St. Anthony WYD pilgrims, Agassiz
by Emee Wenk
Our WYD group from St. Anthony's Agassiz is represented by Regina, Stacia, Coral, Ian, and Emee. We have been in Switzerland for six days to visit family and to celebrate Leo's 70th birthday! We are staying with Leo's brother Karl and Margrit in the northeastern, German-speaking city of St. Gallen.
On our first Sunday we were introduced by Fr. Lawrence Becker to his parish as pilgrims to the Welt Juggen Tag (WYD) in Madrid. Fr. Lawrence had Karl as an assistant for 35 years and he was now celebrating his last Eucharist upon retirement from parish ministry. We were able to follow the liturgy in Swiss-German easily but witnessed a very emotional pastor saying goodbye to his community. This wonderful priest invited us again to make a pilgrimage with him the next day, August 1st and Swiss national holiday, to a sanctuary of our Blessed Mother in the canton Graubunden. We were among the hundred pilgrims who climbed up to the 2400 meter elevation of Kirche Ziteil (Church of the Citadel), with the young people of Agassiz and Swiss cousins passing some very experienced hikers. Once we were inside the stone church, it was obvious that the friends and family of Fr. Lawrence would respond to his call of pilgrimage to this sanctuary in the high alps every year on August 1st and here he would light the candle that he received from them. He gave each of us his blessing and asked that we remember him on August 15th, the day we celebrate the opening mass in Madrid. What a joyful beginning to our journey towards WYD, that we are counted among the world's family of faith, and that we are able to take up the challenge of pilgrimage.
The Cathedral of St. Gallen is one of the most well preserved and recognized late baroque-style churches in Europe. We admired and inspected the intricate gold and wooden artwork inside this church and walked through the peaceful grounds of what used to be a Benedictine monastery. We still plan a visit to the Stifts Bibliotheque, the Abbey library, where valuable collections of historical and religious importance are recorded.
Ebenalp in the canton Appenzell became Regina's favorite hike six years ago, so today we wanted to take Stacia, Coral and Ian up this mountain, via rail and cablecar. We reached the Wildkirchli caves around 3 pm after hiking up the alpine meadows and under the cliffs. The rock altars showed us the piety of the hermits who lived in these caves as a place of worship in the 17th century. At the chapel, we prayed for the men and women in vocations and in new Catholic communities who devote their lives in prayer and service to our Church, sometimes in seclusion from the outside world.
We are carrying with us a book of intentions from St. Anthony's parishioners, families and friends, a suggestion we took from Makani at the Camino send-off. We were blessed by the generous support of our parish community in our goal to go to WYD, and to offer up our parish intentions at every opportunity is indeed a light task. As we travel farther and meet our co-pilgrims, PS98 Music Ministry, in Rome next week, we are united with our families, friends and parish in prayer and in our journey towards Madrid.
Submitted by Emee Wenk, St. Anthony's Youth Ministry
St. Gallen, Switz. August 5, 2011
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