On July 10 after the Youth Mass at Our Lady of Mercy Parish in Potomac, Tony Falcone and Rebecca Kazor stood in the hallway outside of the church, handing out booklets filled with the biographies and prayer requests of their fellow pilgrims traveling to Kraków, Poland for World Youth Day. Falcone, a rising junior at the Heights School in Potomac, and Kazor, a recent graduate of Connelly School of the Holy Child also in Potomac, know each other from their involvement in the youth group and from their roles as the Queen and the Prince in Holy Child’s production of Cinderella. They are two of the 23 pilgrims who will be traveling together from the parish, in a group led by Father Chris Seith, who will be attending his fifth World Youth Day.
“I’m really excited to go to deepen my faith…to have a chance to get away from the real world and spend that time focusing on my relationship with God,” Kazor said.
The youth and adults from Our Lady of Mercy who are traveling to Poland, accompanied by some pilgrims from nearby parishes and schools, are not the only ones from the Potomac parish participating in the pilgrimage. Many Our Lady of Mercy parishioners have signed up to be “prayer partners” with the pilgrims, so that they can pray for the pilgrims while they are abroad, and the pilgrims can pray for them during their journey.
“It was really exciting to see how many people are not just signed up for something but are also excited about it,” said Father Seith, a parochial vicar at the parish. “I’ve had so many parishioners coming up after Mass saying how excited they are for us to go, and that they are praying for us… It has been a very positive experience. I am not sure I was expecting that much fruit to be borne from it already.”
In preparation for their pilgrimage, members of the group got together on July 16 to walk from the Bolger Center in Potomac to nearby Our Lady of Mercy, passing out flyers on the way to invite the neighborhood to some of the events that the parish will be hosting. On July 30, there will be another walk along the same route, followed by a vigil Mass that parishioners can participate in to mirror what the group of pilgrims will be doing in Poland.
“I think whenever you do a pilgrimage with a small group, often the group really gets something out of it because they are away…and being challenged to live out their faith,” said Father Seith. “So they come back reenergized, but that doesn’t always translate into the parish itself being re-energized. This is a way for the parish as a whole to go on a pilgrimage.”
For many of the youth going to Poland, seeing Pope Francis is a large attraction. Kazor was recently talking to her future roommate at Georgetown University, who is not Catholic, and when the topic of Pope Francis came up, her roommate talked about how much she liked him. The World Youth Day pilgrim appreciates the way Pope Francis inspires everyone and is often a conversation starter about the faith.
“You don’t want a leader that only people within your religion can admire,” Kazor said.
Christina Fairbanks, a rising sophomore at The Catholic University of America, said, “It was very hopeful for me” when she saw so many people come together to see Pope Francis celebrate Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception last fall for the canonization of St.
Junípero Serra. She is looking forward to having the same type of experience at World Youth Day.
Since this will be Father Seith’s first World Youth Day as a priest, he is excited not only to get to see the pope, but to celebrate Mass alongside him and priests from around the world.
In addition to seeing the pope, Falcone said he is looking forward to traveling to Poland during the Year of Mercy, since it was the home of saints like St. Faustina and St. John Paul II.
“I just hope I can strengthen my relationship with God and be a better person spiritually,” Falcone said, which to him means, “praying more, praying for others more, and being a nicer person.”
Falcone will be traveling with his sister, Daniela, who is a rising senior at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, his mother, Anna-Maria Falcone, and his godmother, Gay Madden.
“It is going to be really cool to share the experience with them,” Falcone said.
The group left for Poland on July 24 and will be returning on Aug. 3, greeted by their prayer partners, who will meet them for a welcome back Mass and dinner.
“I’m excited about sharing with them the experience of a young, vibrant church, and an experience of pilgrimage,” said Father Seith.“We are on our way throughout our entire lives on a pilgrimage on the way to heaven and this is a way of concretely living that out.”
