WYD At Home gives teens chance
to learn, serve, have fun

By Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published August 26, 2005

Detroit – World Youth Day had its local echoes in the Archdiocese of Detroit, thanks to the Cologne At Home experience, an Aug. 19-20 event for young people who couldn’t make it over to Germany for the international gathering.

One hundred thirty youths and youth ministers from urban, suburban and rural parishes traveled to North Branch in northern Lapeer County last Friday, then to Detroit on Saturday for activities that included leaning, service, worship, fellowship and fun.

They started out on Friday at the Harmon Family farm in North Branch, where they learned about Native American spirituality from Catholic members of several Indian tribes, who spoke to them from various sites in the fields and woods – accessed by hay wagon – or beside a huge bonfire.

With World Youth Day taking place in Cologne, Germany, whose Cathedral of the Three Kings contains the purported relics of the Magi, Jesuit Bro. Guy Consolmagno, of the Vatican Observatory, talked about the latest speculation about the “star in the East” those early pilgrims said they were following.

Under the less-polluted rural sky, they then had a chance to look through the high-powered telescopes brought by members of several amateur astronomy clubs, getting sharp views of the surface of the moon whenever the shifting clouds would permit.

And they learned more about the heavenly bodies in a portable inflatable planetarium set up in a barn on the Harmon property.

Participants camped out overnight on the farm, then boarded buses the next morning to go to Focus: HOPE in Detroit, the organization founded in the wake of the city’s 1967 riots that seeks to combat poverty and racism.

From Focus: HOPE, they processed – with some of the teens in front carrying a wooden cross – on foot to the gymnasium of the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, where they heard a talk on vocations from Fr. James Bilot, director of the archdiocesan Vocation Office.

As a service project, they gave the cathedral parish’s gym a thorough cleaning before attending Mass in the cathedral. After dinner, they took part in a eucharistic procession back to Focus: HOPE, with the host held aloft in a monstrance under a canopy.

Besides learning about the work of Focus: HOPE, they also heard talks on the Cross and the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

“I liked all the talks and learned a lot. I’ve never done anything like this before,” said Emily Standafer, 14, of St. Constance Parish, Taylor.

Dan Gwozdz, 18, from St. Mary Parish in St. Clair, who is a freshman at University of Detroit Mercy, summed the event up as “fun, enlightening, interesting.”

Patrick Schlaud, 16, and Sean McCormack, 15, members of SS. Peter & Paul Parish in North Branch, both said they thought it was great that their area was able to host part of an event that drew teens from all over the archdiocese.

“I think it’s awesome, relating with other teens who are of our religion,” Sean said of the overall experience.

Patrick commented, “I’ve had a blast. It’s really been fun.”

Organizer Marylyn Trumper-Samra, youth minister at St. Lawrence Parish in Utica, said the event had been “one of the most outstanding experiences of my life.”

“It really showed that God is in charge. Everything we needed, He blessed us with, and everything I feared never came to pass,” she said.