Sacred Heart WYD Pilgrimage 2023

Support Costs for our WYD Pilgrims:

WYD Prayer Guides, Reflection Journals, Pilgrim Wear, Devotional Items, Increased flight costs,

Dear friends, family and supporters,

This year our community will be sending over 30 pilgrims on a pilgrimage to World Youth Day in Lisbon during the first week of August.

World Youth Day is a worldwide gathering of young Catholics who hope to celebrate and experience the universality of the Church alongside the Pope. Since its inaugural event in 1986, 15 international WYD celebrations have occurred and the global gathering is generally celebrated every three years in a different country.

As we embark on this journey, we request your support. Though the fruits of this journey will be great, so are some of the costs. And so we are asking for the assistance of supporters to help us cover some of the costs - while we have done well in fundraising to cover most of the costs associated with the pilgrimage - accommodations, travel, registration costs - there are other costs to make this pilgrimage a more fruitful experience. Your support will assist us in providing materials like reflection journals, prayer guides, devotionals, etc. for our pilgrims and for us to share with other pilgrims we encounter.

If you are not able to give at this time, we request your prayers, and offer to bring your personal prayer requests with us. All are invited to share their intentions with us. You can send in prayer requests at https://sacredheartparish.com/wyd-petitions

In 2002, Pope St. John Paul II said to 800,000 pilgrims, “When, back in 1985, I wanted to start the World Youth Days, I imagined a powerful moment in which the young people of the world could meet Christ, who is eternally young, and could learn from him how to be bearers of the Gospel to other young people. This evening, together with you, I praise God and give thanks to him for the gift bestowed on the Church through the World Youth Days. Millions of young people have taken part, and as a result have become better and more committed Christian witnesses.”

Now, 20 years since Pope St. John Paul II shared that message, we hope to become those Christian witnesses to the love, the life, and the light of Christ. Please pray for us.

In Christ,

Sacred Heart World Youth Day Pilgrims