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.
In the Footsteps of St. Ignatius: A Magis Pilgrim Hikes Her Way Across Spain
Picture tweeted by Kimmi Vo, during her 97 mile pilgrimage hiking to Javier, Spain
Boston College junior Kimmi Vo, like most of the Magis 2011 pilgrims, wasn’t sure what was in store for her when she signed up to attend the Magis program this summer in Spain. During her tweets from @MarylandJesuits, Vo writes, “First hike ever. 97 mi trek to Javier tomorrow! This week should be interesting.”
Vo is joining other pilgrims on a week long journey from the birthplace of St. Ignatius of Loyola in Azpeitia, across the rugged terrain of the Basque countryside to Javier, where another Jesuit saint and a first companion of St. Ignatius, Xavier, was born.
On the first day of her trek, Vo tweeted, “Just completed 15km of hiking for the first day of our pilgrimage. Brutal to say the least but thankful we all made it!” After hiking an additional 12 miles the next day, Vo tweeted, “Pain and suffering! Haha, no seriously, I’ve never been more sore. But when else will I ever be able to do this?”
During her hike, Vo shared this image from Twitter, above, of the scenery during her pilgrimage.
You can follow along with Vo and a team of U.S. student reporters during her Magis 2011 experiences by following @MarylandJesuits on Twitter.
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.
U.S. Jesuit Chaperone and Students Discuss What Magis 2011 is All About
The 3,000 Magis pilgrims have now fanned out across Spain, Portugal and North Africa for their 100 unique Magis experiences. In small groups of about 25, the experience teams are composed of people from different countries which gives the pilgrims an opportunity to work with people from other cultures and backgrounds and who share in their faith.
The 100 experiences range from working amongst the poor, with immigrants, traveling along a religious pilgrimage “camino” or volunteering with the infirm. Accompanying the pilgrims are Jesuit chaperones like scholastic Michael Rossman, who is currently in his First Studies as a Jesuit at Loyola University Chicago, and is chaperoning a group of pilgrims from Marquette University.
Before they departed from Loyola, Rossman and three Marquette students shared what Magis 2011 is all about.
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