We NEED to pray!!

Well things have certainly started progressing with WYD preparations!! Registrations are completed, deposits are being paid, fundraising is in full flight and air beds are being ordered!!

All this preparation is over and above our normal lives, which are already jam packed with full time work, part time work, school, university, and sports. Deeper still is our family lives where we are busy with family, children, brothers, sisters, parents and friends. But at the deepest level is our faith. It is the foundation for all we are and all that we do, even if we don’t realise it, and it is essential that it be what our WYD preparation is based on.

If faith is the car we drive, prayer is the petrol. We NEED to pray, we NEED to lift up our hearts to the Lord. If we don’t have this “petrol” for our faith then it will soon break down. Cardinal George Pell, who is the Archbishop of Sydney, has recently urged all those involved in WYD not to put other preparation before spiritual preparation. It would be the most unwise thing for us to do as our faith is the very reason WYD exists.

Cardinal Pell made his appeal, saying that World Youth Day is not just a multicultural encounter, or a chance to make new friends it is “above all a moment of conversion and encounter with God, living the experience of sharing, and announcing the good news.”He cautioned against getting caught up in practical preparations and organizational challenges."The most important challenge is the spiritual preparation," by way of prayer and sacraments, the cardinal said. "One of the blessings we will receive from World Youth Day," the cardinal affirmed, "is that it will give us the one true God, remind us of the teaching of Christ, the only Son of God, and it will bring spiritual values onto the public scene."

So prayer is pretty important. If you have a WYD prayer card make sure you use it!! I hope and pray that all your preparations on a parish, diocese and national level are going well and people are getting more and more enthusiastic!! The other day I realised that sometimes what WYD is actually going to be like escapes us, and as the cardinal warns us against, we see WYD as just a big event, in the not too distant future. Then I was talking to someone who had just registered for WYD and didn’t know much about it and all he said was “imagine what it’s going to be like sleeping – or not sleeping! – outside with all those other young Catholics. Its going to be CRAZY!!” And when I started to imagine it, it really blew my mind. Over 500,000 young people. Together. Waiting for Pope Benedict. How literally awesome is that going to be?!
Keep up the good work!

My whole strength lies in prayer and sacrifice. They can move hearts far better than words. St. Therese of Lisieux