| Catholic
Pilgrimages for Youth and Young Adults |
|
Where Trailblazers Came From
Some people
ask me from time to time, “Where did Trailblazers come from?” So I will offer
here a small history of how we got started.
One day
while I was still a seminarian, I was strolling through the halls of Sacred
Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. I was on the way somewhere. As I passed by
each of the big windows of the hallway leading to the building entrance, my
mind had been occupied with an important question.
How is the Catholic
Church going to effectively pass on the Gospel message, in its entirety of
teaching, practice and tradition, to the youth of today?
It takes no
genius, of course, to look around in our cultural and civilizational milieu and
realize that, frankly, the deck is stacked against the youth. They have few
leaders to look up to, few examples of life, few supports, and lots of
spiritual enemies. But these are youth, filled with all those great things
proper to the age: high aspirations, the desire to go and leave an imprint on
the world and society, profound hopes to make something great of their lives, a
longing to help others and to improve things.
I had just proposed
to the rector of our seminary, Bishop Allen Vigneron, a man worthy of great
esteem, that the seminary do something to participate in World Youth Day 2002
in Toronto, Canada, just four hours up the road from Detroit. Imagine: the Pope
is calling all the youth of the world there, and it’s only a stone’s throw
away.
My proposal
had dreams attached to it… I was imagining all the seminarians manning tables
and booths about seminary life, answering young peoples’ questions about what
it is to be a seminarian, and maybe some more important questions besides. A
real youth-to-youth, peer-to-peer enterprise.
The rector
informed me and the whole student body of theology that the faculty decided not
to do anything. The difficulties of various diocese, other plans some of the
classes had for the summer, and so forth, made the logistics too complicated.
And the local Archdiocesan plan for WYD 2002 was way too expensive for me to
sign up.
And so there
I was, walking in the sun of the huge windows at the seminary, thinking about
all this. Nothing? They will do nothing? Well, that simply won’t do. We can’t
leave the Pope to do all that evangelizing all by himself… why, there will be a
million people there! Shall I sit here and enjoy a summer vacation, loosing
this great opportunity to spread the faith and encourage vocations? Then it hit
me: “If not you, who? If not now, when?” And so I decided right there and then
to found an enterprise to muster the youth of the Archdiocese, to offer a
vastly more affordable venue, to have seminarians get involved, and so forth.
I spoke
with some of my brother seminarians about the idea, and we decided to meet at a
local, cheap restaurant to discuss the matter further. I was moved deeply to
see that there were twelve seminarians, including myself, which reminded me of the
twelve Apostles, and to see their zeal and enthusiasm to help the youth.
Throughout the
months and years, my idea and focus for Trailblazers has developed in a
wonderful way. I have seen the youth interested in more pilgrimages, not just
WYD, so Trailblazers has expanded to yearly pilgrimages. And I think the
pilgrimage from which I have the fondest memories to date was our trip to
Mexico to visit Our Lady of Guadalupe. I have found the best volunteers one
could hope for, not just seminarians, men and women of every walk and state of
life. Then I was ordained a priest, which enabled me to offer many more
services, specifically the sacramental services, which up to then I could not
have offered.
The name “Trailblazers”
came from a discussion about what to call this pilgrimage-enterprise as we
prepared to go to World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto. For that WYD, the motto was,
“You are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world” (from Mt
5:13-14). Trying to combine the elements of this motto, with the idea of both pilgrimage
and of our youth being a true light shining in the darkness, we came up with
the name. “Trail” corresponded to “salt of the earth,” “blazers” to the light
of the world, and the two terms together indicated pilgrimage and journey.
The name is
particularly apt, because I am discovering no one does quite what Trailblazers
does, in so many ways.
From our
alumni, there have come many fruits beyond telling. Among perhaps the most
interesting ones, are those who entered into religious life or some form of
consecrated life after their experience with us: RJ Slaton, Julissa Vazquez, Jill
Thelen, Ben Pohl, Teresa Youanes and Gina Nuculaj to mention a few… and I think
a few of our alumni have yet to make that move. We pray for all of you, and
support you as you give your lives to God and the Church in this special way!
We have been blessed with more than
350 pilgrims through the years so far, and are eager to blaze more trails where
youth pilgrimages have never gone before!
Fr. Paul Ward
www.fatherpaul.org
Contact us:
Virginia: editor of The Compass - compasseditor@trailblazerswyd.org
Amy : Trailblazers Secretary-
secretary@trailblazerswyd.org
(248) 722-5808 *
www.trailblazerswyd.org
Mailing Address: Trailblazers, WYD, Inc., c/o Bovitz, CPA, C.P., P.O.
Box 445 , Trenton, MI 48183