with them towards Jesus.”