According RomeReports, Pope Benedict is scheduled to declare Hildegard of Bingen a Doctor of the Church in 2012. She is known for her mystical visions.
That's simply amazing once again!
It seems that in our time when theology is heavily academic and secularized, raising someone to the honors of the 34th official doctors shows how holy doctrine doesn't depend on worldly scholarship.
This is comforting, especially for yours truly, who has sat in numerous theology classes and felt like I couldn't meet the standards of secular analysis like many of my classmates.
If true, she's also going to be the 4th woman Doctor of the Church.
I'd like to study more of her visions.
One of my favorite is Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich, after whom the movie The Passion of the Christ was based.
For now, Benedict will make history with his declaration of another doctor.
A few days ago, I blogged about praying for the Society. It was the first time for me to blog about the Society, and lo and behold a statement comes forth.
If the press statements are reliable, it seemed that the superior of the Society recently stated that, at this point, forward movement was not possible without some clarifications from the Holy See.
I don't remember the exact phrasing, but it seems that further conversation is needed with the proposed Preamble and the proposed Personal Prelature.
Well....
...I'm NOT deterred with prayer!
That's all I'm going to say at this point.
Well...
...maybe not.
Won't you join me, dear class, in prayer?!
Let us pray and entrust this matter to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and to St. Pius X.
As I wrote this a few minutes ago, I wrote the Hail Mary first in English and then in Latin. Since the Society is fond of Latin, I changed this and have, in honor of these efforts at reconciliation, posted the prayers of the holy Rosary in Latin.
I only know the Salve Regina in Latin. Perhaps this is a good time for me to learn the prayers in Latin. We'll see.
This reminds me of that scene from Saving Private Ryan (1998) where the Allies invade Normandy. One of the soldiers, under fire, prayed the rosary in Latin.
Well, here you go. We're under fire for sure....and are expected to perform exemplary in battle -- spiritual battle of course.
Lord Jesus, Son of David, hear our prayer! In Your Most Precious and Holy Name! Amen.
THE PRAYERS OF THE ROSARY
Sign of the Cross:
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen
Apostles' Creed: Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, Creatorem caeli et terrae. Et in Iesum Christum, Filium eius unicum, Dominum nostrum, qui conceptus est de Spiritu Sancto, natus ex Maria Virgine, passus sub Pontio Pilato, crucifixus, mortuus, et sepultus, descendit ad infernos, tertia die resurrexit a mortuis, ascendit ad caelos, sedet ad dexteram Dei Patris omnipotentis, inde venturus est iudicare vivos et mortuos. Credo in Spiritum Sanctum, sanctam Ecclesiam catholicam, sanctorum communionem, remissionem peccatorum, carnis resurrectionem, vitam aeternam. Amen.
The Lord's Prayer: PATER NOSTER, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.
The Hail Mary: AVE MARIA, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.
Glory Be: GLORIA PATRI, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Oratio Fatimae (The Fatima Prayer) Domine Iesu, dimitte nobis debita nostra, salva nos ab igne inferiori, perduc in caelum omnes animas, praesertim eas, quae misericordiae tuae maxime indigent.
Hail, Holy Queen: SALVE REGINA, Mater misericordiae. Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve. Ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevae. Ad te Suspiramus, gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle. Eia ergo, Advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte. Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exsilium ostende. O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria. V. Ora pro nobis, Sancta Dei Genitrix. R. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi.
For the past few weeks, the Society of St. Pius X has been on my mind. I have no particular agenda other than the unity that Christ willed for his Church.
I have attended the Ordinary Form of the Mass ever since I started practicing my faith many, many years ago. I accept the Second Vatican Council, including the documents on religious liberty and non-Christian religions. These are enough reasons for members of the Society to hold me anathema.
But when I first heard of Pope Benedict's outreach to the Society, my thoughts immediately turned to the Queen of Heaven. We must pray for the situation. Many Vatican II Catholics are sympathetic to the issues raised by the SSPX.
The time is ripe under this papacy for development in a way that would respect the Society's issues yet reconcile the situation. It had to happen under Benedict, whom Fr. Z calls the Pope of Christian Unity. If it doesn't happen now, there may be major set back. But if there is success, then maybe the Society could bring their reform issues to the table for further discussion.
I mean, look at the Anglican Ordinariate and now the Ordinariate for the USA this Jan. 1, 2012. Look at the progress made with the Eastern Catholic Churches. Look at the Personal Prelature of Opus Dei. These are only some structures in place in the Catholic Church that show how these are gifts from Heaven.
Please take the offer, SSPX!
I know some of my word choices could have been better above, but I rest in the words of Our Lord who prayed for the unity of His disciples so that the world may believe. From the point of view of this Novus Ordo Catholic, if the Society were to accept a Personal Prelature, then what good would be done to the Church!
I would definitely visit the Society and attend Holy Mass under the Society's auspices should this take place. I'd like to learn more about the Society.
So, dear class, let us pray.
And let us ask Pope St. Pius X for his intercession in this matter, too.
According to a senior press officer for World Youth Day, Pope Benedict was asked three times to leave during a heavy night storm.
On the first two occasions, the successor of St. Peter said no to his advisers who wanted him to leave. He even wagged his finger to insist on staying with the young adults and youth during the storm.
The third time the Holy Father was advised to leave, he pointed to the 2 million who had gathered there with him and said, "If they are staying, then I am staying, too."
Wow!
This reminds me of Our Lord 2,000 years ago calming a storm. It also reminds me of Peter's little faith as he walked on water and sank. Today, the 80-some-year-old Successor of St. Peter braves wild weather with his young flock of Christ.
Here’s a daring thesis statement for you on this Labor Day: The economic crisis was caused by a moral crisis.
I. THE DICTATORSHIP OF RELATIVISM & ECONOMICS: MAKING THE CASE
Our economic crisis is simply the fruit and symptom of a society that has accepted a growing moral relativism. There is a dangerously new type of relativism where the only one who decides morality is oneself.
Power and strength, not objective moral norms and love, become all that matters. We as a human race cannot survive like this.
But we can turn the tide by returning to a Culture of Love and Civilization of Life.
You might say, “But, Mr. P., society has already had bad things since the time of the Fall of our first parents and since Cain killed Abel. There’s always evil in society. So what’s the catch? You’ve said nothing new.”
I reply that while it is true that evil has always existed since the first and original sin of humanity, we are experiencing a moral crisis not just in an exponential but a most decisive way during a moment unprecedented in the history of humanity.
The 21st Century is seeing this moral crisis evolve into systematically institutionalized evil, primarily as a dictatorship under the guise of good. Pope Benedict has warned us of this dictatorship of relativism even before he spoke of it in his homily at Bl. John Paul the Great’s funeral in April 2005.
The Church appears to be paralyzed at first glance, like the sun eclipsed by the moon.
But more of this “decisive” and “unprecedented” point in another blog at another time.
II. SOME ANECDOTAL DATA
Now for you social scientists out there who want empirical evidence, direct correlations, and statistical significance for this claim about the moral-economic relationship, let’s just say that all you need to do is read the front page of your newspaper or your latest blog newsreel.
Society cannot sustain institutionalized sin and death culture. It will implode on itself.
Just look at one city – any city – as an example, whether large or small. A city cannot run rampant with major crimes like, say, graffiti, corruption or daily murder or “whatever else you can think of” and “you fill in the blank.” Someone has to financially pay for these things.
Or think of a state with a prison system bursting at the seams or an entire country at war. How does one pay for all that?
Then multiply that across the planet or across many countries internationally and you get…
….that’s right, an institutionalized moral meltdown with dire economic consequences.
And….
….more importantly….
…a forteriori…
…when we look at the nuclear family, where it all begins, where love is first learned, and its deliberate breakdown in society by powerful forces, we see for example that broken families yield a higher poverty rate or single moms living off of one person incomes or kids with this kind of problem or that kind of problem or “whatever else you can think of” and “you fill in the blank”. What do you get when the most fundamental cell of society is sick with moral cancer? You get...
…well, you draw the conclusion.
III. THE GOOD NEWS OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL DOCTRINE
Having said that all above, with all this bad news floating around, there IS actually good news. In fact, it’s the Good News.
And we have to be agents of hope.
We must remember, class, on this Labor Day where millions are unemployed, that work is still good.
On this Labor Day, let us remember that even in our difficult economic times with increasing unemployment, moral principles must still influence economic activity if we are to get out of this global mess.
Let us return to God and His moral law.
The rest – financially speaking – will follow.
I’m not an economic major, but I do know that economics doesn’t exist in a moral vacuum. In other words, the economy is not morally neutral.
In fact, the economy needs a morally solid foundation—one that is built on the dignity of the human person.
This, also, is a way to answer the 400-500 year old European Enlightenment. The Enlightenment rejected God but kept Reason; however, in the post-modern process of rejecting God it produced an anti-Reason system of which dictatorship of relativism is its rotten fruit.
We need a New Enlightenment.
Or better yet, a New Evangelization!
The Good News is that God has intervened in human history to deliver us from this. There is hope. In fact, the Church centuries-old and time-tested wisdom is the best way to address this dictatorship of our time.
Here are some thoughts from Catholic social teaching which is based on the Gospel. Let’s keep this in mind as we move forward.
What is Catholic social doctrine?
It’s the Church’s application of the Gospel to modern industrialized society. In the 19th Century, Pope Leo XIII responded to the economy of his day with his papal letter Rerum Novarum (1891). Holy Mother Church, that beautiful Bride of Christ, however humiliated and purified in our time, brings over 120 years of social teaching to the world. These teachings that come to us from the Apostles will bring true justice and peace if implemented.
Pope Leo XIII
In a way, these thoughts on Labor Day come under the 7th Commandment regarding proper use of human goods and property. Here are some points from the Catechism of the Catholic Church on economic activity (CCC 2426-2436):
Through human work, human beings reflect the image of God (imago Dei in Latin). Our gifts and talents honor the Creator who gave them.
Like our Creator, we too must rest from economic activity.
St. Joseph, the foster father of Jesus, is an excellent role model for the worker.
Jesus, who labored in a carpenter’s shop, worked for our redemption from sin when He died on Calvary.
We participate in the work of God by sanctifying our human work. Honest work takes on redemptive value.
Working is a human right, particularly to provide for one’s family.
And the state in particular has the responsibility to protect economic security.
Two immoral extremes of economic activity are atheistic communism/Marxism on the one hand (where the State is absolute and the human person is reduced to a mere disposable number), and unbridled liberal capitalism on the other hand (where profits are the only measure of success instead of the human person and where morality does not influence the market).
Of course, profits are good when they provide for future investment and guarantee employment. That’s the purpose of profit. Money is a means, not the end.
And it should be said that there is a difference between a just wage and a family wage. The just wage sustains the human person, while the family wage is a wage meant to provide for the worker's family.
Unemployment is not good not just because it deprives an individual human person, but it is not good because it entails risks to the family for whom the worker works.
Even in our poverty, we continue to take care of the poor.
IV. PRAYER
St. Joseph, please help those who are unemployed and underemployed to endure their unemployment during these difficult times. Through your intercession, protect them especially the weakest among them. Amen.
HW: Familiarize yourself with the papal social encyclicals.
Here's a simple snapshot-outline of the Successor of Peter's agenda and teachings at WYD:
A.) THURSDAY, AUG. 18, 2011
1.) To reporters on the airplane to Madrid from Rome: Looking at Church's social doctrine, man is center of economy, not just profits. Economy works well with respect for good of everyone.
2.) Beatitudes: "...behavioral patterns from which we resemble the person of Christ: being poor in spirit, hungering for righteousness, merciful, pure of heart, peace loving..." (@ Plaza de Cibeles)
"say 'Yes' to God..."
"do not listen to promises of artificial and passing paradises..."
2.) Met with 1,500 university professors (most, if not all, under age 40): "Young people need authentic teachers..."
“As Plato said: ‘Seek truth while you are young, for if you do not, it will later escape your grasp’. This lofty aspiration is the most precious gift which you can give to your students, personally and by example."
3.) Stations of the Cross: 14 young adults carried the famous WYD Cross. These 14 were from countries known for persecution of Christians. The Pope said, “Christ’s passion urges us to take upon our own shoulders the sufferings of the world, in the certainty that God is not distant or far removed from man and his troubles. On the contrary, he became one of us "in order to suffer with man in an utterly real way — in flesh and blood.”
Prayers were made for victims of war, AIDS, sexual abuse as well as immigrants, the unemployed and Christians who are ashamed of their faith.
"...in the face of human suffering...it is here that God expects you to give of your very best: your capacity for love and compassion.”
6.) The Extraordinary Form of the Mass was celebrated for 1,500 youth. This is different from the Ordinary Form of the Mass which is what I grew up with. The Extraordinary Form is also known as the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM). Here's a local example of the TLM from a friend of mine who is up to date with his blog site here: http://sanctamargaritamaria.blogspot.com/
C.) SATURDAY, AUG. 20, 2011
1.) Met w/5,000 of 6,000 seminarians. He said, "We should be saints..."
2.) Declared St. Juan de Avila a new Doctor of the Church.
San Juan de Avila (1500-1569) reformed the Spanish clergy, contributed to the Council of Trent, and was a friends with St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross. He is the 34th official Doctor (or "Teacher") of the Church.
3.) Met w/physically and mentally disabled youth. Pope Benedict XVI taught, “Dear friends, our society which too often questions the inestimable value of life, of every life needs you: in a decisive way you help to build the civilization of love.”
4.) The Holy Father met with 12,000 of the 40,000 official volunteers. He said that the Successor to Peter is asking even more of the volunteers in giving their life to Christ because that is the mission of the Pope.
5.) At the Saturday Vigil, like Peter and the first Apostles who were buffeted by rain in their boat, Pope Benedict as the 266th Successor of St. Peter and the 1.5 million were interrupted by the rain. He paused a few minutes shielded by umbrellas. The youth sang and were joyful in the rain. He then exclaimed,
"Thank you for your joy and resistance. Your strength is stronger than the rain. Thank you. The Lord is sending us his blessings with the rain. With this, you're leading by example.”
6.) Adoration: Thousands of the young Catholics knelt in prayer before their Eucharistic Jesus.
D.) SUNDAY MASS, AUG. 21, 2011(for 2 million participants)
This is the 3rd largest World Youth Day in 26 years, the largest being in Manila in 1995, and the second largest being in Rome in 2000.
1.)"We can not follow Jesus on our own." To do so would be to follow a "Counterfeit Jesus":
“Let me also remind you that following Jesus in faith means walking at his side in the communion of the Church. We can not follow Jesus on our own. Anyone who would be tempted to do so 'on his own', or to approach the life of faith with kind of individualism so prevalent today, will risk never truly encountering Jesus, or will end up following a counterfeit Jesus.”
I think the Pope here went on the offensive against the "dictatorship of relativism" as seen in an individualistic "me and Jesus only" spirituality that neglects the community of the Church.
I think this dictatorship or tyranny is a great challenge to the Benedict Generation of today's youth and young adults. This challenge was not as notable during the era of the JP2 Generation. Sure, there were forms of moral relativism during the time of the great JP2 Generation, but it is not as severe as it is now for this new generation of young Catholics who will carry the Gospel to the next generation.
2.) Next World Youth Day 2013 will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil! The Pope announced a few days later that the theme will be "Go and make disciples of all nations."
3.) As His Holiness departed, he said to His Majesty the King of Spain,
“Spain is a great nation whose soundly open, pluralistic and respectful society is capable of moving forward without surrendering its profoundly religious and Catholic soul."
4.) Secular commentators noted the secular media blackout for WYD but the continual coverage of the London Riots and protesters. How can one not take notice of 2 million young adults and youth? When the United Nations put on a conference for youth and young adults, it generated a handful at the most.
5.) WYD Madrid was expected to bring in around $130 million to Spain, but first estimates showed that it brought $230 million to a country which has the highest unemployment rate in the industrialized world.
Pope Benedict XVI calls this crisis the “dictatorship of relativism”.
ENGLISH-SPEAKING CATECHESIS
Of the 800+ bishops present, there will be 250 bishop-catechists at WYD. Of these 250, 8 U.S. bishops are serving as bishop-catechists.
1.) Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
2.) Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago
3.) Cardinal Seán O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston
4.) Archbishop Charles Chaput, newly appointed as archbishop of Philadelphia
5.) Bishop Samuel Aquila of Fargo, North Dakota,
6.) Bishop Edward Burns of Juneau, Alaska
7.) Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, New York
8.) Bishop Frank Caggiano, auxiliary bishop of Brooklyn
I believe both Bishop Murray and Bishop Caggiano are currently involved with the USCCB Committee on the Catechism.
If you consider that there are about 5000+ living Catholic bishops today, this means that close to 1 out of 5 bishops of the Catholic Church are right now shepherding the Lord's youth and young adult flock in Madrid.
BISHOP THOMAS A DALY
Speaking of bishops at WYD, here's a picture of a "baby bishop" in Madrid, the newly ordained/consecrated Auxiliary Bishop of San Jose, California. He's in the middle of this photo below. His Excellency had just as many people watching his episcopal ordination live on the internet (Livestream) as there were actually people physically present in the small cathedral in San Jose that day!
Auxiliary Bishop Thomas A. Daly with the Christian Brothers at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops World Youth Day Vocations Fair; the Brother on his left is from San Jose. Photo credit: San Jose Vocations.
And.....he's a (former) SF Catholic school administrator with a really cool Marian symbol on his coat of arms. (Interestingly, less than 2% of 40,000 or so priests in the U.S. serve full time in our schools.) What's also cool on Mr. P.'s cool meter was that when he told his Mom (living in San Francisco) that Papa Benny wanted him in San Jose, she very innocently said something like, "I'm not sure that's a good idea, son. They need you more here in San Francisco." LOL! Gotta love Mama Daly!
So without further ado, my dear class, I am pleased to announce...
With his background in Catholic education, and so as to encourage our priests to teach in the classroom, and for having a really cool Coat of Arms which included Our Lady, the new baby-bishop who labored in the Bay Mountain for most of his priesthood is this month's choice for Mr. P.'s Classroom Blog "Teacher of the Month Award". Congrats to our most excellent Excellency, and ad multos annos for your episcopal ministry in the Valley of St. Joseph's in St. Claire's County!
With all those Successors of the Apostles at World Youth Day in Madrid, that just keeps the Church's ancient message ever young.
Now that's just too awesome!
I hope to post more updates as they become available here.
FOREIGN FILMS
Of the 20 films and documentaries offered to the pilgrims, three documentaries are:
1.) Cristiada [on persecution of Christians in Mexico during 1920’s]
2.) There Be Dragons (Mr. P.’s Grade Rating: A/A+) [Thriller on Spanish Civil War with Josemaria Escriva, founder of Opus Dei]
3.) Of Gods and Men [international award-willing story of monks in Algeria facing terrorism]
USCCB called There Be Dragons a "healthy antidote" to sensationalized movies like Dan's Brown's The Da Vinci Code. I haven’t seen the other two yet so can’t rate them.
FOLLOW WYD ON THE WEB
For the first time, World Youth Day will have its own radio and television channel. You can also follow here on the web: www.madrid11.com/radio and www.tvmadrid11.com
There's a tradition that St. James the Greater preached the Gospel in Spain and later returned to Jerusalem. As we see in Acts of the Apostles, he is martyred for his Master in the holy city.
Over the centuries, the Church in Spain had a glorious history. She produced many saints and teachers of the Faith. (Some even joke that half of heaven speaks Spanish!)
Another fruit was planting the Cross among the thousands of islands in the Far East, specifically in the Philippines.
Today, this Pearl of the Orient republic, that great pearl of great price, in turn, sends her own sons and daughters as missionaries around the world. The Filipino diaspora both plants the Cross and nourishes it in many lands.
When World Youth Day was held in Manila in 1995, it was the largest recorded gathering of human beings in the history of the planet!
How's that for the Guinness Book?
From St. James the Greater, brother of St. John the Evangelist, in the Holy Land, to Spain, to Manila, to Guinness, and now back to Spain, there is an urgent message for the New Jerusalem.
The average age of registered attendees is 22 years old.
Can you imagine? For each participant, that's almost 50 more years of service to the Gospel assuming a long life expectancy.
Some of the points today's message included:
The Pope and the Church love the youth.
Bl. John Paul II had a passionate love for Jesus Christ that fascinated young people.
Countless vocations as priests, nuns and married life have emerged from World Youth Days.
Don't be afraid of being a saint.
Respond to Jesus with a "yes".
Faith is nourished by the Word of God and the Sacraments of the Church.
Youth are the generation of Benedict XVI which is different from the JP2 Generation.
There are new difficulties and challenges that the B16 Generation is experiencing that the JP2 Generation did not experience.
Spiritual and moral relativism have weakened today's youth.
Youth still say "yes" to God before the whole world, especially Europe which is "showing signs of being very lost" [turning away from its Christian roots].
Youth practice the Sacraments, especially Penance [i.e., going to Confession], serving the poor and the sick, and helping those in need.
Like Mary, who is protecting the pilgrims, be joyful in your response to God.
An apostle and friend to youth and youth adults, Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, California, blogs about World Youth Day 2011 in Madrid.
This caught my eye from His Excellency's post:
"Living the faith is very challenging in these times. Particularly for young people in California, there is a sense of pervading cultural hostility to any public demonstration of faith. For the young men and women of Sacramento to have an experience of the global Church and to know that they are not alone will be an unforgettable life-changing experience."
Yes, these are really challenging times. These are challenging times unlike decades past, for both society and the Church.
Between 1991-2001, for example, the pre-9/11 & post-Soviet and post-First Gulf War world saw a decade of a world relatively not at war and an American economy that was relatively strong. Bl. JP2 the Great ushered the pilgrim people in to the Third Millennium and, with respected moral authority, also set his eyes on the morally-crumbling West. The times were not as challenging as they are today.
Yes, our post-9/11 world is different than the past, especially for a society foreign to terror within its borders. And it is most especially different for a Church whose image today takes on a Woman in labor about to give birth. Amidst tribulation and the humiliating purification she is experiencing today, the eyes of faith tell us she is given two wings of a great eagle as a sign of Providence's care for her.
The Woman gives birth to new children. As the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) found in 2010, the Catholic Church in the U.S. is growing.
But even in the U.S. where 1 out of 4 are baptized Catholic, and particularly in California where it is estimated that 1 out of 3 are Catholic, it is odd that we nevertheless have a pervading cultural hostility towards public faith.
Yup, even in America, the land of the free, where you think it ain't gonna happen.
In the Golden State, particularly, this growing "anti-Eureka!" ("I have not found It!") hostility to the faith sets the trend for the rest of the nation. As is said, so goes California, so goes the rest of the Nation...
And speaking of an anti, so goes another anti...
Cardinal Henri de Lubac, S.J., noticed in The Drama of Atheistic Humanism (1944) that there's a world of difference between a-theism and anti-theism. Whereas atheism simply denies God's existence, anti-theism is a step further in its blatant militant opposition to God and deliberately seeks to oppose Him. The Red Jesuit's chilling insight prophecizes what looms even further on the horizon and the task that lay ahead in the New Evangelization.
Henri Cardinal de Lubac, S.J.
And so, beautiful people, enter WYD.
While we need to smell this cultural coffee that's brewing for you and me to drink, let's also smell the fragrant rose that is World Youth Day.
Can I get a....
"Eureka!" ....?
....uhh, I mean, an "Amen!"?
People who believe in God are not alone, as the young shepherd who hails from the land of oranges and angels said.
Having attended WYD in Denver (1993) and Toronto (2002) myself, I too have felt this unforgettable life-changing experience.
I remember WYD Denver like it was yesterday! And Toronto seemed like it just happened a few hours ago. The energy is incredible year hence.
And even though I'm not flying to the land which brought the Cross to my own land of birth in the Philippines, I still feel the energetic excitement.
I feel the excitement in my friends who are there. I'm there with them united through the Eucharist as I remain geographically afar from them in a diocese named after the Blessed Sacrament. Even thousands of miles away, I give back to Spain, beset with secularism, what it first gave my Island forefathers. I send back to Spain young missionaries by supporting the youth and young adults who are there on my behalf.
Two of them are seminarians, one for San Francisco and the other for Sacramento. Read Br. J.R. Jaldon's post here and Br. Raj Derivera's here.
I'm excited for the rumor of the new Doctor of the Church. He'll be Number 34 on the Doctor Docket List.
I'm excited for what the Pope of Christian Unity will say.
This Glory of the Olives will plant an olive tree for the WYD theme, "Planted and Built Up in Jesus Christ Planted in the Faith," which comes from St. Paul.
I'm excited for the youth who'll be there. These apostles will continue the Faith for which I've given my life, even after I'm long gone from this life.
I'm excited for what the intellectual B16's gonna say to the 1,200 young university professors all under age 40.
I'm excited to see its fruits now and some day and pray, like Simeon, to see with my own eyes the wonders that will happen.
About 450,000 are registered, although WYD planners are projecting 1.5 million participants, including 800 bishops and 6,000 seminarians studying for the holy priesthood.
With all this excitement in the air, I dedicate this John Mayer song to the 266th Successor of St. Peter: "Say What You Need to Say".
Say what you need to say, my dear Papa Benny!
So rock on with the Rock of Peter, Mystical Body of Christ, and Viva il Papa! Ad gentes...until all are one in Christ!
Homework: Check out the official theme songs for all World Youth Days here!
