World Youth Day was not a vacation. It was a pilgrimage.

Most of those who went to World Youth Day stress the joy of seeing the Holy Father, or perhaps the excitement in meeting young Catholics from around the world, or the many wonderful speeches and homilies heard. I think this approach neglects the spiritual affect of World Youth Day in a really profound way.

Bowling Green St. Thomas More parishioner Jay Schultz visits Belem Tower in Lisbon, Portugal, on pilgrimage to World Youth Day in Madrid, Spain. (Photo courtesy of Jay Schultz)

At World Youth Day, all of us barely slept. We ate at irregular times and were almost always dirty and thirsty, not to mention uncomfortable. Everything seemed to go wrong all of the time, and we got lost more in two weeks than I usually do in a year. I'm not even counting the times we lost track of one another and didn't unite again as a group for hours.

Basically, almost every worldly comfort you can imagine was in short supply or not existent in our experience. However, no matter where we were there was an enormous abundance of spiritual food. There were Masses everywhere you went all day long. Rows and rows of priests were hearing confessions in the park. Reception and adoration of the Eucharist was more plentiful than water, and everywhere you looked there was a sign or symbol of our Catholic faith.

We may not have had many of the things we wanted, but we had everything we needed to grow in holiness.

My group and I took a tour of Portugal and Spain as part of our World Youth Day experience. Part of this tour comprised a stop in Avila, which by the grace of God we stumbled upon rather than planned. One of our group forgot a metro pass, and we ended up finding our tour guide waiting to take us. God was truly looking out for us.

As we toured the city where both St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross spent much of their saintly lives, our tour guide talked passionately about them. Sts. Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross are well-known for their enlightened teachings on detachment to the world, suffering and yearning for heaven.

I think they would have approved of our World Youth Day experience.

Jay Schutlz traveled to World Youth Day with students and staff from Bowling Green St. Thomas More University Parish.