By Laura DePalma

Rain dripped on our heads as we huddled around a radio, trying to hear the broadcast of the Pope’s words in English.  A chill wind blew through our group and the radio cut out yet again, dissolving into static.  But we didn’t really need a translation to understand the spirit behind his words, and we stood transfixed as Pope Francis finished his speech, the rain and the cold fading away into the darkness.

This was our second visit to Copacabana.  We’d been there for hours, learning from the night before to stake a claim to our little patch of sand early in the day.  Many of us had run into the water as soon as we’d gotten there, too excited to hold back, and now sported wet jeans to match the rest of our rain-dampened clothes.  But the discomfort didn’t matter.  It wasn’t what we were thinking about.  Throughout the trip, there were many early mornings and late nights, rainy days and crossed legs.  But when we boarded the plane bound for New York at the end of the week, no one was complaining.  No, the most frequently used word in those conversations was “amazing”.

Because that’s what World Youth Day was, at least for me.  Amazing.  Each day brought with it an exciting new experience, from visiting the statue of Christ the Redeemer to learning the samba to hearing the Pope’s homily as the sun rose over the mountains of Rio.  This experience cast religion and faith in a whole new light for me.  I’ve always gone to mass and been active in my church, largely because that was the example laid out for me since childhood and it was simply the right thing to do.  But since my experience at World Youth Day, my faith has been maturing into something more personal, something alive and real and very much a part of me.

World Youth Day made me appreciate my faith, made me grateful to be a part of something as boundless and benevolent as the Catholic Church.  It was incredible to see so many people from all over the world united and celebrating together.  At a recent meeting of some of the pilgrims from Brooklyn and Queens, one of the women compared the arrival of Pope Francis to the entrance of a rock star, and that’s exactly what it was like.  Millions of people swarmed in crowds on the streets, hung over hotel balconies, and gathered at office windows, all waiting to catch a glimpse of His Holiness.  To witness the way that our one common bond superseded every language barrier, every cultural gap, every difference in age and race – I couldn’t help but feel a sense of community within the church.  When I returned, I started to actively seek out that community, feeling that it was a place where I belonged, and it’s probably the greatest thing I got out of World Youth Day.  It helped me to see the Church not just as a place of worship but as a home, and it planted the seeds for friendships that will last a lifetime.

It was also an opportunity to meet other young people enthusiastic about their faith and to share in a celebration of that faith.  It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to have an audience with the Pope, even if that audience was rather sizeable!  It was the beauty of Brazil, the joy in the moment and the hope for the future, and an excitement that could only be found in a crowd 3 million strong that all combined to make it an unparalleled moment in my life and hopefully in the lives of many others.

So, yes, it was rainy and damp for most of the week we spent in Rio.  But it felt like the sun was shining the whole time.