Fr Gilberto Ortellado, Parish Priest of “Our Lady of the Beautiful Branch” in Paulinia and superior of the Community of Paulinia-Sao-Paulo.

Good day dear brothers and sisters, faithful readers of the NEF.  I am happy to be able to share briefly with you what the recent WORLD YOUTH DAY (WYD) in Rio de Janeiro has meant for the Betharramite community and parish of Paulinia, beginning with the preparation at Paulinia to the events which we are enjoying today,

We started preparations last year as soon as the person responsible for the Youth from the Archdiocese of Campinas announced that each parish would welcome groups of young people coming from other countries for a missionary experience in the week leading up to the WYD.  This week was known as “Missionary Week”.  To this end our archdiocese drew up a programme including religious, sporting and cultural activities as well as visits to the families.

Father Aurelio, Deacon Chiquinho (Francisco de Assis Dos Santos) and myself decided that our parish couldn’t be absent from such an event.  So we got into the preparations too.  Thank God, we were able to have the help of an extraordinary team.  We assembled the youngsters and when we told them about our plan, they joined with us with enthusiasm.  We began to work with them: meeting to reflect on the WYD, to organise activities to collect money to cover inscription fees and travel expenses.  Once a month there was Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament to pray for the WYD among other intentions.

40 young people from the parish were enrolled for the WYD for the first time. Besides, we got ready with the same team and the whole parish to welcome the young pilgrims who were to come from other countries. What a surprise and what a joy when Fr Gustavo and Fr Mauro asked us to welcome the young Betharramites from Argentina, Paraguay, Italy and France who also wanted to come for the WYD.  The general idea was to use the pre-WYD days to reflect on the 150 years since the death of our founder Saint Michael Garicoits.

All six communities from the parish got down to work. General mobilisation: organisation of the families who were going to welcome the visitors, teams for the kitchen, preparation of the programme for the Missionary Week with celebrations, conferences, cultural and sportive events, festivities, visits, transport, preparation of the meeting place for the pre-WYD, etc.  When the great day arrived we welcomed 30 young Betharramites: Fathers, religious and laity.

The pre-WYD week was very touching. It was a source of pure joy for the youth of the parish and for the parish community, principally for those who had accompanied the preparation of the week at close hand, but also for our religious community at Paulinia. The enthusiasm of Fr Aurelio and Deacon Chiquito during those days is worth mentioning. It is also worth noting the speed with which the youth here and those coming from abroad were quickly integrated. There were those speaking Spanish, others Italian or French or Portuguese. So what! Everyone understood thanks to the language of music, dance, hugging, smiles, games, prayer or simply sharing a meal together or celebrations.  It was a pleasure seeing the youngsters sharing all those happy moments as if they were friends from long ago.

On Saturday 20 July at Campinas we had the celebration of Mass to send the young pilgrims on their way to the WYD together with the participation of all the parishes in the archdiocese. It was a beautiful celebration and marked the beginning of the WORLD YOUTH DAY.  On Sunday evening the young people from the parish set off for Rio de Janeiro, accompanied by Fr Aurelio and Chiquinho. The young Betharramites caught up with them on Monday morning. They were brimming over with enthusiasm and happiness encouraged by what they had experienced during the pre-WYD days, impatient to live through something unique in their lives, and the thought of meeting Pope Francis together with hundreds of thousands of other young people.  They were also aware that they were going to have a spiritual meeting with Jesus as they had never had before. Meanwhile we who remained at home in the parish, we experienced the WYD thanks to the media and during our Masses by praying for the meeting and for our young people.

If the trip to Rio was touching the return was no less so.  When our young parishioners met up with the young Argentineans, Italians and Paraguayans it was an explosion of joy. The return of the youth coincided with the week’s preparation for the feast of Our Lady of Betharram. The young shared with us what they had lived during the WYD, this during our week day Masses.  They were successful in transmitting to us all the enthusiasm and spiritual strength which they felt during the previous week at Rio de Janeiro.

The WYD brought a breath of fresh air and a new spirit to our parish.  Our young people are full of life, enthusiasm and are longing to serve the Church in a missionary spirit. There is something else striking: although we spoke little about the spirituality of St Michael Garicoits, they now want to hear more about his life, his charism and on the Congregation.  This is the result of the time spent with the young Betharramites and with the religious who visited us.  This is a unique possibility given to us and which we must make the best of.

Fr Aurelio has already begun working with the young people by assembling them so that what was sown during those days of the WYD will not die but bear fruit not only in them but in other young people of the parish. The young people are already dreaming about the next WYD in Poland in 2017. God willing we shall be there too!