Youth Ministry

World Youth Day (WYD) is a worldwide encounter with the Pope celebrated about every three years in a different country. WYD is open to all young people (ages 16-35) who want to take part in a festive encounter centered on Jesus Christ together with their peers. This event is an opportunity to personally experience the universality of the Catholic Church, and to share with the whole world the hope of many young people who are committing their lives to Christ and His Church. World Youth Day is a unique way to deepen your faith and grow closer to Christ, through prayer and the sacraments, together with hundreds of thousands of other young people who share your interests and ambitions.

If you would like more information, please email Abby Jones at ajones@sha.net

Sacred Heart has a group of young adults and teens attending WYD 2027 with other groups from the Saginaw and Gaylord Diocese.

You can view more information on the Diocese website here.

DATES: August 1-9th, 2027

COST: $4,699

We will have many fundraising opportunities to help offset the cost for the trip. The sooner you sign up the sooner you can join our fundraising efforts!

We departed on July 25th for Lisbon, Portugal to take part in Days in the Diocese. We stayed in a gym in Freixianda with people from the USA, Korea, and Sweden. We were well taken care of by the wonderful host families who planned events, meals, and introduced us to their culture.

We made a pilgrimage to Fatima, where we hiked 6 miles to the beautiful city, and attended mass with people from all over the world. Our priests who were in our group were able to co-celebrate the mass with 180 other priests and 6 bishops! Then we had time to explore the Fatima Sanctuary, but then we ventured to all the apparition sights where Mary and appeared to the shepherd children and an angel. We saw where the three kids grew up. And, of course, ended the day with Gelato :)

(About Fatima) For those who do not know the significance of Fatima, it is a Marian apparition site. This means that Mary appeared to these three shepherd children 6 times in the village of Fatima in 1917. Their names were Lucita along with her cousins Jacinta and Francisco. Mary told the children to pray the rosary for the world. As more people heard about this miracle, more came on the 13th of each month when Mary appeared. On the last appearance, 70,000 came and also experienced what is known as the Miracle of the Sun. Where the sun "danced" in the sky.

We traveled to Leiria with all the other people doing DID in the Leiria-Fátima Diocese. We had a mass said in 7 languages and then had time to explore the city. We went to a castle, adoration, watched a Spanish concert while we ate gelato, and came back together with the 7000 other Pilgrimages to watch cultural dances and songs.

On Sunday we all attended different chapels in surrounding towns where we celebrated mass and attended their Parish Festivals afterwards. We played games, ate food, and met the locals.

We had an amazing Procession we did through the town of Frexiandia. The locals came and joined us all at the gym with candles and we walked around the town carrying the Mary Statue and praying the rosary in 4 languages- Portuguese, English, Swedish, and Korean. It was a very beautiful experience. People came out of their homes to watch, some even joined in the procession!

I will never forget the amazing people we met here in Portugal and the hospitality that was shared. We may not speak the same language, but we love the same God, and that love was shown through everyone this week while we were here. It was not a perfect week. A lot of waiting around, sleeping on the floor, interesting meals, not knowing a schedule, long walks, and hot days, but I hardly heard anyone complaining. There was a joy that was spread to everyone.

It was all on God’s timing.

We left small town Freixanda and traveled to jammed-packed Lisbon!

We stayed in a hostel all week with some friends from DID and some new friends. We had a chance to be tourists in the city, we fought the crowds and politely pushed our way through to our destinations. We attended talks, explored churches, went to mass and adoration, met new people from all over the world, attended stations of the cross, had family meals, and WE SAW THE POPE!

On the last day, we ended with the pilgrimage walk to the Vigil site. We walked 9 miles in the heat next to the coast. We had to stop along the way to rest and eat, but we made it to the comforts of a rock field! It was quite an adventure!
 

It was beautiful to be surrounded by so many people all coming for the same reason - Jesus. This is one of the biggest gatherings in the world! Sometimes we couldn't hear the talks or see who was even speaking. Some things were in English but mostly in Portuguese. Yet there was so much we received. I think Mary (one of our pilgrims) explained it best when she compared it to a Latin mass. At a Latin mass, many did not know what was going on and could not fully participate, so they would pray in other ways - Rosary, stations of the cross, or through reflection. We may not know what is fully going on, but when we just sat in the presence of the Lord our hearts were changed.

We were here not on vacation for pleasure but on a pilgrimage to be stretched and to grow in faith. Praise God for this adventure and the opportunity to learn from this experience, to trust the process, to follow in blind faith, and to grow as a disciple of our Lord alongside our wonderful group and the millions of strangers.