Meet Bridget!

My name is Bridget, and I am a Director of Religious Education at Sacred Hearts Parish in Bradford, MA. This is my first WYD experience and am honored and blessed to be chaperoning such a wonderfully faithfilled group of young men and women! I am looking forward to the intense experience that the WYD pilgrimage will be! I am excited to experience our faith through a different culture and celebrate Mass with our Holy Father.

Retreat Day Pictures

Last Saturday our pilgrims spent a day on retreat at LaSalette Shrine in Enfield, NH. Below is a slide show of pictures taken that day.

110716-WYD retreat

From our chaplain, Fr. Paul

Hello fellow World Youth Day Pilgrims,

I am so happy that we are getting close to our departure for World Youth Day. I thought our retreat down in LaSalette was excellent and it was fantastic to be able to come together as a group to pray, get some work done, and to get to know one another. I want to share with you a little bit about myself. I am 32 years old. I grew up in Merrimack, NH and I am the oldest of three boys. I have lots of interests, a big one being sports, especially baseball. I really look forward to watching some professional soccer in Spain! After going through the Merrimack public school system I was able to go St. Anselm College where I studied Politics. I had a solid experience there and loved being part of the school’s life. I had felt God calling me to priesthood through high school and that calling was confirmed at the end of my time in college when the Bishop accepted my application to go to seminary. I was sent to St. John’s Seminary in Boston in 2001 and six years later I was ordained a priest. I have had two assignments. My first assignment was out by the seacoast. I was associate pastor of St. Mary Parish in Newmarket and St. Michael Parish in Exeter. After two years the Bishop sent me to the opposite end of the state where I have been for the last two years, serving the people of the greater Keene area at Mary Queen of Peace Parish as well as the Parish of the Holy Spirit. I really love being a priest. It has only been four years that I have been a priest, but in that short amount of time I have been overwhelmed by the generosity of the Lord in so many ways. We talked at our retreat about the Holy Father consecrating us to the Sacred Heart of Jesus during our pilgrimage. I want to reiterate for all of us, myself included, that now is really the time to pray that this consecration to the Sacred Heart will set our hearts on fire. One of the greatest ways we can begin to prepare for this consecration is to spend as much time before the Blessed Sacrament as possible in these upcoming weeks. In the Eucharist we have the True Presence of the Sacred of Jesus. The more time we spend in His Presence, the more that we contemplate His Life in our lives, the more open we will be to have the Heart of Jesus to take residence in our hearts. As I mentioned last week, this is really what this pilgrimage is all about. So let’s ask Our Lady to intercede for us in these coming days, that she will lead us ever closer to the Heart of her Son. Look forward to seeing you all very soon and sharing this amazing experience of God’s Love.

Sincerely in Christ,

Fr. Paul

Meet Heather!

My name is Heather and I am a member of the Parish of the Holy Spirit in
Keene, NH. My parents were married at St. Bernard’s Church and my family has been attending mass there ever since. I am a senior at Wheaton College
in Massachusetts and plan to go onto graduate school for speech pathology upon graduation. I love to travel and just returned from a semester abroad

in Edinburgh, Scotland. I attended the previous World Youth Day in Sydney,
Australia and had such a fulfilling spiritual journey that I decided to
return for the next WYD in Madrid. I am excited to be able to openly share
my faith with millions of other Catholic youth from around the world and I
can’t wait to learn what God has in store for us during mass with the Holy
Father and days in the diocese. My biggest fear is that I will not be able
to adequately communicate with my host family and the people of Madrid, as
I don’t know ANY Spanish. Luckily, I have two weeks to start learning!

Meet Rebecca A!

My name is Rebecca, I am a homeschooling senior from Marlborough and my family attends Saint Bernard’s Church, Parish of the Holy Spirit, in Keene, New Hampshire. I never would have thought that I would be going to World Youth Day, but the opportunity came for me earlier this year when someone had to drop out and I was asked if I wanted to take their place. I am grateful and very excited to have the chance to go on this pilgrimage, especially, since the pilgrims are being consecrated to the Sacred Heart. I am leaving everything up to God for what is meant to happen and what I am going to experience. I don’t really have any great fears, but I hope that I won’t get separated from my group or get badly sunburned. I look forward to seeing all the other Catholic youth that are going to World Youth Day along with experiencing the different cultures and growing in my faith.

Meet Wayne!

My name is Wayne and I am from the Parish of the Holy Spirit, St. Bernard’s Church in Keene and this is my second time chaperoning a World Youth Day pilgrimage. WYD is such a wonderful opportunity for our young people to truly come to know the love that the Lord has for them as well as the richness of the Catholic faith. Our youth are a real inspiration for me and attending WYD is a re-charging of my faith batteries. Being immersed in the culture of Spain and the Spanish people and experiencing their way of honoring and loving God is what I look most forward to followed a close second by being able to experience their food culture. I can’t wait to drag Fr. Paul to the local market on our free day to experience every kind of weird (to us) food possible. Andrew Zimmern won’t have anything on us by the time we are done! I am NOT looking forward to the heat and being in a crowd of 1-2 million people but the Lord gives us what we need to grow in every experience and I look forward to another life changing WYD. Thank you for your prayers and God bless!

Meet Matthew H.!

Matthew H., a Wolfeboro resident, is an honor student and rising senior at St. John’s Prep in Danvers, MA. Matthew plays the clarinet and piano and participates in his school’s Woodwind and Orchestra ensembles during the academic year and also in Wolfeboro’s Cate Park Band during the summer months.

Matthew is a young man passionate about his faith and has served St. Katharine Drexel Parish as a lector since 2005 and as a catechist since his Confirmation in 2009.

Matthew elected to be on this pilgrimage for the opportunity to be at Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI. He is also excited to experience World Youth Day in Madrid this summer with young people from around the world in a country greatly influenced by Catholicism.

Meet Kayla H!

Kayla H., a Wolfeboro resident until her marriage earlier this year, graduated from UNH in 2010 with a BA in English and currently works as the Marketing Communications Specialist at Thursty Water Systems in Wolfeboro.

Kayla has served the St. Katharine Drexel Parish community as a Eucharistic Minister since her Confirmation and after attending World Youth Day in 2005, Kayla was inspired to work with youth and young adults in our church. From 2008 until 2010 Kayla served our parish leading youth ministry activities that led to beginning the CIA Youth Group (Catholics in Action). Kayla is excited to be given the opportunity to travel to World Youth Day again this year to share an incredible experience with young adults from around the world. Also, Pope Benedict XVI is scheduled to say Mass on her 23rd birthday!

Meet another Rebecca M!

Rebecca M. is seventeen years old and will be a senior at Prospect Mountain High School in September. Rebecca is passionate about dancing and studies dance several days a week at Alton Dance Academy where she is also an assistant teacher for three additional classes. Rebecca is an active member of St. Katharine Drexel Parish. An altar server since the third grade Rebecca was made a Senior Server by Bishop McCormack at her Confirmation in 2009. Rebecca also serves our parish as a lector.

Rebecca is really excited for the upcoming World Youth Day in Madrid. She looks forward to experiencing her Catholic faith in the Spanish culture. Rebecca is also grateful for the opportunity to make this pilgrimage that will deepen and strengthen her relationship with God.

Meet Rebecca M!

Rebecca M. is a Summa Cum Laude and John Brewster Scholar student at Brewster Academy. Rebecca is captain of her tennis team and is an avid member of her school chorus: HOWL. She has been on the school judicial board for three years and will serve as a Supreme Court Justice in her senior year. Rebecca is a member of the academy’s religious youth club, “Faith Community.” Through this club Rebecca volunteers at the Boston Rescue Mission. Rebecca has also volunteered three years of service to Relay for Life and has volunteered for Starting Point.

Rebecca chose to make the pilgrimage to Madrid for World Youth Day because she is eager to learn about different cultures and unique religious traditions. Most importantly, she looks forward to seeing youth from around the world as enthusiastic about celebrating their faith as she. Through this opportunity, she hopes to strengthen her will to stand for her faith and be able to witness to others that Catholic unity and a universal love of Christ is alive and well in her generation. Rebecca prays that World Youth Day will encourage each participant to become a leader in faith for youth around the world.

Meet Matt L.!

Matthew L. has served St. Katharine Drexel Parish community as an Altar Server since the Fall of 2003 and occasionally fills in as a substitute organist.

Matthew, a Wolfeboro resident, is an honor student who will be a senior at Kingswood Regional High School in the fall, a three sport Varsity athlete, currently serves on the State of NH Legislative Youth Advisory Council, plays in the KRHS and Cate Park bands, sings in KRHS chorus and the capella group Route 28 and is a member of the KRHS Quiz Bowl Team.

Matthew is looking forward to seeing the Pope with young Catholics from all over the world. He considers the opportunity to share this pilgrimage with the other young pilgrims from our parish and share this faith experience an incredible gift. He looks forward to returning to the Parish and inspiring other young people to consider a WYD pilgrimage. While on this pilgrimage Matthew will be thinking of his friend and former Pastor, Fr. George Ham, who trained Matthew to be an Altar Server and was our first Pastor to make possible sending pilgrims from our Parish to WYD.

Meet Rebecca K!

Rebecca K. will be a senior in September at Prospect Mountain High School and will serve as Secretary of the National Honor Society. Rebecca plays tenor saxophone in marching, concert and jazz bands and will serve as Treasurer of Tri-M, the honor society for music. She enjoys running and basketball and has played on Varsity since entering high school. Rebecca also works at McDonald’s in Alton for the last two years. Rebecca volunteers and has volunteered for events such as the senior tea at PMHS, Walk for Alzheimer’s, cleaning up the town, selling tickets for music events as well as various activities in our parish, nursing homes and senior center.

Rebecca has been an altar server since receiving her First Communion and became a senior server at her Confirmation in 2009. As a young person of faith Rebecca is looking forward to being part of such a diverse community from all over the world. She feels honored and blessed to be included in the pilgrimage and hopes that she will be able to share what she learns from this experience with the youth of our parish.

Meet Gertrude!

Gertrude Hammond, Wolfeboro resident and Catechetical Leader at St. Katharine Drexel Parish in Alton - Wolfeboro, is excited to be part of the Diocesan pilgrimage to Madrid for World Youth Day. This will be Gertrude’s first experience at World Youth Day. Gertrude feels truly blessed to be chaperoning six incredible young people of such strong, active faith from her parish. She is extremely grateful to St. Katharine Drexel Parish for their prayers and ongoing support of the youth in their parish.

Meet Kayla!

Hola friends! my name is Kayla and I'm from St. Bernard's church in Keene New Hampshire, I know almost no Spanish and it's my first time going to World Youth Day! I'm super excited to go to Spain and experience their culture in every way possible! What i'm looking forward to most is staying with our host families, seeing the Pope (hopefully), trying some crazy new food, and becoming a family with our whole gang. I am absolutely terrified of getting lost in the giant crowds, and not being able to speak Spanish when its necessary. OH and getting a sun burn. Can NOT forget lots of sun block! I have no expectations for what God may or may not do in my life. My arms are wide open for whatever he wishes to do. IM SO EXCITED! :D

Meet Joy!

My name is Joy, and I am the group leader for our pilgrimage to WYD 2011 in Madrid. This will be my fourth World Youth Day, having previously attended in Toronto, Cologne, and Sydney.
My love for Jesus and His Church, and my desire to bring others closer to Him is what motivates my ministry . It is my hope and prayer that everyone who attends this pilgrimage will come away with a deeper knowledge in their hearts of God's overwhelming, personal love for them. I know that the pilgrimage will present us with many challenges and many joys.

Please pray for us, and know that we will be praying for all of you!

Meet Belinda!

Hola! My name is Belinda and I'm from St. Bernard's in Keene and I am very excited that my first pilgrimage will be attending WYD!! I'm really thrilled about learning more about the culture in Spain, staying with a host family, bonding with other fellow pilgrims, learning more about our faith, and especially celebrating Mass with our Holy Father. I do have a few fears such as flying, a pilgrim getting lost or maybe even trying some type of food that I'm not accustomed to eating but I trust that God has great plans for all and am leaving myself open for whatever He has in store for us.

Retreat

These are some pictures from our retreat this past Saturday, July 16, at the LaSalette Shrine in Enfield, NH. We were blessed with a beautiful day!

Our Pilgrims from St. Katharine Drexel in Alton, NH

This picture of our St. Katharine Drexel contingency was taken in Enfield, NH at our retreat on July 16.

Meet Cheryl & Alexandra!

I am Cheryl, wife and mother of four from St. Patrick's parish in Newport, NH. This is my first WYD experience and I get to share it with my 16 yr. old daughter Alexandra!
I am excited to participate in this pilgrimage for our youth and our Church. I believe that the joyful and authentic witness of our faith as young people, married couples,families, priests and religious ... in union with our Holy Father... sends a strong message of hope to the world. Besides the witness of our love and our faith, our prayers will be a great source of graces for strength, unity, healing, reconciliation and deeper conversion for the entire world. Really... what could be better than that?