Posted on 08/18/2005 4:20:26 AM PDT by ninenot
Cologne, Germany - Luke Strand walked toward this city's historic cathedral on Wednesday, quietly reciting the rosary.
Distractions squeezed by the 24-year-old Milwaukee man. Exuberant Italian young people, arms linked together, pushed past. Nearby, a large group of Chileans chanted in Spanish.
Strand, who is studying to become a priest, smiled at the scene.
"I'm tired and exhausted, but this is the beauty of it. We're on a pilgrimage," he said.
Strand had traveled to World Youth Day in Cologne - not for solitude, but for solidarity. About 325,000 young Catholics from nearly 200 countries have already arrived for the weeklong celebration that mixes religious devotion with merrymaking.
Strand - his backpack draped with an American flag - came with a group of nearly 100 young people in a trip sponsored by Marquette University and the Apostleship of Prayer, a worldwide Catholic spirituality movement whose U.S. offices are in the Milwaukee area.
Today, German-born Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Cologne on his first foreign trip as pontiff. Benedict's welcoming speech has caused a great amount of anticipation among Catholics. Some wonder whether the reserved 78-year-old Benedict will try to match the charisma of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, who died in April.
Added to the interest is that the trip will be a homecoming of sorts for Benedict, yet his homeland has become a largely secular country as thousands of people leave the church each year. And many Germans - while proud to have a pope from their country - disagree with Benedict's traditional views.
Yet Benedict will find fervent supporters among the Milwaukee pilgrims.
Father Will Prospero, a Jesuit with Marquette University's campus ministry who spent two years planning for the trip, said his group hopes to jostle its way through the crowds to hear the pope speak today. Getting that close to the pope will be tough, but "we've got to do it," he said. "That's why we came."
In addition to the Marquette group, several other youth groups from Wisconsin, as well as Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan, also traveled to Germany to attend the event.
Keeping nearly 100 people together proved impossible because of the huge crowds. The group members were told at the beginning of the day that they were responsible for themselves and their buddies.
After nearly three hours, part of the group that had managed to stay together made it to the Cathedral of St. Peter & Mary doors. The crowd pushed them inside, where the decibel level dropped. Young people crowded inside, gazing up at the stained glass windows.
The massive cathedral has been a pilgrimage destination for centuries.
"Amazing. We're here," Prospero said.
The cathedral, with its towering spires, is Cologne's landmark. It contains a large, gold-covered sarcophagus that is believed to contain the bones of the three kings, also known as the three wise men or magi. Pilgrims began coming to Cologne in large numbers after the relics were transferred there from Italy in the mid-1100s. The relics' presence prompted city and church officials to start construction of the cathedral in 1248.
Prospero wanted the trip - which included a week visiting holy sites in France and elsewhere in Germany - to be intense. His wish has been fulfilled.
The travelers got poured on while sleeping in tents along the Rhine River. They held Mass in the hallway of the school where they are sleeping. They squeezed into already-full train cars.
The intense moments will continue this weekend when participants will camp out in Marienfeld, a landscaped former open-pit coal mine near Cologne. The Milwaukee group will sleep under the sky, without tents. The event wraps up on Sunday, when Benedict leads an outdoor Mass there. Organizers expect more than 800,000 people to attend the public event.
"That's World Youth Day. It's the combination of the intense suffering and the intense joy," Prospero said.
The joyous moments came unexpectedly and improbably Wednesday - such as when University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee friends Reanna Shellman and Kendra Youren spotted each other. They had come with separate Milwaukee groups and never expected to find each other in Germany.
Youren, 21, was with a smaller group from Our Lady of Good Hope in Milwaukee. She saw a Marquette University banner bobbing above the crowd outside the cathedral and pushed her way toward her fellow Wisconsinites.
"I just can't believe it. Who would've thought we'd find another group from Milwaukee in this crowd?" Shellman, 22, wondered as the two walked toward the cathedral, holding hands to stay together.
The friends said World Youth Day is an important chance to connect with other Catholics from around the world."It's just amazing to see so many young people," Youren said. "It's just a breath of fresh air for the church."
Ping
Jungmann The Mass of the Roman Rite
The first place in which antiphonal song was employed was Antioch where it rode on the swell of a young Catholic movement. When about 350 (ad) the leaders of the Catholic monks, Flavian and diodoros (later Bishops) began to gather the people around them and to argue openly against a mighty Arianism then at its height, they introduced this method of singing at their prayer-meetings in the shrines of the martyrs.
Who knows what will result from this gathering of Christian Youth? It is likely to bear great fruit in the future. Thanks be to God for John Paul the Great's establishment of WYD.
The perspective from our very own pilgrim:
"hey guys,
its me again and i have to type really fast because i only have 11 minutes left.
first of all, sorry mom i really try to get on the computers as much as i can but its really hard and there are a lot of people here that like to go on them too .
im here in koln as im sure you all probably realized and its not as cool looking as the other two cities but it still is as beautiful as ever (a lot prettier then america). the pope is arriving today and hes coming in by boat on the rhine river which is lucky for me because my hotel is right on the rhine river. im sure right now [our group leader] is waiting by the riverside.
we havent done too much. i got a little shopping done and its really hard to find rosaries so if i dont come home with any dont be too disappointed....
oh dad i meant to tell you i passed the city where beethoven lived it was pretty cool.
and i want more emails!!! i love hearing from you guys but i open my inbox and i only have 2 which say things that are personally written.
hugs and kisses - bear hug for nicky!!!
love
r."
In addition, it should be noted that our Archbishop, Tim Dolan, has arrived in Koln sans luggage--courtesy, British Airways.
IIRC, that's the way the disciples were told to travel...
Re the Three Kings -- Sir Walter Scott mentions (in Quentin Durward, I think) that the only oath you could place on a 15th c. German mercenary that you could be sure he would keep was on the "Three Dead Men of Köln".
**Father Will Prospero, a Jesuit with Marquette University's campus ministry who spent two years planning for the trip, said his group hopes to jostle its way through the crowds to hear the pope speak today. Getting that close to the pope will be tough, but "we've got to do it," he said. "That's why we came."**
BTTT!
You can tell she's not from the South, bless her heart. (Snort!)
Hey, that happened to me a couple of years ago when I flew into Rome from Heathrow. Same airline. Must be a European thing.
I've got to back sometime. I want to see that pretty cool city that Beethoven lived in;)
True--she's a Yank.
Got my sympathies.
I know. At some point, I have to get familiar with the opus of Flannery O'Connor. I must admit, I'm sympathetic to the general culture of the South.
As to "beautiful cities," however, they are ALL in Germany--from which country my paternal grandparents emigrated in the early 1900's.
Pshaw!! on those upstart towns in Va. and N/S Carolina...
LOL - it's true that cities in Europe are old and picturesque, as long as you don't look at the parts where the people actually live.
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