Yes, Halleluya Festival at WYD Krakow 2016!!
WYD 2016 will welcome the biggest Brazilian festival of integrated arts. The event will be integrated in the Youth Festival to be held in Krakow (Poland) from 27-29 July. If you are not familiar with Halleluya Festival it is Brazilian’s biggest Catholic festival of integrated arts and certainly the only one of the kind in the whole Latin America. It is known as “the party that never ends” due to what it aims to bring into its visitors: an experience of God’s love and we all know that His love never ends! The Festival was first hosted in the city of Fortaleza, Northeast of Brazil. It started as an inspiration from the youth ministry of Shalom Catholic Community. They wanted to offer a ...

Mission Aix en Provence, a Café to Evangelize!
“Share the great deeds of God in our lives and especially in this mission, is aconcrete way of praise and recognise His love that has led us to here!” Founded on 15 th September 2014, the mission of Aix­en­Provence, France, has the main objective the evangelization of the youth, as this city is marked by the presence of several French universities, so it is “flooded” by the young people. Early in the start of the community foundation in Aix, we needed to enter well in the local reality, so we focused on a process of “inculturation” and started to learn the French language. Certainly, this was and has been, the best way for us to get in touch and start a relationship with the university of Aix’s ...

Guayaquil Youth are getting ready for WYD
The Catholic Community Shalom in Guayaquil, Ecuador, held in February the first “llega pronto JMJ”, which is an encounter preparing all young people who go to the World Youth Day with Shalom Community this year in 2016 in Krakow, Poland. About 30 young people participating in the Shalom prayer groups and the Youth Ministry of the Archdiocese are part of the group of pilgrims going to WYD with Shalom Guayaquil. The encounter took place in the Shalom community house, with a moment of prayer and presentation of the group, followed by motivational videos of WYD and the travel program for pilgrims. Father Jorge Montalvo, responsible for youth ministry in the Archdiocese of Guayaquil, was also present at that night, and he spoke of the unity between Shalom and ...

Shalom Youth Camp: “I felt renewed”
The Shalom Youth Camp or Acamp’s (as our young people like to call it) is a leisure and entertainment option during the holidays of the students. The event brings together young people from 13 to 28 years old for six days of adventure, extreme sports, concerts, lectures and eucharistic celebrations offering an experience of joy and lasting fun. It is carried out since 1990 by the Youth Project for Jesus in several cities in Brazil and other countries where there are Shalom’s missions. In Fortaleza, where it happened the first Acamp ‘s, about a thousand young people participated in the event in each edition.   TESTIMONY YOUTH – ACAMP’S CHILE “Hi, my name is Jesus Guerrero, I’m 15 years old and I am from Santiago (Chile). I study ...

It is time for new foundations in Shalom Community
On this year 2016, the Catholic Community Shalom announced the opening of two more missionary homes in the African continent: one in the city of Praia, capital of Cape Verde and one in Maputo, the capital and the largest city of Mozambique. At least ten missionaries of the Shalom Community will be assigned to the evangelization work in these cities. The Pope Francis, during his visit to Africa in December 2015, said: “I come as a minister of the Gospel to proclaim the love of Jesus Christ and his message of reconciliation, forgiveness and peace. My visit aims to confirm Catholics in their faith in God and the testimony of the Gospel, which teaches the dignity of every man and woman, and recommended us to open our hearts ...

Understanding the feast of divine mercy
The sunday of divine mercy is how is called the second sunday of easter. This name has been given by John Paul II as a response to the message of Merciful Jesus to Saint Faustina, as she said in her spiritual diary: “Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature: “Jesus, I trust in You”. […] I want this image, which you will paint with a brush, to be solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter; that Sunday is to be the Feast of Mercy. I desire that priests proclaim this great mercy of Mine towards the souls of sinners” (Diary, 47-49). This year (2016), Pope Francis invited everyone who is spiritually linked to the ...

Home Hospital
The Home Hospital As part of the spiritual preparations for WYD, in response to the call of Pope Francis – create a “Home Hospital”! The Idea The initiative came from students gathered in Krakow’s student chaplaincies. Observing with anxiety the changes that took place in the last years in the life of the city – they decided to act. In the center of Krakow, a city of so many saints, several dozen places appeared, which propagate impurity, inclination to evil and spread immoral stances.Sensitive to the evil and to human weakness, the students of Krakow’s universities decided to act. With a sense of responsibility for the city they decided to spiritually take care of the moral renewal of Krakow – ...

For us and the Whole World – Spiritual Conferences preparing for WYD
Seven months before World Youth Day, for the inauguration of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, the Pastoral Department of WYD Krakow 2016 has prepared a unique project: a series of meetings and spiritual conferences entitled “For us and for the whole world”, which will be broadcast online and available on the Internet in nine languages. Encouraged by Pope Francis, we want to prepare ourselves for WYD by performing works of mercy. From December 2015 to June 2016, during seven meetings, which will take place on Saturday afternoons in the Sanctuary of the Divine Mercy in Krakow-Łagiewniki, special guests invited from Poland and abroad will introduce us to the topics of mercy and works of mercy, which are meant to be ...