{"id":956,"date":"2024-02-29T00:54:32","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T00:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/?p=956"},"modified":"2024-02-29T21:23:33","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T21:23:33","slug":"world-youth-day-is-not-for-the-faint-of-heart-but-its-worth-it-true-presence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/2024\/student-stories\/world-youth-day-is-not-for-the-faint-of-heart-but-its-worth-it-true-presence\/","title":{"rendered":"True Presence In Lisbon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>World Youth Day<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" data-attachment-id=\"957\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/2024\/student-stories\/world-youth-day-is-not-for-the-faint-of-heart-but-its-worth-it-true-presence\/attachment\/truepresenceinlisbon_encounterwinter2024\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2024\/02\/TruePresenceinLisbon_Encounterwinter2024.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"600,300\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2024\/02\/TruePresenceinLisbon_Encounterwinter2024-300x150.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2024\/02\/TruePresenceinLisbon_Encounterwinter2024.jpg\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2024\/02\/TruePresenceinLisbon_Encounterwinter2024.jpg\" alt=\"TruePresenceinLisbon_Encounterwinter2024\" class=\"wp-image-957\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2024\/02\/TruePresenceinLisbon_Encounterwinter2024.jpg 600w, https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2024\/02\/TruePresenceinLisbon_Encounterwinter2024-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>World Youth Day is not for the faint of heart. Inevitably, participating will involve sore feet, heavy bags, uncertain weather events, irregular meals and intensely crowded public transportation. In Portugal, our UST students experienced all these things plus record heat, sunburn, wildfire smoke, getting lost, fatigue and waiting hours in line for questionable meals.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All of this raises a question: Why bother? Can\u2019t one just read Pope Francis\u2019 messages from the comfort of one\u2019s home?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Certainly, one can. But the whole point of World Youth Day is to be present with the Holy Father, to see him, to hear his voice and to live his message in person. We had to be present to meet a UST alumna from Ireland, dance with Polish pilgrims, get a UST shout-out from <a href=\"https:\/\/victoriadiocese.org\/new-bishop-to-the-diocese-of-victoria\">Bishop Cahill<\/a>, encounter the seminarian who translated Pope Francis for our non-Spanish speakers, collect <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Anthony_Fisher\">Archbishop Fisher<\/a>\u2019s signature on our UST flag, pray with the relics of Saint Thomas Aquinas, and go to Mass with a million-plus friends.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our trip was grace-filled because we were present to experience these things. True Presence requires sacrifice, but our pilgrims found it was worth it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>World Youth Day World Youth Day is not for the faint of heart. Inevitably, participating will involve sore feet, heavy bags, uncertain weather events, irregular meals and intensely crowded public transportation. In Portugal, our UST students experienced all these things plus record heat, sunburn, wildfire smoke, getting lost, fatigue and waiting hours in line for&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6,153],"tags":[731,209,888,693,10,889],"class_list":["post-956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-stories","category-student-stories","tag-op","tag-pope-francis","tag-sr-maria-frassati","tag-winter-2024-issue","tag-winter-issue","tag-world-youth-day-lisbon"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Attending World Youth Day is not for the faint of heart<\/title>\n<meta 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