By Fr. Ben Kim, SDB

Seoul, Korea, 13 July 2016 -- 30 Korean young pilgrims have joined the Salesian Youth Pilgrim Group with 4 SDB priests. Through participating several meetings for the internal and external preparation for Salesian Pilgrimage in Italy and WYD in Poland, they are ready to get involved deeply in the life of the Church and gladly to share their life and faith with other young people from all over the world. As the Church has celebrated the extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy with the motto “Merciful like the Father”(Misericordiae Vultus, 13), the theme of WYD 2016 in Krakow in Poland fits in with it: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy”(Mt 5:7). With this theme, the young people have kept reminding of becoming a merciful person and getting closer to the Lord’s mercy with their hearts.

As the pilgrim group has only few days left for departure for Italy and Poland, the young Salesian pilgrims are so excited for it. Their pilgrim journey begins on Sunday 17th of July until 2nd of August. They go first to Rome, Assisi, and Turin where are related with the Church’s wonderful cultural inheritance and the life of Don Bosco. Then via Germany and Czech, the group goes straight away to Krakow in Poland for WYD 2016, and the journey will end in Warszawa. They believe it will be one of the strongest impacts on their faith on their spiritual journey, and expect fantastic experiences to meet our merciful Lord in the young who have same faith, although each of them are in different cultures and with different languages.

Preparing for her journey to WYD, she who is one of the young in the pilgrim group says, “when I dream so many young people from different countries in the world will follow the pilgrimage of WYD 2016 in praying together on the same place in Krakow, sharing the same faith with each of them, and singing together to worship the Lord with the same voice, even the Pope and all the young people joining the graceful moment are now preparing for it and looking forward to it, I feel my heart fluttering with joy. I cannot wait for it. But, for me, waiting for WYD is so exciting and meaningful.”

NB - we hope that the other provinces of the EAO also share their preparation and the path of the pilgrim WYD to help young people because they recognize each other better during various meetings.

---

---