THE big crowd of young people who came for the Pilgrimage of Trust held at the Don Bosco Technical Institute in Makati City was a revealing testament of the desire of today’s young people to satisfy that innate human longing for the Divine and the need to reach out to others.
Around 3,000 pilgrims from all over the world converged at the Don Bosco stadium from February 3-7 for the 5th Asian pilgrimage of trust on earth. Young adults aged 16-35 representing the five continents participated in the pilgrimage with the desire to quench their “thirst for life in fullness.”
Bro. Alois Lổser, prior of Taize community, in one of the meditations he gave to the pilgrims during the five-day pilgrimage, mentioned that in his meeting with the youth from various countries he noted that among young people today there is that spiritual longing to live a meaningful life.
“In every human heart there is a longing, the longing to be loved and to love. At the same time, we all experience that this longing is only rarely satisfied, and never for all time. Far from discouraging us, this can allow us to discover over and over again a personal communion with God,” he said.
The pilgrimage centered on the theme “a thirst for lie in fullness… a call to transform the world” challenged the youth to make a difference in today’s society marked by inequality even as he said that societal change can only be possible if it starts from one’s heart.
“We all feel that there needs to be major changes in our world. The structures of our societies and patterns of thought from the past are proving to be inadequate and insufficient to create greater justice on earth, to reduce poverty, to ensure that persons and peoples can live together in peace,” the Taize prior said.
“But we also discover that necessary change, particularly an overhaul of the world economic and financial system, is not possible without a change in the human heart,” he added.
Witnesses of peace and reconciliation
Brother Roger Schutz, founder of the Taize community began the Pilgrimage of Trust on earth 30 years ago to encourage young people to become witnesses of peace and reconciliation in their local communities and churches.
Since then, the Taize brothers go to different countries and cities to hold prayer meetings with young people of diverse backgrounds to let them experience the universality of the Church.
“It’s a pilgrimage of reconciliation,” Bro. Alois said. “We try to bring people together from different backgrounds to listen to each other and to share.”
Attracted by the witness of unity and life of prayer, young people from all over the world come to Taize, and stay with the community for few months.
“In Taize, we welcome young people from all over the world every day. And each year, there are also young people from the Philippines coming and staying with us [for] two or three months,” he said.
There the young pilgrims immersed themselves in the community’s way of life, joining the community prayer, observing silence on proper times, sharing with co-pilgrims their faith and working with the brothers at the workshop halls.
5th Asian meeting
The recent meeting in Manila was the fifth of its kind in Asia and the second in the country following the first pilgrimage of trust held also in Manila in 1991. The first and second Asian meetings were held in Chennai (Madras) India in 1985 and 1988, followed by Manila in 1991 and Kolkata, India in 2006.
At the heart of the youth pilgrimage of trust are prayers and sharing where young people in a spirit of solidarity learn to overcome barriers and differences to learn from each other.
During the Manila meeting, the pilgrimage started daily with a morning prayer which the pilgrims did in the parish Churches together with the parish community. In the afternoon, the pilgrims trooped to Don Bosco for the afternoon activities that include prayer, group sharing and meditation by Bro. Alois. Each day ended with an evening prayer where host families and the public were invited to participate.
Sharing… to transform the world
Bro. Alois told young pilgrims that simplicity of life opens oneself to sharing and solidarity with others even as he emphasized to the youth to share “what we have to contribute to the transformation of the world.”
“We see here in Manila so many people who undertake initiatives in sharing and are committed alongside the poor, who act with integrity and for the good of all,” said Bro. Alois.
He said this is an inspiring anecdote he hopes to share with the young people who come to Taize to lead them further into a life of sharing and solidarity with others.
“By living in simplicity, we will better discover how to share what we have and in that way we can participate, even very humbly, in an effort to change the world,” he said.
Listening to one another’s experiences and struggles to become a witness of peace and reconciliation in their respective communities, each pilgrim realized how much they have to learn from each other.
Those who experience a life of conflict can understand the desire of a young girl from war-torn Mindanao who longed for peace to reign in her region.
“In 2008, we saw conflict very close to home. Many homes were burned and people killed. So we thirst for peace; we have decided to be peacemakers in our school and in our community. It takes a lot of courage, and sometimes we despair, but we hold on to hope.”
Many of the international pilgrims have come earlier and stayed for sometime in other parts of the country for an immersion experience. A pilgrim from Sweden also shared her experience of being welcomed openly by a family and allowing her to join them in harvesting their crops.
The pilgrimage goes on
The five-day pilgrimage ended with a Eucharistic celebration led by Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales.
The pilgrims went home to their respective countries and communities with their faith nourished and deepened by what they have experienced during the meeting.
But they also realized that pilgrimage does not end there since life with all the various challenges is a continuous journey in faith.
“Here, in such a different place, it is very easy to see God, in the little gestures of everyday life; it is very easy to experience the joy of sharing. What we now need is to bring this back into our daily lives at home,” a pilgrim from Portugal said.
Back to their own communities, in the face of life’s daily struggles they are called to become witnesses of peace and unity, to become bridges that encourage understanding and dialogue.
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