Apostolic Trip: World Youth Day
Dear Friends and Family,
As I hope many of you now
know, in January I finished my three year process of formation and was asked to
move to Santiago, Chile.
For the last several weeks
I have come to know and love Santiago and the people. God has truly blessed me
with this new stage of my life. Upon arriving, I was asked to take on the
apostolic responsibilities of guiding a group of about 10 high school school students
to World Youth Day in Río de Janeiro, Brazil.
I am excited for this
opportunity to be able to lead this group on a journey of faith and encounter
with Christ and His Church. The trip will entail about 9 days of pilgrimage
where we will begin with an intense experience of community service with the
rest of the Christian Life Movement in some of the neediest areas of Río. Then
we will have time to visit the most popular shrine in the world: Our Lady of
Aparecida. During the next five days, our small group will join millions of
other young Catholics for activities which will include several encounters with
the new Pope and culminating with a Mass of about 3-5 million people.
It promises to be a time of
conversion, adventure and communion with the entire Church.
I ask that each of you will
consider prayerfully supporting our trip, and if possible, also financially.
Count on my prayers as I also will count on yours.
In Christ and Mary,
Ryan Thomas, SCV
