It reminded me of my own upbringing, because when I was a child, we lived very close to our church as well. Our priest used to knock on our door at 6 o'clock in the morning when they needed altar boys, so that my brother and I could go serve the Mass. There is something special about living close to your parish church.

Vigil before World Youth Day

Shortly after the Mass we left to attend the evening vigil with the Holy Father at Campus Misericordiae. It was a beautiful evening, the weather was perfect.

I was very impressed to see the huge Door of Mercy they had set up in the middle of the field.

The vigil began with a number of musical performances and testimonies, and in his address, the Holy Father made very poignant references to some of those testimonies. Among them, was the testimony of a young woman from Aleppo, Syria, who talked about the situation in her country. There was also a man from Paraguay who had been involved in drugs and was rescued from that life with the help of a church organization.

Following those testimonies, the Holy Father gave a very animated address in which he challenged the young people not to become "couch potatoes" or to take early retirement, but to be involved in changing the world by changing their own hearts. His remarks were met by a very enthusiastic response from the crowd.

The event concluded with Eucharistic adoration. The tabernacle was just beautiful and when the doors opened they exposed the Blessed Sacrament.

The next morning, of course, was the Mass in the same place.

Sunday was a very hot and sunny day.

They estimate there were about 1.5 million people present for the Mass.

Meeting with Kiko

Monday afternoon, I attended a meeting of about 150,000 young people of the Neocatechumenal Way with their founder Kiko Arguello.

During the meeting, there was an altar call for vocations. It's always very moving because literally thousands of young men, women and families come forward answering the call for vocations or to go on mission.

I was very happy that at the meeting I was able to greet the group of 24 young people from the Pacific island nation of Kiribati led by Przemyslaw Kasprzak, one of our Boston seminarians who has been working there for about a year. They were helped to attend World Youth Day through our Boston office of the Propagation of the Faith.