As I write this continuation of Day 11, we recognize today (August 26) as the Feast Day of Our Lady of Czestochowa, or the Black Madonna (Thank you, Sarah EC). Please continue praying for my intention.
Update: Blogger did not save this post, so I am having to retype the whole thing; I apologize. Jesus, I trust in you.
The video picks up at 39:00. Here is the link.
So, as I continue, I pick up with "Love to Those Who Feel Indifferent." A woman walks around the stage. There are other people on stage, but are too busy on their phones, video games, or work stuff. She desperately tries to get their attention, but they are absorbed in their tablets and phones, spending time on social media and whatnot. Finally a man comes out his glass cage that was his phone, and begins to dance with the woman. It is a beautiful scene of how beautiful humanity has the potential to be.
How often, me especially, do we live life through our phones and not our bodies? Social media can be a beautiful thing, but it has turned into a means of "having relationships." Relationships are meant to be lived in person. To spend time with that person, to love them fully as a human being, and not a picture on a screen. This skit really reminded me of America, in how, when you walk down the street, you'll see nothing but people on their phones. You'll be in a restaurant, and instead of talking to the person next to you, you'll send them a text. What happened to legitimate communication? To authentic, real relationships? Pope Francis got some words for us, alright (you'll see/read later).
The next segment was entitled "Forgiveness to Those Who Have Done Us Wrong." Honestly, this one was so simple, yet so profound, and every heart in that Field of Mercy moved with this skit. Hopefully, we are all aware that Pope John Paul II got shot in 1981 in St. Peter's Square. A shot that was supposed to kill, but he lived. He then forgave the man who attacked him that day. Using no words, and just music, the forgiveness scene was portrayed on the stage. We saw a live presentation of Pope JPII forgive the man, and then hug him, showing that God's mercy abounds. "Our sin is but a drop in an ocean of mercy" (Diary of St. Faustina, 718).
"Joy to Those Who Are Unhappy" was the name of the last segment. In a very prevalent reality, we saw a group of people unhappy with their lives, as a result of drug addictions, sexual encounters, and so forth. Then St. Faustina (and this was totally not supposed to be funny, but I laughed out loud when she did this) pulls a basketball out of nowhere, and they are inspired to start dancing and playing and just have fun with each other, as we were made to do.
A man then gave a testimony about how he was addicted to drugs and was very distant from his family. After leaving home at 11, he started using drugs and stopped going to school. The list went on and on. After a visit from his father, he exclaimed that he wanted to change, but he kept doing bad. But he had a rehabilitation process, and received peace, and helped run a house for reforming addicts.
Now to the part everyone was anxious to hear: Pope Francis' address to the young people.
Please, please, PLEASE! Read this before you continue reading this blog, if you are even reading at this point. READ THIS! It is Pope Francis' speech. I will only be doing reflections on it, and not reciting it. In case you missed it, here's the link.
After reading, many thoughts occurred to me. "Gee, I need to change" being among the first. He reiterates what the skit said about being disconnected from society; we live life in front of screens. We find comfort in that, but when we come into contact with other physical human beings, something powerful happens. An example of when I encountered this was when I joined a theater company with a bunch of people I had never met before: Lagniappe Theatre in Alexandria, LA. I had performed in shows at my High School, but I basically grew up with these people, so I already knew them, and we were nice acquaintances. But when I joined Lagniappe, of course there were temptations to get on my phone during free time and scroll through Instagram. Or just sit in a corner and claim that I am "pondering life." But, by the grace of God, I decided to get out of my comfort zone and introduce myself to some people. And I can say that these people that I've only known after one or two shows have grown to be some of my best friends. I know this may be a lame example, but it's just a personal testimony from me that proves that powerful things happen when you interact with those around you. When you show the love that Christ showed in knowing that we all need to be known as loved. So what do we do, we love. And love is powerful.
Pope Francis, upon reflecting about the world's current state, says that we are constantly tearing each other down and building barriers to shield us from others. We find faults in others rather than their merits, their strengths. I was a boy scout (for about 3 months), and I loved the idea of merit badges! We all need to be recognized for our strengths. Of course we should be aware of our shortcomings, but we should not be defined by them.
"Our response to a world at war has a name: its name is fraternity." As Pope Francis said this, I honestly thought he would be giving the common answer of love. All we need is love, right? Well, yes (I type this as I sing the Beatles in the back of my head). But more specific than love, we need a brotherhood, a fraternity, a communion. I have two biological brothers, Praise the Lamb. But I'm called to have 7 billion. As soon as He said that we needed fraternity, I immediately started thinking about how we say we need love and blah blah blah, but to actually be love to other people is to recognize those that you and I don't necessarily like as our brother. And there are a lot of people I don't like. We need to focus on the family, as well. I have been so blessed by great parents, and I have an awesome family! Are there things I wish we could do better, such as nightly prayer together? Yes. But for the most part, my family is straight up 100. But I will go to friend's houses, I'll talk to others about their home lives, and it scares me. There are families that disown their children, that divorce because of a petty argument, that kill their unborn children, and they pretend like everything is fine. Some people are good actors, most not so much. We see this world hurting so much, we see families broken and hurting, about to fall apart. That's not love, and that's definitely not fraternity, not communion. We must strive for peace with our brothers, me especially, in order to obtain that true brotherhood, whether it be among myself and someone who called me a name, or a country dropping bombs on the next.
He goes on to say that we should not be "sofa Christians" We confuse happiness with a sofa. It makes us feel comfortable and safe, kind of like our phones do, as mentioned earlier. This sofa allows us to not make any decisions because we are perfectly content as to where we are. I love what Pope Francis says here,
"Little by little, without even realizing it, we start to nod off, to grow drowsy and null while others-- perhaps more alert than we are, but not necessarily better-- decide our future for us. [...] We didn't come into this world to 'vegetate,' to take it easy, to make our lives a comfortable sofa to sleep on. No, we came for another reason: to leave a mark. [...If we don't,] then we end up paying a high price indeed: We lose our freedom."
I could read that over and over and still just bask in the truth of that statement. It reminds me of when Benedict XVI said, "This world will offer you comfort, but you were not made for comfort, you were made for greatness." To be honest, I took a nap in my bed in the dorm at ULL today. Upon typing this, I feel kind of bad. Gotta live life, I can't make friends in my sleep!
He challenged us pilgrims to trade in our sofas for walking shoes, to get us up and moving in life. (Keep in mind that we were sitting in a field that was not recently mowed, and was not the least bit comfortable. Guess we were winning at the whole "greatness" thing, huh? But honestly, I wouldn't have minded a sofa by now.) I had just bought a pair of walking shoes for this specific pilgrimage, so an English teacher would probably point out my shoes as being a metaphor for a new life.
And as we meet new people, as we live our lives, we build bridges. We concentrate on what brings us together, and not what tears us apart, what divides us. These bridges build brotherhoods, build fraternity, and family. They build trust, which leads to ultimate peace. And I think that we could all use a little peace right now.
After the Pope was finished speaking, a huge applause erupted. Then, we had Eucharistic Adoration. You know how I said that the day we had at the Mercy Centre was the most amount of people I've ever adored with, well this one Trumped it (it was yuuuuge). I had adoration with 3 million people. I adored the God of the universe with 3 million people. The Spirit was definitely busy that night. We sang the Chaplet of Divine Mercy in adoration, with each decade being sung in a different language. It was another beautiful representation of bridges being built, of the Church being one, as we knelt in the dirt at Campus Misericordiae. We then had Benediction with Pope Francis.
After, we prayed an evening prayer that is a tradition in Poland. It is a prayer to Our Lady of Czestochowa. It was beautiful, except whoever ran the huge screens in front of the sections was not doing a good job. In the middle of the prayer, a huge white screen popped up, asking us to not throw our flags at the power lines. Okay...thank you? I'm praying now. Ok, I forgive you, year of mercy. It really killed the mood though. Okay, rant over.
Then we got to sleep with 3 million people, outside, under the stars. Except I didn't sleep. Thank you to the Italians, who absolutely loved chanting and beating drums all night. There was also a couple that was absolutely inseparable right next to us. It's World Youth Day, not World Spoon Day, thank you. Year of Mercy, Nick. Year of Mercy. I also got to sleep next to two brothers in Christ I made on the trip, Luke and Joseph. When I say next to, not an inch separated us (or a centimeter, thank you metric system). Talk about fraternity, right?
Thus ends Day 11, with a sunburnt, but peaceful Nick.
Nicholas Scalfano
"Today's world demands that you be a protagonist of history because life is always beautiful when we choose to live it fully, when we choose to leave a mark."
Update: Blogger did not save this post, so I am having to retype the whole thing; I apologize. Jesus, I trust in you.
The video picks up at 39:00. Here is the link.
So, as I continue, I pick up with "Love to Those Who Feel Indifferent." A woman walks around the stage. There are other people on stage, but are too busy on their phones, video games, or work stuff. She desperately tries to get their attention, but they are absorbed in their tablets and phones, spending time on social media and whatnot. Finally a man comes out his glass cage that was his phone, and begins to dance with the woman. It is a beautiful scene of how beautiful humanity has the potential to be.
How often, me especially, do we live life through our phones and not our bodies? Social media can be a beautiful thing, but it has turned into a means of "having relationships." Relationships are meant to be lived in person. To spend time with that person, to love them fully as a human being, and not a picture on a screen. This skit really reminded me of America, in how, when you walk down the street, you'll see nothing but people on their phones. You'll be in a restaurant, and instead of talking to the person next to you, you'll send them a text. What happened to legitimate communication? To authentic, real relationships? Pope Francis got some words for us, alright (you'll see/read later).
The next segment was entitled "Forgiveness to Those Who Have Done Us Wrong." Honestly, this one was so simple, yet so profound, and every heart in that Field of Mercy moved with this skit. Hopefully, we are all aware that Pope John Paul II got shot in 1981 in St. Peter's Square. A shot that was supposed to kill, but he lived. He then forgave the man who attacked him that day. Using no words, and just music, the forgiveness scene was portrayed on the stage. We saw a live presentation of Pope JPII forgive the man, and then hug him, showing that God's mercy abounds. "Our sin is but a drop in an ocean of mercy" (Diary of St. Faustina, 718).
"Joy to Those Who Are Unhappy" was the name of the last segment. In a very prevalent reality, we saw a group of people unhappy with their lives, as a result of drug addictions, sexual encounters, and so forth. Then St. Faustina (and this was totally not supposed to be funny, but I laughed out loud when she did this) pulls a basketball out of nowhere, and they are inspired to start dancing and playing and just have fun with each other, as we were made to do.
A man then gave a testimony about how he was addicted to drugs and was very distant from his family. After leaving home at 11, he started using drugs and stopped going to school. The list went on and on. After a visit from his father, he exclaimed that he wanted to change, but he kept doing bad. But he had a rehabilitation process, and received peace, and helped run a house for reforming addicts.
Now to the part everyone was anxious to hear: Pope Francis' address to the young people.
Please, please, PLEASE! Read this before you continue reading this blog, if you are even reading at this point. READ THIS! It is Pope Francis' speech. I will only be doing reflections on it, and not reciting it. In case you missed it, here's the link.
After reading, many thoughts occurred to me. "Gee, I need to change" being among the first. He reiterates what the skit said about being disconnected from society; we live life in front of screens. We find comfort in that, but when we come into contact with other physical human beings, something powerful happens. An example of when I encountered this was when I joined a theater company with a bunch of people I had never met before: Lagniappe Theatre in Alexandria, LA. I had performed in shows at my High School, but I basically grew up with these people, so I already knew them, and we were nice acquaintances. But when I joined Lagniappe, of course there were temptations to get on my phone during free time and scroll through Instagram. Or just sit in a corner and claim that I am "pondering life." But, by the grace of God, I decided to get out of my comfort zone and introduce myself to some people. And I can say that these people that I've only known after one or two shows have grown to be some of my best friends. I know this may be a lame example, but it's just a personal testimony from me that proves that powerful things happen when you interact with those around you. When you show the love that Christ showed in knowing that we all need to be known as loved. So what do we do, we love. And love is powerful.
Pope Francis, upon reflecting about the world's current state, says that we are constantly tearing each other down and building barriers to shield us from others. We find faults in others rather than their merits, their strengths. I was a boy scout (for about 3 months), and I loved the idea of merit badges! We all need to be recognized for our strengths. Of course we should be aware of our shortcomings, but we should not be defined by them.
"Our response to a world at war has a name: its name is fraternity." As Pope Francis said this, I honestly thought he would be giving the common answer of love. All we need is love, right? Well, yes (I type this as I sing the Beatles in the back of my head). But more specific than love, we need a brotherhood, a fraternity, a communion. I have two biological brothers, Praise the Lamb. But I'm called to have 7 billion. As soon as He said that we needed fraternity, I immediately started thinking about how we say we need love and blah blah blah, but to actually be love to other people is to recognize those that you and I don't necessarily like as our brother. And there are a lot of people I don't like. We need to focus on the family, as well. I have been so blessed by great parents, and I have an awesome family! Are there things I wish we could do better, such as nightly prayer together? Yes. But for the most part, my family is straight up 100. But I will go to friend's houses, I'll talk to others about their home lives, and it scares me. There are families that disown their children, that divorce because of a petty argument, that kill their unborn children, and they pretend like everything is fine. Some people are good actors, most not so much. We see this world hurting so much, we see families broken and hurting, about to fall apart. That's not love, and that's definitely not fraternity, not communion. We must strive for peace with our brothers, me especially, in order to obtain that true brotherhood, whether it be among myself and someone who called me a name, or a country dropping bombs on the next.
He goes on to say that we should not be "sofa Christians" We confuse happiness with a sofa. It makes us feel comfortable and safe, kind of like our phones do, as mentioned earlier. This sofa allows us to not make any decisions because we are perfectly content as to where we are. I love what Pope Francis says here,
"Little by little, without even realizing it, we start to nod off, to grow drowsy and null while others-- perhaps more alert than we are, but not necessarily better-- decide our future for us. [...] We didn't come into this world to 'vegetate,' to take it easy, to make our lives a comfortable sofa to sleep on. No, we came for another reason: to leave a mark. [...If we don't,] then we end up paying a high price indeed: We lose our freedom."
I could read that over and over and still just bask in the truth of that statement. It reminds me of when Benedict XVI said, "This world will offer you comfort, but you were not made for comfort, you were made for greatness." To be honest, I took a nap in my bed in the dorm at ULL today. Upon typing this, I feel kind of bad. Gotta live life, I can't make friends in my sleep!
He challenged us pilgrims to trade in our sofas for walking shoes, to get us up and moving in life. (Keep in mind that we were sitting in a field that was not recently mowed, and was not the least bit comfortable. Guess we were winning at the whole "greatness" thing, huh? But honestly, I wouldn't have minded a sofa by now.) I had just bought a pair of walking shoes for this specific pilgrimage, so an English teacher would probably point out my shoes as being a metaphor for a new life.
And as we meet new people, as we live our lives, we build bridges. We concentrate on what brings us together, and not what tears us apart, what divides us. These bridges build brotherhoods, build fraternity, and family. They build trust, which leads to ultimate peace. And I think that we could all use a little peace right now.
After the Pope was finished speaking, a huge applause erupted. Then, we had Eucharistic Adoration. You know how I said that the day we had at the Mercy Centre was the most amount of people I've ever adored with, well this one Trumped it (it was yuuuuge). I had adoration with 3 million people. I adored the God of the universe with 3 million people. The Spirit was definitely busy that night. We sang the Chaplet of Divine Mercy in adoration, with each decade being sung in a different language. It was another beautiful representation of bridges being built, of the Church being one, as we knelt in the dirt at Campus Misericordiae. We then had Benediction with Pope Francis.
After, we prayed an evening prayer that is a tradition in Poland. It is a prayer to Our Lady of Czestochowa. It was beautiful, except whoever ran the huge screens in front of the sections was not doing a good job. In the middle of the prayer, a huge white screen popped up, asking us to not throw our flags at the power lines. Okay...thank you? I'm praying now. Ok, I forgive you, year of mercy. It really killed the mood though. Okay, rant over.
Then we got to sleep with 3 million people, outside, under the stars. Except I didn't sleep. Thank you to the Italians, who absolutely loved chanting and beating drums all night. There was also a couple that was absolutely inseparable right next to us. It's World Youth Day, not World Spoon Day, thank you. Year of Mercy, Nick. Year of Mercy. I also got to sleep next to two brothers in Christ I made on the trip, Luke and Joseph. When I say next to, not an inch separated us (or a centimeter, thank you metric system). Talk about fraternity, right?
Thus ends Day 11, with a sunburnt, but peaceful Nick.
Nicholas Scalfano
"Today's world demands that you be a protagonist of history because life is always beautiful when we choose to live it fully, when we choose to leave a mark."
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