Lawrence Lam @ WYD2002
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Taste of WYD and WYD Cross Arrival I wanted to share with you the events of last weekend. I wish more of those around me - practising and non-practising Catholics alike, traditional and charismatic, Evangelical Christians, and even agnostics and atheists - could have been there. The events of last weekend were so full of energy, power, emotion and humanity that a whole Gospel could have been preached just by experiencing it. Spoken like the charismatic-wannabe that I am, I believe the Holy Spirit was working full force and that it will continue to do so when it comes to World Youth Days and Catholic Renewal. For me, World Youth Days began last Friday, June 7, the feast of the
Sacred Heart of Jesus, with an evening mass at St. Basil's at U of T. The
church was packed for this Following the inevitable end of the opening hymn, Fr. Rosica introduced the main celebrant: James Francis Cardinal Stafford. Cardinal Stafford is the President of the Pontifical Council of the Laity at the Vatican. He is, hence, the Pope's man in charge of overseeing World Youth Days. When he was the Bishop of Denver, he himself hosted World Youth Days there in 1993. Following the intro, His Eminence, evocative of Luke 14:10, invited those standing at the back of the church to come and sit on the carpeted area at the front just by the altar. Despite everybody's shyness, the Cardinal urged them on. Then the Mass got started. The liturgical hymns of the mass were all taken from the World Youth Day CD with the exception one. The first and second reading were done in foreign languages. Again, the Gospel Acclamation had the congregation clapping to the "Alleluia". Cardinal Stafford delivered the homily where he talked about the Holy Father's intense mental vitality. He reassured us of his ability to continue on, obviously addressing the rumours of the Pope's resignation. He told us about how the Holy Father is always praying, whether silently, or aloud from his old Polish prayerbook. One of the prayers that jumped out at me was "Jesus, hide me in your wounds". I thought that was beautiful. The consecration during the Liturgy of the Eucharist was powerful. With so many priests concelebrating with the Cardinal and the Bishop, it was jolting to see such a reminder of the fact that we are an Apostolic Church, in that our priests and bishops can be linked to the original Apostles by way of succession. At the dismissal, the Cardinal gave us a special blessing. For the closing hymn we were asked to sing "Lumière du Monde", the World Youth Days theme song in four languages, so that His Eminence could report to the Pope that we knew it. Just as a quick comment, I have recently been disturbed with the Eurocentric nature of the Church that even this theme was only written in the European languages. I am told, however, that Chinese Martyrs Church has recently written Cantonese and Mandarin versions of Lumiere du Monde. Anyways, the closing procession was just as beautiful. The congregation clapped to the beat while Cardinal Stafford blessed us on the way out. I wish more masses could be like that. I don't care what Ratzinger think After mass, we were treated to a free dinner at Queen's Park. This is the main reason the evening was called "Taste of WYD." WYD will be catered by Compass, whose last big event was the Olympic Games at Salt Lake City. They hoped to process the crowd of about 1,000 people in 30 minutes. At WYD, they said they expect to serve 75,000 people every 30 minutes! The system works like this: find a group of six, give all tickets to one member and that person goes to the tent and returns with the food for everyone. Chun and I were joined by my friend Tina and a friend of hers. We still needed two more so we went to a spot to pick up strays and found a young couple who lived in the neighbourhood. The meal consisted of pasta, coleslaw, bread, cheese, apples and bottled water. The pasta and coleslaw were in big containers to divide amongst ourselves. I was very impressed by the food, particularly by how piping hot the pasta was. The Cardinal, dressed all in red, walked around from group to group making chit chat. Just imagine St. Peter or St. Paul coming up to you to say "Wow that pasta's hot! I can't believe how hot it is! I saw them take it out of the truck 4 hours ago! How do they keep it so hot? Thanks be to God!" And with that he moved on. Before we left Andrew purchased a book called "Be Not Afraid" which is a colourful book containing the Pope's messages to young people on various topics. The book was launched this day by Novalis. Taste of WYD indeed, I look forward to the actual event. Sunday, June 9 was the arrival of the World Youth Day Cross at its destination in downtown Toronto. The World Youth Day cross is a humble cross: simply two wooden boards bolted together. It was entrusted to the youth of the world by Pope John Paul II in 1984. Since then it has been present at every World Youth Day and millions around the world have touched it. Since it arrived in Canada, it had traveled over 40,000 km around the country. When it got to Montreal, it was walked for 43 days to Toronto by volunteers called "Portageurs". I have to sadly admit that I ignored its visit to Waterloo. But I was determined to see it in Toronto. When I found out about the welcoming ceremony for the Cross, I was determined to be there.
The Cross was carried out and the small crowd that was gathered there
followed it into the cemetery for a brief prayer service. We prayed briefly
while the Cross was propped against the Mausoleum where Cardinal After the Prayer Service the cross was brought back to the front of the Seminary where people took turns taking pictures with the Cross and venerating it. At 9:00 the pilgrimage officially began. We started by observing the Portageurs' routine ritual of praying silently with the cross. As they huddled together around the Cross I noticed a number of them started breaking into tears. This would be the last day of their journey, the last day with their new friends, their last day with the Cross. Neil McCarthy the organizer said a few words followed by an opening prayer led by a young priest who accompanied the Portageurs. We were then on our way! At the head of the procession was an open-roof double decker bus featuring a live band. Following was a banner saying "We welcome the World Youth Day Cross". Behind that was a number of flags and then finally the World Youth Day Cross. The rest of us followed trailed by a trailer and an ambulance. The Toronto police went ahead of us blocking intersections. I'd estimate there were a couple hundred of us at the start: people of all ages from little kids to the elderly. I was very impressed.
I became excited when we hit the Bloor Viaduct. I was able to see the Downtown Toronto Skyline and so I knew we were almost there. We were making really good time, so we paused in the shade of a high rise on Jarvis while the bus blasted music outside the condo. We wanted to time our arrival with the CBC Newsworld broadcast. At 4:00 we finally arrived at Bond St. outside St. Michael's Cathedral to a large waiting crowd welcoming our own large crowd. The Portageurs had carried the cross the final kilometre and placed the cross in its final destination in Toronto. They were bawling as it was the end of their pilgrimage. The cross was then "surfed" over the crowd. Hundreds of people got to
touch the cross as it glided over our heads. Meanwhile, Fr. Mark Robson,
Cardinals Like Friday's mass, this prayer service was not the typical quiet group prayer. Each person's speech or homily was enthusiastically punctuated with applause and cheers. Bishop Boissoneau welcomed us all in his opening remarks. This was followed by remarks from Cardinal Stafford. I was amused by some of the things he said: "What a wonderful experience this is to take back to the Holy Father. You Canadians have taught us a new expression: Surfing the Cross. How beautiful that is, surfing the cross, isn't it? It's even more beautiful when you see it done, as I saw this afternoon. And what a pleasure it will be for me to go back to the Holy Father and say 'Holy Father, we have a new evangelization going on. The Canadians have taught us what it means to handle the cross in such a modern way, surfing the cross, and the Holy Father will know exactly what I mean you know that. So what a joy it will be for me to go back with this memory." He then talked about the words of St. Ignatius of Antioch to the people of Rome who quoted St. Paul: "God forbid that I should glory in anything other than in the Cross of Jesus Christ." It was a very good speech. I know that I've recently said that it would be horrible if the next pope was American, but in truth, I'd be quite delighted if Cardinal Stafford became the new pope. He's just so likeable. Cardinal Ambrozic led the Prayer Service which was basically a quick Liturgy of the Word. The readings were in many languages. Ambrozic's homily was about the glory of the Cross - how a symbol for death was "lifted up" to signify triumph over death. He also joked about chickening out from walking the 15 km with us. After the Our Father, instead of shaking each other's hands we traced a cross on the foreheads of those around us. We prayed silently while a band performed "We Are One Body", the theme from WYD 1993. When we were singing, even Fr. Robson was clapping along with the crowd to the song. Since I was standing right next to the camera man, I was on CBC Newsworld about three times! Anyways... This was followed by testimonies by portageurs Sebastien LaCroix (interesting name) and Bronwyn O'Flynn. They shared inspirational stories of joy and suffering over the past 43 days. Cardinal Stafford gave a special blessing and all the clergy on stage gave the final blessing together to end the prayer service.
I got some sunburn due to improper usage but other than that this weekend was an incredible experience. Cardinal Stafford says that the nonbeliever may not understand but I think that even the secularist could detect just a small bit of this enormously moving experience. I know that reading this cannot compare to being at the event but I felt compelled to share my experience anyways. I realize this email has been very long and I apologize for that. I want to finally encourage you to come out to as many WYD events as possible. There will be over 200 WYD Cross events all over the GTA so I think it would be great to check some of them out. WYD itself will be an experience of a lifetime and the events of last weekend were an encouraging preview. If you can't register as a delegate at least come out to the Papal Mass. Check out www.wydcrosstoronto.org |
It is not my intent to offend anyone here. What I wrote was straight from the heart: uncensored, uncut. |
event, dubbed "Taste of WYD". The opening hymn
was "
Andrew and I arrived early in the morning at St. Augustine's Seminary.
When we got there Sunday morning mass was concluding in their chapel. When
mass had ended I snuck in to take a peek at the cross. I knelt in the front
pew and prayed with it silently. I then got up to get a close look. It
really was a simple cross. It was badly weathered with scratches and roughness.
I wonder what it was like back in '84. There was a brass plate with an
inscription describing the cross's origins, just as I had written above.
Shortly afterwards I ran into Fr. Tom Lynch who I met and I had a brief
chat with him. After evading his indirect questions about my vocation,
I learned that he was getting ready to go on CBC Newsworld for a 1 hour
special on Welcoming the Cross. I quickly informed someone at home and
asked to tape it on CBC.
McGuigan
and other bishops were resting.
We Rocked Toronto! For 15 km we walked through the streets making noise.
Either the band would play music or play a CD on the sound system. We'd
sing
along to U2, Beatles, or WYD themes of the past or present. Everywhere
people would wave from their apartment windows, shopkeepers would come
out to greet us and cars would honk their horns to encourage us. Many people
would join us for part or all of the rest of the walk that by the time
we reached our rest stop our group doubled in size. Andrew and I made note
of how many churches of different denominations we passed. At one point
one of the Portageurs exclaimed "Welcome to the Universal Church!" One
of the Anglican churches paused their liturgical celebrations to greet
us. The whole congregation came out and sang "Lift High the Cross". As
I approached that group, I heard myself think "Whoa Nelly! Female priest!"
I didn't realize it at first because their vestments are exactly the same.
On the whole it was really good to see over a thousand people marching
through the streets celebrating the Cross. Andrew and I got to carry the
Cross for a few hundred metres. Everybody got a chance to carry it. It
really gives a new, literal meaning to Matthew 16:24 "Take up his cross
and follow Me".
Aside from the WYD Flags, there were all kinds of national flags there.
There were many flags flying as it was because of the World Cup. There
were all kinds flags from many different countries, Austrian, Irish, Portuguese
and even a flag from Belleville. Chinese Martyrs' Church let me carry the Chinese
flag for a bit. There was a little kid with a sign that said "France"
on it. I found out pretty soon that she was part of a group representing
my elementary school, which is a French Immersion school. The programs we
were given had little bingo cards to meet people. The cards had squares
like "Someone with sunglasses" or "Someone not wearing socks". While I
didn't play the game myself I did get to sign other peoples' scorecards.
I got to meet people from Montreal, Toronto and New York.
Ambrozic and Stafford, Bishops De Angelis and Boissonneau took
to the stage for a brief prayer service. We began when the cross returned
to its place.
After Sunday mass at the Cathedral, which was not part of the formal
program, I came out to see a long lineup of people waiting to spend some
quiet time with the cross. I got all emotional watching the faithful lineup
to kiss, kneel and venerate the Cross, remembering Christ's sacrifice,
just like millions of others had already done with the cross. I didn't
bother lining up, but I sat on the curb near the cross in silent prayer
for about 15 minutes. That was the wind up to my day.
Contact me: lawrencewyd@catholic.org