Greetings Family, Friends, and Parishioners of Holy Family!

Welcome to the official World Youth Day Blog for our 6 pilgrims traveling to Rio in July 2013 from Church of the Holy Family in Novi. This blog is an opportunity for you all to stay in touch with our pilgrims, follow us during our preparations, virtually join us in spirit while we are in Rio de Janeiro for the WYD festivities!

One part of our preparation for such a pilgrimage is the spiritual formation. It is critical that we spiritually prepare ourselves so that we may be fully open to receive all the Holy Spirit has for us on this pilgrimage. So over the course of the year, each pilgrim will take a turn hosting everybody else at their home for food, fellowship, and some type of spiritual formation based on the World Youth Day theme. Our first gathering was at our fearless leader's house, Patty Hubbard. After some pizza and snacks, we broke out into small discussion groups (1 adult to 1 young person). Because we are small, each young person will have the opportunity to have an adult mentor. We discussed everything from what does your cranky look like to what is the difference between vacation and pilgrimage. It was a great time for the adults to really start to personally get to know their young person, and vice versa. Then we had a large group discussion on what it really means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ in 2012. After that, we read a chapter from an AMAZING book on discipleship called "Positively Dangerous." We talked about how critical it is to walk the talk as we strive to be faithful followers of Jesus. After more sharing and reflection as a large group, we personally reflected and journaled on our own call as a disciple of Jesus. All in all, a GREAT start as we become a WYD family!
Our next gathering is at the end of September...and we will have an extra special guest join us too, Fr. Bob LaCroix, our pastor! We are so blessed to have his support and prayers as we begin this journey together.

As I close with this first official post, I leave you with this video. It is a reflection on past World Youth Day's and was used in promotion for WYD Madrid 2011. Watch it...enjoy...and continue to keep our pilgrims in your prayers as we ready our hearts and minds for this life changing event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxOTpuQe6M4


God Bless!