All in God’s Providence Four World Youth Days Along My Path to Priesthood
I
first saw John Paul II at World Youth Day in Denver. It was August of 1993, and I was set to begin my junior year of high school. The five hour drive from my home in Casper, Wyoming meant that hundreds from my parish could easily attend. During the Vigil before the closing Mass, I remember being surrounded by friends; we were nearly as interested in meeting other young people as we were in seeing the Pope. Still, I distinctly remember the Holy Father’s stern call to resist the culture of death. The challenge seemed a bit harsh. His words aggressively confronted my American culture and, though my pride was stung, his message stayed with me until I better understood its truth. Four years later I attended World Youth Day in Paris. The preceding year I had joined a Marian prayer group at my college, and my renewed faith prompted me to venture overseas to see John Paul II once again. I recall the Word Youth Day theme taken from the first chapter of John: “Teacher, where are you staying? Come and see.” In Paris I experienced for the first time the rich patrimony of the Church in Europe. I visited Notre Dame and Rue De Bac and even prayed with St. Therese of Lisieux whose ark-like reliquary had taken Steve Titus, Cheyenne ‘08 at his first World Youth Day in Denver in August 1993. her far outside her original cloister walls. At the closing Mass, John Paul II announced that St. Therese was to be made a Doctor of the Church! I felt particular excitement, both because I had just prayed with her and because it would occur on October 19th, my father’s birthday. The day after the final Mass I passed through a now quiet Paris to make one last stop. Entering Sacre Coeur, the hilltop Basilica where St. Therese had once prayed as a girl, I knelt in front of the exposed Blessed Sacrament and made a deal with God. I simply and emotionally told Him, A picture taken moments after a safe return to the US from the “If you want me to be a priest, you have to take care of the Rome WYD trip. I'm with Fr. Andrew Duncan and Tim Monahan. details.” It was a prayer of uncertainty tinged with fear, but We were co-leaders of the pilgrimage. at its core was trust in His providence.
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Pontifical North American College M A G A Z I N E