A Very Special Rosary Travels to Magis and World Youth Day 2011
Today marks the end of the Magis 2011 pilgrims’ experiences across Spain, Portugal and North Africa. Now, they are on to World Youth Day!
After hiking centuries-old pilgrim routes, volunteering to assist in infirmaries, discussing inter-religious issues with Muslims and visit the sites where the founder of the Society of Jesus, St. Ignatius of Loyola, experience a religious conversion, the 3,000 Magis pilgrims will gather with the hundreds of thousands of World Youth Day pilgrims as they arrive in Madrid to begin almost a week of festivities and activities.
Marquette University student Emma Scuglik has been taking us along on her travels and shared this video with us as she packed for her three-weeks in Spain. As Emma shared in her previous video, packing space is tight in the pilgrims’ backpacks but she made room for a very special item to go with her during her travels.
Magis 2011 Pilgrims Live Out the Five Rules of Pilgrimage
No one said it was going to be easy!
Marquette University student Emma Scuglik interviews some Hong Kong pilgrims and other new found friends who are accompanying her along her Magis 2011 pilgrimage on what the five rules of a successful pilgrimage entail.
Making Friends at Magis 2011
Magis is a pastoral experience of events and programs organized by the Jesuits for World Youth Day pilgrims in the weeks before World Youth Day begins in Madrid, Spain. Magis participants get to experience being “men and women for others” as they gather together to celebrate their faith and to serve and volunteer in their host country of Spain as well as Portugal and North Africa.
They also get to have fun!
These young adults, who are “with Christ at the heart of the world”, find a commonality with other young people from across the globe who might not share their language, their customs or their background yet do share their faith and beliefs. In this video piece, Marquette University students meet up with other Magis pilgrims from Malta and Thailand and discuss where their experiences will be taking them and what they’ll be doing during their Magis experiences.
Pilgrims and Their Jesuit Chaperones Leave Loyola Today for their Magis 2011 Experiences
Today, over 3,000 Magis pilgrims and the Jesuit chaperones set off across Spain and Portugal for 10 days of experiences in over 100 locations. These experiences ground the pilgrims in Ignatian spirituality which values becoming “men and women for others.” The goal of Magis itself is to always strive to do more for Christ and these pilgrims will set off in small groups of about 25 people volunteering in a prison, accompanying marginalized families, serving pilgrims at Lourdes and restoring a hermitage.
Over a week and a half, the experience groups are partnered with other pilgrims from across the world as they learn to live and work with people from different cultures and backgrounds while always finding commonality in their faith.
In this video, Marquette University students Lindsey Cutner, Kristin Berthene and Emma Scuglik share their thoughts on what their upcoming Magis experience holds for them.
“I think the thought I will take out of this Magis experience is the universality of the Catholic church,” says Cutner. “Because being in the U.S., I don’t see Catholics from different countries, so it is amazing to see Catholics from countries all over the world.”
Jesuit Father General Celebrates Mass and Meets with the Magis 2011 Pilgrims
Magis 2011 officially started on Friday, August 5 with an opening ceremony on the grounds of the Sanctuary of Loyola in Azkoitia, Spain. More than 3,000 young people from 50 different countries gathered together on the grounds of the Sanctuary of Loyola where they were welcomed in their own official language and treated to a performance with dance, music, light and special effects. The performance, given by group of Jesuits and lay people from Portugal, was based on the Meditation on the Two Standards, a fight between good and evil. During the night prayer that followed this performance, the reading told of God calling Abraham to leave his home and begin his journey. Prayer finished at midnight with a procession of torches carried by young people from different parts of the world. You can view this video to see a summary of the opening events from that evening.
The next morning, pilgrims woke up to a morning prayer in different languages in the garden. The Magis 2011 coordinator, Jesuit Father Abel Toraño, delivered a speech to the young people giving thanks “to all the people who have been doing so much to make MAGIS come to reality.” He asked the young people “to be open to an encounter with ourselves, with others and with God during this weekend in the hometown of Saint Ignatius”.
Today, around 3,500 people attended Mass celebrated by Jesuit Father General Adolfo Nicolás, leader of the Society of Jesus, in the plaza of the Sanctuary of Loyola. The pilgrims celebrated this special Eucharist before being sent forth to their experiences, which will start tomorrow in more than 100 locations across Spain and Portugal. During his homily, Fr. General evoked the founder of the Society of Jesus in this significant place: “God is in the gentle breeze, in its peace and its refreshing calm. And Saint Ignatius tries to make us sensitive to that breeze, to the soft voice of God.” He also wanted to send a message to all the young pilgrims before they left on their experiences tomorrow, “If we are only worried about our welfare or success, we will sink helplessly. If we are worried about service and the suffering of others, where Christ lives… we will walk on the sea.” After Mass, Fr. General, accompanied by all the concelebrants, prayed in the Chapel of Conversion of St Ignatius.
Later, in an afternoon press conference, he highlighted the role of young people in facing the challenges of this globalized world. “The young people are the ones who can change our world”, but they need to be ready “to answer questions that we cannot even imagine,” Nicolás said. “As information increases, the capacity for reflection decreases”. Fr. General encouraged them to have “profound feelings”. He insisted that every person must find his/her own vocation, own path and own way to serve. According to Fr. General, if you find it, you will be what the world needs and you will be happy – and both things are important. The big challenge that young people face today is to fight against “the globalization of superficiality.” To counteract that, young people must choose to live with wisdom and depth. “Think about Ignatius and how he changed his dreams. He stopped dreaming the dreams of a small valley and started dreaming dreams of the world. Go and do the same,” Nicolás encouraged the pilgrims gathered to hear his press conference.
From there, the pilgrims set off for their 10 days across Spain and Portugal for their Magis experiences. There are six types of experiences: Pilgrimage, Social Service, Art and Creativity, Faith and Culture, Spirituality, and Ecology. These include visiting Fatima, volunteering in a prison, accompanying marginalized families, serving pilgrims at Lourdes and restoring a hermitage.
The video below showcases this last day in Loyola before the pilgrims were sent off by Jesuit Father General Adolfo Nicolás:
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