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economist suntribune faith thursday aug 12002 1 saw the greatness of gods creation world youth day a joy for markham whitchurchstouffville residents the roman catholic churchs world youth day 2002 had plenty of local participation we asked participants and organizers to con tribute their thoughts on the mas sive fiveday event heres a sam pling of their replies seeing the multitudes was overpowering world youth day means many things to many people to me it was an experience that helped my spiri tuality and my love of people of dif ferent cultures grow my sister lorraine and i were involved in wyd almost from the beginning as we volunteered every wednesday from 7 to 9 pm since september of 2001 in the wyd choir through the choir i learned the music of the church has a rich his tory music is not only a way to pray twice but helps us feel gods spirit at every performance our fel low pilgrims danced and sang with the joy of gods love going home every night was an experience on its own as my sister a few of my comrades from the choir and myself would still be singing on the ttc and would rouse tired pil grims and other torontonians into a festive mood i- realized that my faith in god was something that was mirrored in the faces of all those around me i was moved by the encouraging cheers each country had every time they chanted when they saw flags from different countries i realized that the hatred i had seen during the attacks on the world trade center and the pentagon and on afghanistan is not something that can destroy faith in god and the love that people can show to each other i saw the greatness of gods cre ation in the final mass that was cel ebrated by the holy father joanne dsilva be the spirit and light for the entire world world youth day is now a mem ory but hopefully its impact will stay with all of us forever the mes sages are so strong be the spirit and light for the entire world our family was fortunate enough to share the week with some of the pilgrims we opened our home and hearts to welcome the weary travel ers and experienced such warmth and sharing in return it didnt matter that they came jonathan guillem far right was among the volunteers helping out at world youth day steph sara and maricar were the others in blue shirts along with tom a friend the group made from minnesota mr guillem and others wrote their thoughts on the fiveday event from halfway across the world ireland we had our faith in com mon and it was strengthened for me the images which will always be reminders of world youth day are sitting in our home with our pil grims watching all of the stations of the cross as the sun slowly set and attending the lively morning mass es at st patrick church with hun dreds of young people doing hand motions to the songs they were so joyfully singing warren and susan bury pilgrimage ends with renewed hope promise my pilgrimage began at st mark roman catholic church in stouffville and ended with renewed hope and promise one could say that world youth day was a very tenuous time under extreme heat heavy downpours and lack of physical activities this event put my faith to the test but i was able to get through all of these hardships along with everyone else not only was world youth day a spiritual rejuvenation for myself but it was also a wake up call telling me to invite true happiness and peace into my heart and abandoning my false views on what the pope described as the darkness paul jeffrey entire week was gift from godexcept for the frogs not everyone can say that they stood five feet away from the pope but i can and let me tell you the experience was like no other the week began with a welcom ing mass at exhibition stadium along with my- companions monica mcconkey of stouffville and grace hadeed of markham we tried our best to get a good view of the altar to no avail the big screen would be our destiny the next three days we partici pated in retreats at st patrick parish in markham we heard motivation al accounts of faith from youth and from various bishops thursday was the big day we saw the pope we were five feet away from him as soon as i saw him i was brought to tears his sheer presence is incredible and indescribable i spoke to a noncatholic who had also seen him and he said it doesnt matter what faith you are when you are in his presence you cant deny the holiness about him on saturday we beganwith mass at sl mark church in stouffville along with our visiting pilgrims from maine father leslie tamas blessed us all and wished us the best as we left to begin our 10kilometre trek from finch station to downsview the walk took approximately three hours and people whose houses were en route had their hoses out for us to drink from and attached their sprinklers to their fences to refresh us once we reached downsview it was time to find a dry spot to set up camp we got as close as we could to the stage and set up tarps for shade and to protect us from rain then we waited and waited finally at 7 pm we caught yet another glimpse of the pope in his popemobile then began ourvigil by candlelight we prayed we sang and listened to the words of jr ii sleep would have been nice but the conditions made it nearly impos sible which was fine because we were all on such a high the plague of frogs also affected sleeping condi tions yes frogslots of them and they definitely werent scared of us the morning finally came and we awoke to find thousands of peo ple streaming in for the mass the pope arrived and despite the rain and wind the crowd went wild just as we all thought we were doomed to have a rainy finale to world youth week the pope began his homily and the clouds dis persed a gift from god yes indeed the entire week was claudia petramala i was amazed at the spirit and kindness of pilgrims as a volunteer for world youth day i was given the opportunity to meet and greet thousands upon thousands of pilgrims coming in from all over the world i was amazed at the kindness and spirit they had i have never seen anything like this in my life one memorable experience was when i and other volunteers were waiting at a bus stop and a man pulls over and offers us a ride world youth day definitely made the greater toronto area a great place to be jonathan guillem 300 ti choose from caxxaway jvikje oreo ivojhumlaimt t titleist caps 24999 irt reg 49900 tpecial mens ladies golf shoes erom dual iigfrrtrweiefl sstnl bag 11999 reg x1999 oono models 3999 savtt tto- nikea reg 64999 drivers 39999 finf5t drivers reg 55099 34999 callaway ercii woods 11 pc steel sets from nnd it dilvlarcoiftgolf niltc titlctxt experienced grade a dozen 2422 greg fcnrmn golf shirts reff 99999 xtdy palmer 12 jr graphite s9999 at 2 s j wds reg 69999 3ps5ia pbt55t amies own 11 gc b ajl a sr stsr vf i mrh mlh reg 49900 2x hwy 447 cast wmmmwr ml clearance centrel 9054795077