I went to the pre-synod meeting in order to represent Shalom Catholic Community, I knew there would be about 350 young people from all over the world, believers and non-believers, I was happy that Pope Francis was going to be there and he was going to open the meeting. Those things already sounded exciting, interesting, and I was curious about what was to come.
It was not clear in my mind what we were supposed to do in the meeting, but step by step me and the group of young people who was there started being introduced to the dynamic of what the Church wanted from us. It was so exciting for all of us to listen to Pope Francis and live the beginning of the pre-synod meeting with him, he was listening and talking to us, that was incredible and some of us could not even believe on what was going on.
After the words of Pope Francis and the moment of testimonies of 5 young people from different continents that inflamed our hearts, we were all divided into groups and in these groups we could listen and talk freely, nobody was to be judged and everyone was willing to contribute to the common good. We lived these moments of free speech wishful that the voice of all young people from our countries and the world could be heard by the Church. It was beautiful to see that all of us had understood the importance of that moment and we lived everything as a unique experience. “Our lives matter to the Church!” So we kept on working.
Each group had a moderator and reporter who were responsible for coordinating (helping on the organization of the ideas that came up) and writing what was said by the people, everything was important and everything was written down. My group chose me to be the reporter and another boy from Spain to be the moderator. After finishing this work on the small language groups, the people who were organizing the meeting chose about 25 young people from different nationalities to make up a group that was going to take all the work done by the small language groups and form a final document. I was also chosen to stay in this final work group and I considered as a great grace that God had entrusted me that service. It was nice to see how joyful the people were to be part of this final team and it was beautiful to see how much they wanted the voice of everyone to be heard and to put them into words. Although we were tired, we were supported by God’s grace in a way that we lived everything praising the Lord for that amazing opportunity. So we worked hard on the writing. I could also add some things about my personal experience with God, the Church, the evangelization of the young people, and I could mainly share my experience through Shalom Charisma, what the Community gave and gives me and to other young people day by day.
The social evenings were very cool, in those moments we could see the different cultures and we could also realize the amazing gift that each culture is to the world. Then we sang, danced and rejoiced altogether.
My last surprise was when I got to know that I was going to be part of the offertory procession during Holy Mass with the Holy Father, on Palm Sunday. There were 9 young people who were chosen to be part of that moment. That was special for me, because our Community was born in the offertory of a Mass with the Holy Father, also in the context of the evangelization of the youth. God provided that amazing and meaningful experience and so I could also renew my life offering in the heart of the Church and at the feet of the successor of Peter to the humanity, to the Church, and to the young people.
Everything was special I was surprised about the fact of how the Catholic Church, although weak, because we are weak and we are the church, can promote peaceful and fraternal encounters such as these, we all felt so free, so loved and welcomed and we were very happy because the Church wanted to listen to us. We saw that we had many differences, but what mattered was the many things we had in common. My gratitude to the Lord who always freely and immensely manifests his love to his children and make us all brothers and sisters in Him.
Bárbara Tavares
