Dear Administrator and Forum Colleagues,
It was a long weekend and I am bushed. But I wanted to share with you what I experienced during WYD.
I already related Tuesday's events, greeting the Pope at the airport and all that.
What followed was two days of wild preparations for the luncheon for the papal delegation at Martyrs' Shrine in Midland.
As I drove north, the sight of a Franciscan Friar in sandals walking quickly toward the city while reading his Office became forever etched in my imagination.
People in cars not used to this sight were in shock, at least some of them!
I got to the Shrine in plenty of time and sat down with the Director for a chat before a phone call came in saying the press were on their way as someone told them the Pope would be at the Shrine! No such luck however . . .
Soon, the bus carrying the papal delegation pulled up. Archbishop Sandri, the assistant to Cardinal Sodano came out and he concelebrated Mass in the Shrine Church.
We all walked across to the Fort Ste. Marie among the Hurons where we lunched on breaded pickerel, soup, corn bread and other 17th century Jesuit delicacies!
I sat with Fr. Joaquin Navarro-Walls who is the Vatican communications man.
He and the Archbishop were with the Pope in "Leopoli" or L'viv in for the papal visit to Ukraine.
He said that Lubomyr Huzar was a "very, very nice man."
I said "You liked our Patriarch did you?"
He replied, with a smile, "Yes, your Cardinal was very nice."
Topics of conversation included why RC's make the Sign of the Cross from left to right and we do the opposite and other topics of intense theological and liturgical interest . . .
After a while, I was wondering if this Jesuit was a lurker on this Forum
I then whined and complained about not being able to see the Pope and so I went back to Strawberry Island with some of the delegation before heading back down to Toronto for the Way of the Cross that was scheduled for six o'clock that evening.
Prior to this, I told one of the priests involved with protocol that I had two envelopes and a rosary to give the Pope.
I was then set upon by security who took the items from me and started checking them out. They took them away but later I was told that the items got to the intended person!
(Sheeesh! What kind of damage can one do with paper? Paper cut someone to death?
).
I met the Pope briefly, in fact when the priest behind me thought I was taking too long, I felt him nudge me.
I knelt and kissed His Holiness' hand and spoke with him in Ukrainian.
I sent along verbally everyone's best wishes from this Forum, and His Holiness smiled and asked me to convey to all of you here His Apostolic Blessing.
He said he prays for the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Churches daily. He said he particularly likes the Jesus Prayer and the Akathist to the Mother of God!
He gave me a very nice rosary and a card with his picture on one said and his signature on the other.
And that was it, that was all of it.
I was in tears on my way home that evening.
On Saturday, His Holiness "came to me" so to speak with his helicopter landing on the grounds of the Mother House of the Sisters of St Joseph, directly behind our home.
We heard his choppers in the night and also first thing in the morning.
Last night, I walked to the monastery and joined countless others in praying and watching there. I said a rosary for His Holiness and then hung a large white plastic rosary on the monastery gates and left it there. It wasn't there when I went by there this morning.
Everyone was so congenial and wonderful. I met and hugged so many people from different countries and cultures.
There was at once the sense of the universal Catholic Church AND the sense of the great diversity of culture and language.
His Holiness did mention the Eastern Catholics and the Orthodox in his homily on Saturday night. But this was all about Christian praxis, love and celebration together. Anything else was truly irrelevant then.
His Holiness permeates the love of Christ. To meet him is to experience a sacramental encounter with the Lord Jesus. I have no other way of expressing what I felt.
I also came to realize how many aspects of my life need to be Christianized in deeds, as well as in theory.
In addition to that monk walking along the roadway saying his breviary, there was another image of a young woman who held beads in one hand and held up a crucifix in another as she prayed.
And then there was that moment on Sunday when the Pope said, "The time has come for us to go on our daily paths. In your backpacks you have a Cross. It is now time to put on that Cross."
And people did, or else took theirs off and put them on again.
I wore a large three-Bar Eastern Cross.
But in the end it didn't matter, Latin Cross or Byzantine Cross or Armenian etc.
The experience of our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ in our midst is what mattered and what matters.
My life will not be the same again.
I learned that my diabetes is not only about the fact I have lived on a bad diet.
The insight came to me that I had not lived enough on the spiritual food of the Scriptures, prayer, Holy Communion, reaching out to those in need.
This is all "our Daily Bread" since Jesus is to be experienced in them all.
May God give us all this daily bread always.
May we all put on the Cross of Christ and allow ourselves to be used by Him in the world in accordance with His Will and for the building up of His Church.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.
May the Lord bless His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, and continue to guide him and uphold him now and always!
Alex
[ 07-29-2002: Message edited by: Orthodox Catholic ]
