World Youth Day celebrated in Buffalo Grove, Des Plaines
Can’t make it to Madrid for World Youth Day 2011? The Archdiocese of Chicago is inviting Catholic teens and youth adults to participate in local events to celebrate the occasion.
World Youth Day 2011 will be celebrated from Aug. 16-21.
Francis Cardinal George, OMI, Archbishop of Chicago, will be the main celebrant at a Mass at 6:30 p.m. Friday, July 29, at St. Mary Parish, 10 N. Buffalo Grove Road in Buffalo Grove, during which teens and young adults attending World Youth Day 2011 events will receive a special blessing and prayers for their pilgrimage journeys.
Participants are invited to gather at 4 p.m. for pre-Mass events, including praise and worship, adoration and a Eucharistic procession. Immediately following the Mass there will be refreshments and a concert with music by John Angotti and Jorge Rivera.
Those unable to make the trip to Madrid have an alternative — celebrate “under the moonlight” with World Youth Day Chicago Style II, from 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 20, until 7 a.m. the next morning, at Maryville, Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel and Shrine, 1100 N. River Road in Des Plaines.
Participants will take part in a series of planned events, liturgies, concerts and hours of musical entertainment. A highlight of the night’s activities will be a message from Pope Benedict XVI telecast from Madrid.
World Youth Day is a weeklong spiritual journey during which teen and young adult pilgrims from all over the world unite to share their faith. The week includes prayer, song, concerts, drama, sharing, liturgy, catechesis, and a vigil and closing Mass with the Holy Father. In 1984, Pope John Paul II invited young people from all over the world to participate in a pilgrimage to Rome for the first World Youth Day. Since then it has been held in Argentina, Spain, Poland, the U.S. (1993), Philippines, France, Italy, Canada and Germany. The most recent event was held in 2008, in Australia.
Much more information about World Youth Day Chicago Style II can be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/wyd11chicago. Tickets are $20 and participants can register online at www.youthministry-chicago.org.