In Via
Planning a trip? Or just on the pilgrimage of daily living? We are the podcast at the intersection of faith and travel, assisting you on the journey to encounter Christ. Hear stories, discover travel tips, and learn more about our Catholic faith. Along the way, we’ll show you that if God seeks to meet us in Jerusalem, Rome, Lourdes, Mexico City, or Santiago, he also wants to encounter you - right there in your car, on your run, or in the middle of your workday.
In Via
Losing Luggage, Finding Perspective
Can you imagine ever thinking losing your luggage might be a ... gift? Connect with us as we engage in a rich conversation with Taylor, a two-time World Youth Day pilgrim. She recounts her captivating experiences in Panama and Portugal, sharing moments of joy, reflection, and even hardship, all through a lens of faith and spiritual growth.
Taylor found a balance between joy and introspection, learning lessons from her challenges that forced her to rely on others. A personal highlight for her was a hilarious, unexpected "disco moment" at a Chinese restaurant, illustrating that even in moments of spiritual journeying, there is a place for laughter and bonding.
Now, with two World Youth Days under her belt, Taylor is setting her sights on Seoul, 2027. Taylor's story is proof that faith is not a solitary journey but a shared experience.
Welcome to In Via, the podcast where we're navigating the pilgrimage of life. We are all In Via on the way and we are learning a lot as we go. I'm your host, Joan Watson. Join me as we listen to stories, discover travel tips and learn more about our Catholic faith. Along the way, we'll see that if God seeks to meet us in Jerusalem, Rome or Santiago, he also wants to encounter you right there in your car, on your run or in the middle of your workday. So welcome back everybody to In Via, the podcast that takes you on trips around the world but really helps you navigate the daily pilgrimage of life.
Joan:Today we are talking to another World Youth Day pilgrim, Taylor, as she tells us kind of her story about World Youth Day and we just chat. I have to admit she was one of my pilgrims on World Youth Day and I love my pilgrims and I love to hear their stories and it's been such an honor to accompany those pilgrims and to now hear what the Lord has done on that trip that we were all there, but the Lord was working in all of our hearts, I think, in different ways. So, Taylor, thanks for joining us. Thank you so much for having me. This is great. It's kind of been a good reunion of sorts for me to be able to see some people again and to reminisce. But for our listeners who don't know you, if you could give someone three sentences about yourself, what would you say about yourself?
Taylor:Yeah, so my name is Taylor Whitehead. I'm from Southeast Indiana, so kind of near Cincinnati, but on the Indiana side I go to Mount St. Joseph University. I'll be a junior, or I am a junior right now. I'm studying to be a nurse and I kind of just love all the simple things in life sunrises, the simple things, a warm coffee, I don't know just. But yeah, that's me.
Joan:I love that. I love that. I love the simple things too. Why make life complicated? Just appreciate the good gifts the Lord gives us in the everyday.
Taylor:Yes.
Joan:Oh amen. So I would love to chat more about World Youth Day, but, if I remember correctly, this was not your first World Youth Day, so I would love for you to kind of talk about why you decided to go to this massive global event of young people. For those of you who don't know or who didn't listen to previous episodes, World Youth Day is a gathering of young people with the Holy Father. It happens occasionally, you know, two or three years, depending on if there's a pandemic, and we all got to go to Lisbon together and be with the Pope. It's about so much more than that, and that's what I would love people to know. You know that it's much more than just a single meeting with the Pope. But, Taylor, I know that you've been to another World Youth Day, and so I'd love to hear why you decided to come back to another one to Lisbon yeah, sure.
Taylor:So my first World Youth Day was in 2019, to go to Panama. It was a smaller group of us, it was in January, so I think that sort of could be why, but I wanted to go this coming year when I heard about it. We're blessed to be able to send a big group from our church. Our priest goes with us and it's really amazing. And so when he announced that we were going or planning a trip to Europe, to go to Portugal and then possibly a Rome extension added on to that, I was like, yeah, how do I go? I want to go.
Joan:I got. How do I, what do I do to go?
Taylor:My two older sisters and my mom had gone in 2016 to Krakow, and so that was kind of the big push of me wanting to go in 2019 just because they had gone. My mom went with me then, but so this year, this last year, I went by myself, which was great. I loved spending time with my mom in 2019, but I really had so many people and so many friends on this trip. It was a group of 72 of us from our church, so it was amazing and I was so happy to be able to go back, because World Youth Day itself, the Mass at the very last day that's the pivotal point, but then all the catechesis and the things leading up to it, I think is what makes it so special. So I was really excited to be able to go this year.
Joan:Yeah, you were a pro of World Youth Day. I mean it's interesting because so many people maybe go once and they only have the opportunity to go once. And so it was interesting because a lot of people thought I had been before, because I was the pilgrimage director and I was leading and I was like I was so happy that Father Meyer was there, because he really was the expert, right.
Taylor:He's a World Youth Day expert. I think we can say that Right so we have the real blessing.
Joan:It was such a grace to be led by Father Meyer, who's been to nine now nine World Youth Days, but I think with you having been before, that was unique, right, because so many people only have the opportunity to go once and so I would love to hear you know you've. So you went in Panama. It was probably very different for a number of reasons, with the time of year and the different country, the smallness of the group. Did you have any expectations going into this World Youth Day because you had been before?
Taylor:I'd say I'm a person that never really I'm a middle child, so I never really have expectations anyway. So I don't know. I kind of go a long life of just like, if I'm going on a trip, like I'm just going to follow, like I'm a little I'm not a follower in life, but in certain things, like I try, I normally don't have expectations. But as for World Youth Day in particular, I Father Meyer always says to not compare them so 2019 was a different experience, right. And so going into this one, I was like I, Panama was what it was, it was amazing and there were lots of things to take away from it and so on.
Taylor:But I was excited, in sort of a sense, to go on this one in 2023 to kind of just see the ways that the Lord would work. I didn't have expectations at all really. I knew I was going with a big group, I knew a few things that I should pack and I knew kind of the fundamentals basically of what was going to happen. But I was like I'm going to go and I'm going to experience and it'll be good. So I knew, regardless of what would happen, that it would be, it would be worth it. So that's incredible and that's I mean.
Joan:First of all, that's a really good lesson for anybody. I think. Going to World Youth Day just to, or any pilgrimage right, it's not just World Youth Day, it's any pilgrimage. We've talked on this podcast before about going with kind of open hearts and open hands and just being ready to receive what the Lord wants to do, and that you went, even though you could have gone and thought, ok, I know what this event is going to be like, or I know what to expect, or I know this you. I mean, I felt like I was a disadvantage going in and not knowing what to expect, but maybe it was good because we could all go in with just that open. Maybe I would have gone in with more expectation and you were able.
Joan:I think that's a real grace that you were able to go in and just that's great advice from father to go in and not compare them. There's something there for us as well. Like, don't compare your journey with someone else's through this life, don't compare even our experiences of the same thing. The Lord wants to do different things with different people and to not compare that. I think that's a really powerful lesson for us. That is very powerful, yeah, but so you did not have any expectations.
Joan:You just knew that it was going to be amazing in some way. Right, what was your favorite part? I guess either your favorite part, your favorite event of World Youth Day. What do you have a moment that really sticks out? At the end? We're going to do a little exercise where we're going to talk about your high point, your low point and just a fun story, so maybe you'll repeat it later. But do you have kind of a high like what your favorite event was, maybe, or your favorite part of World Youth Day?
Taylor:Yeah, for World Youth Day specifically, I would say any anything we went to where Bishop Baron was. To put it simply, I mean he was amazing. I had heard him a few times just listening to YouTube videos, Word on Fire, like he just he really says some profound things. But one morning in particular was a catechesis session. So catechesis, if you speak the same language, you go to the same place. Sometimes the American bishops would be there, and so this is different for all the different countries, whatever language you speak. I think we had some Australians at our catechesis, but the majority of them are just from the United States and it was a morning where they were doing adoration.
Taylor:There was a talk from Bishop Baron and then mass following adoration. There's not many times where I have the opportunity to go to Mass, like where adoration leads into it. That's not something you get to do very often. So I thought that was special in itself. But Bishop Baron talked before adoration began. I might have even been during it and he had said some things that I had heard before. But just the ways that he, the ways that he said it are the ways that he reiterated it to me. I was like, ok, yeah, and he kind of just puts that pit in you, like yeah, like no, I need to do something, I need to, I need to change, or I need to implement this into my life.
Taylor:And I'd say two, two, two quotes, I guess, that really have stuck out to me. One being Prayer is like breathing. He says that we just we just need to like it. Just, it's part of us and we're meant to, I think is how we put it.
Taylor:The other one that he shared was a quote that I had heard before and it was, I think it's, by Father Pedro Arrupe Let me see if I can find it here and he kind of I love it so much I'm just going to share it really quick because I think it's profound. But it says nothing is more practical than finding God, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you're in love with, what ceases your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything. And I just so many like this was. This was all one morning and I'm like you're just amazing.
Taylor:I could just listen to you, but then it was just really peaceful to be able to lead into Mass and just it was just very peaceful to be able to be peaceful and prayerful. Yeah but yes.
Joan:Yeah, Bishop Barron talked to us about prayer and I loved how he kind of laid out like three things right. He's very Fulton Sheen-esque in that there's three points, right, and you can take those three points, and so he had just beautiful things to say about prayer and our relationship with God and it was like the whole morning was so prayerful.
Joan:I mean it sounds kind of ridiculous, but it was just so and such a great, a beautiful way to lead into them, like you said, to lead into Mass, but he just had such a beautiful, simple way of breaking down prayer and just that. These are the three things like take the time to pray, find your center in peace and find silence. And then he gave us three recommendations. And so what I love about Bishop Barron, I think, is that he doesn't he doesn't not beat around the bush Like he calls us to something, like you said, like you wanted to go do something. You wanted to do what he asked you to do, and I think that's a mark of a good preacher that he didn't make us feel guilty. He inspired us to go do it.
Joan:And I had a friend who one time said John Paul II we were talking about John Paul II and the youth's attraction to JP II and which is why we have World Youth Day to begin with, right Is John Paul II's love for the youth. And my friend said John Paul II knew what we were capable of and expected it. And I was thinking about that with Bishop Barron and so many of the homilies we heard that it's not like oh, you're young. Take your time for yourself right now, or you can't be responsible because you're young. It wasn't a like you know, it was very much like. You can do this and you should do this and I expect you to do it. And we were given that responsibility right. He knew what we were capable of and expected it, and the youth respond to that.
Joan:You know, and I think we saw that with Bishop Barron and Pope Francis and homilies as well. You know, yeah, what? So you had seen the Holy Father before, obviously in Panama. What are your thoughts? What were your thoughts? Maybe Were you able to see him here, and what were your thoughts in seeing the Holy Father, even though it wasn't for the first time?
Taylor:I was still pretty excited to see him again because I mean, what the heck like? It's the Pope right.
Taylor:So, but I'd say this time I was like, okay, someone else can be on the front rail, like when he drives past, like I'll still see him, but like someone else, you know, maybe like it's it's not my first time, kind of thing. I mean it's still very exciting to see him. In four years, of seeing him again is very special. But I would like to share. I know it's from 2019, but I just can't get the image out of my head, oh please.
Taylor:But we were it was like the first people welcome before, like when he had arrived in Panama and we were. It was like a cross country race. It was awesome and he was. He was like he was going around in his Pope mobile and he, he looped, he looped across and we were standing on one side and it was not very crowded, which was weird because I think people like weren't there in time for his welcome because the city was so crowded. But we had gotten there, able to see him and and he like sprinted across. I'm telling you it was like a cross country race. It was so funny and we saw him on one side and then we like ran back and you know, you like run to both sides. So that was so funny. So I was like I'm remembering that when, when the Pope, when I saw him again in Europe and this is awesome, like it just makes you smile and everyone's so joyful and yeah it's great.
Joan:Yeah, I love seeing people see him.
Joan:Yes, you know, I mean, I've had the, the, the great grace to see him many times and so, just like, like you said, letting someone else be at the front and just seeing the joy of people, and they see him, and you know that it's, it's so much more than this person right that they, like, it's our, our touch with the Catholic history and with the Catholicism, with the unity of the church and the. You know one Catholic apostolic right, and it's just this really beautiful moment when you see that joy and the, the youthful exuberance. You know we couldn't run from one side of the other this time because there were so many people there were, but that's so beautiful.
Joan:Yeah, so one of the things we love to do on this podcast is to kind of see where the Lord encounters people on pilgrimage and what he said to them on pilgrimage, how he maybe taught them something. You know, we're not expecting people to hear voices. We have to see the Lord in the circumstances and through the people and through the events, right. So is there a moment on the pilgrimage, maybe, that you felt the Lord was, was telling you something, calling you to something that then you're taking back into your daily pilgrimage of life?
Taylor:I feel like, being in Portugal, I have to share this. So we went to, we went to Fatima that first day prior to World Youth Day. So our arrival in Portugal, and when we were in Fatima, we we walked to the stations of the cross where the apparitions were on, like the 13th and then on the 19th, and those were so powerful. And Father Meyer, he had shared a reflection when we stopped at these, and the one in particular of the 19th.
Taylor:So if you don't know the story of Fatima, it's when the children were all being were being interviewed separately and they weren't able to be there on the 13th and they ended up, like falling to their knees at this spot after they had been reunited on the 19th, and like Mary had appeared to them there and he had read this reflection of how, like Mary will seek you out and like, once you offer your heart and your life, like to the angels and the saints, and like to Jesus and to Mary, and just in particular, like allowing Mary to like bring you closer to her son, like she will, like she will do it.
Taylor:So I think it was just a very, a very prayerful moment and kind of just reminded me one of the importance of having a relationship with Mary so that I could be closer to Jesus. And then also just that, no matter what like hardship or thing you're going through, like Mary stood at the foot of the cross and I think she's like like what better woman to help us, lead us closer to her son. So I think that was probably a pretty powerful moment to and something that, like, I've brought into my daily life now, being more prayerful about, like adding a daily rosary into my life and just honoring her in that way.
Joan:So yeah, and like she accompanies us on these hardships that are nothing compared to what she endured, but that doesn't matter, like she wants to be there for us and just to remember that that no matter. I mean, think about what the children of Fatima went through, and she was still there for them the whole time, right, and she was always there for them. But they went, as you mentioned, they were actually arrested. They were interrogated separately. They tried to get them to, you know, say that they were lying and so they weren't even together. On the 13th, the Blessed Mother didn't appear till later. She still was there, right, she came and she was there for them. That during all of that.
Joan:And I think sometimes it's the hardest to see the Lord in the hardships, but that's when he's closest to us and he's speaking to us in those places as well. And there are plenty of hardships on pilgrimages. You know, there are plenty of times and we, you know we don't walk barefoot anymore. Well, some people do right and some people go on their knees. In Fatima we saw that like people on their knees. But even if we're not enduring those like physical hardships on pilgrimage, there are plenty of hardships on pilgrimage and we can either approach them with anger and with resentment, or we can approach them with openness. Was there a time on this pilgrimage where you may be experienced a hardship that you weren't looking for, but maybe the Lord spoke to you through that as well?
Taylor:yeah, it's very true, very true. We love that actually. So, something beautiful that happened on this trip no, and, but it was. So I, we had a nine-hour layover in Madrid, so my group, we had a Rome extension, so we went to Rome three and a half days, which was absolutely amazing.
Joan:Before we that needs a whole nother episode. Right to come back and talk about
Taylor:Yes, we do, but, um, so we were in Rome three and a half days and then we were flying to Madrid where we'd have a nine-hour layover. And so it was the night before we left and Father Meyer I was talking with him and my friend Lucy she's the youth minister at All Saints and she she went to Krakow with my mom and my older two sisters with Father Meyer, and father was like alright, so tomorrow, with our nine-hour, nine-hour layover, I want everyone to like, if they want to like, go out into the city of Madrid. He's like I want them to to check their luggage. So we had packed so that we didn't have to check our luggage. I packed pretty good, like I really did, but, um, but he was like I want everyone, if we can, to pack light in our backpacks and that's what we'll carry out into Madrid and then we'll check our bags so that we don't have to worry about them while we're out in the city, so we don't have to leave them at the airport.
Taylor:So it's like alright, like that's not, that'd be cool, like we're gonna be in Madrid, we should go right. But I reminded him. I was like, father, don't you remember in 2016, when it was a short layover flight. That's when my mom lost her luggage and he was like, yeah, yeah, I remember that, but it's a nine-hour layover, like it'll be okay. Like they'll have plenty of time to like get your luggage, it'll be good. Like it will be good. I was like, alright, like I'll pack my clothes for Fatima on Monday, like just in case, like cuz, we never know so I had all my important.
Taylor:Yeah, I had all my important stuff that I needed in my backpack. And we go out into Madrid, come back, get on our flight to Porto and we land in Porto. It was like an hour flight from Madrid. We land there and I'm standing at the baggage claim to get my luggage, and right before then I like was talking to one of my friends and I was like you know, I'm probably gonna be really upset if my luggage does not come. Like I think I'm gonna be really upset. I hope it comes, but like I might be upset. And so so I was standing there and I'm waiting.
Taylor:It's been like 15 minutes and everyone's like Taylor, like did you get your luggage? No, haven't, haven't seen it yet. Haven't seen it yet. They're like did you check over it? Yeah, yeah, I checked, I don't see it. And so I was like, oh my gosh, like what? Like out of all people like it, it would be me, right and so? But said, no one, like everyone else had their luggage. I think they were the group from India, but was there about 150 of us?
Joan:this, that about that second flight, yeah, yeah, there were a lot of you, yeah, so we all had.
Taylor:They all had their luggage, and mine didn't show up. And I felt so bad because I was like we were kind of like in a sprint because we needed to get back for mass and we needed to like. It was Sunday and it was like 4, 30, 5 o'clock and we hadn't gone to mass yet. I was like no one's eaten dinner. I was like what is gonna happen? So this couple from Indianapolis they speak Spanish, they waited in line with me at Lost and Found to like put in my ticket that my bag was lost and Father Myers stood with me and when he had walked up a little while later, he, he was like well, everyone's like I can't remember if it was him that told me, but like he's like everyone's praying a rosary over there and like praying at St. Anthony, which, mind you, Portugal is the hometown of St. Anthony. So, like what or Lisbon is I'm like this is I'm like it's fine so so just little things like that.
Taylor:Like everyone had my back and it was actually really beautiful, like out loud in an airport for 150 people to be praying a rosary out loud. That was beautiful, even if I wasn't near them when they did it. But yeah, we stood in line for like an hour and the couple helped me put in the claim and then we left the airport and all I had was a piece of paper with a phone number to call on it and I was like all right, like this is, this is. I had my backpack of the things that I needed for the next day. I'm like it's alright. Like I was, I definitely cried, I, I shed a few tears, but I was more of just like like what the heck do I do now? And I kind of was just like, alright, I'll just like take it day by day, like maybe it'll come tomorrow, like it'll, it'll be okay. And so we go back to the hotel and everything and had Mass at like 11 o'clock at night.
Joan:It seemed like you know, it was because we had a three hour bus ride, so it was awesome.
Taylor:So we still were able to go to mass, like all these definitely a pilgrimage, right it was. It was awesome, though, like, and so we went to Mass. And then we went to Fatima the next day and, in the back of my mind, like, I was like okay, there's 72 people with me in my group, they will take care of me. Like if I need something, people are like hey, like I got you, like we'll, we'll let you use this, and I had really everything important that I needed. So that was at least good. But long story short, I would call like a few times each day the hotel clerk. He was so nice and he helped a lot, like he would. Since we were so busy during the days, he would like we'd come back late in the evening and he'd be like oh, I called the airport for you.
Taylor:I'm like oh, did you and he's like, yeah, like I didn't hear anything back, though, Like they're still waiting, Thank you. So he was so nice helping me out with that and I was able to make a few calls each day. But when I like have come back from this experience, people will ask me like, oh, like we heard you last year at luggage. I'm like, yeah, but it was like it was. Actually it wasn't bad. Like it was eight days without clothes, really that like we were matching T-shirts every day.
Joan:So I had two pairs of shorts and so it really was fine Like and that was really beautiful because, Kim, so I loved that your group, so your group you had a pretty big group and your group wore matching T-shirts every day, and so every day was a different colored T-shirt and I loved it as your pilgrimage director because I could always tell where you guys were, because you were always in a different color and you were matching, and I thought it was so beautiful that Kim gave her shirt to you every day so that you could match, and it's one of those little things that, like to her, it probably didn't seem like oh, I have other clothes, Taylor doesn't have anything. Of course, I'm gonna give Taylor my shirt, but she literally gave you her shirt off her back in a way, and just that protection. And that's why we're on this journey with other people the other people care for us and to remember that when we're on this daily pilgrimage of life, to look for those people and to allow those people to help us.
Taylor:Like you allowed.
Joan:Kim to do that and that's a grace for you and Kim you know.
Taylor:Yeah, that was definitely one of the hard pieces, I'd say, for me. It's not always easy for me to allow people to take care of me. I'm normally one to just reach out to others and never accept help from others, or even I'm not very good at about asking for help. And so there were a few times, like through that experience, that I had to ask my roommate like hey, can I borrow this? Like and like, yeah, yeah, go ahead. Or even, like the hotel clerk, he ended up giving me a tiny sleeping bag because he used to be a Boy Scout. He's like I'll let you borrow this for the field. So, like so many people extended their hand.
Joan:Because all of us had packed so much for that vigil and been prepared for that vigil, and suddenly you were stripped of that. You know, whatever preparation you had done, the Lord stripped you of it and you relied. The hotel clerk, out of the kindness of his heart, gave you a sleeping bag.
Taylor:That's incredible. Yeah, it was awesome. So I think it's definitely hard to allow people to like take care of you, but it really was a blessing and a gift and something that I think I'm still receiving graces from for sure. But I was telling people too, like Kim, giving her shirt off her back, like she was closing the naked, like she was doing the corporal work of mercy, and all these people, like my roommate who was lending me stuff like I think it was, like I hope that I happened to be a witness Like for or like an example to everyone on the pilgrimage who hadn't been on a pilgrimage of like, like sometimes we don't need these materialistic things Like, yes, I packed specifically those things that I needed and it would have been nice to have them, but I really didn't need anything in that bag and I survived quite literally without any of it.
Taylor:So I think sometimes it's easy to rely on, like worldly attachments and these worldly things of like oh I need this specific shirt or dress to be happy or to look beautiful. But, like you know, honesty, like the Lord still worked and I still had a good experience and I honestly don't think I would go back and say differently that I think I this experience for one, I think I needed to lose my luggage. Honestly, like I think that I wouldn't have had as much of a profound experience without having lost it. Did I go into it expecting I would lose it?
Joan:No.
Taylor:Was I more or less prepared, and did the Lord give me strength? Yes, so.
Joan:Yeah, that's beautiful. I think it's so important for us to be open to you. Know, we have maybe go into pilgrimages with prayer intentions or with expectations of what the Lord's gonna do on that trip and you, I've already said you went it with no expectations. But, which is beautiful, but that idea that he works through everything, he works through everyone and you know, I think he worked through this to teach you detachment, to teach you reliance on him, to teach you reliance on others, which is incredible, and I was so impressed by your spiritual maturity in it all that you could have again.
Joan:You could have approached this with anger.
Joan:We always have a choice of how we're going to approach something, how we're going to approach life, and generally I approach it in not the right way, right Like to have and I mean it was like you cried, of course, right Like.
Joan:So you had the kind of the natural emotions, but then by the end of the week and sooner than that, you had such a beautiful outlook and such a beautiful approach to it that it spoke to me and it taught me, and so thank you for that, because you were able to kind of witness and testify through what the Lord was doing in a really difficult situation that not everybody would have approached the way you approached it, and so I hope I can take a lesson from that as well and apply it to my daily life that you know so often we need. We think we need X, y, z, and the Lord alone suffices, right, we just need him and he'll take care of us through other people, right? I mean, it's not a. It's also not a lesson like oh, don't worry about anything, don't pack anything, don't prepare anything, right, but that when you are stripped, the Lord will provide through the communion of the saints here on earth, right?
Taylor:Yes, yeah, it's beautiful.
Joan:Thank you as we wrap up, I would love to do a quick round at Verso we do a thing called high, low disco, where we talk about a high point, a low point and then disco is just kind of a funny story, a funny memory, something quirky, maybe that happened, so you can tell them in any order. We like to end in disco, though, because it's fun. But do you have a high point, maybe a low point and then disco to share? And it could be something you've already shared too.
Taylor:Yeah, I would say high point. You know walking. I think it's hard to particularly put the words to it that like visually help everyone to kind of experience it. But when you walk in the streets and you sing just patriotic songs and you walk past people that love Jesus and you're like, well, you're from a different country. I think just seeing the beauty of the universal church is that we have that in common is a joy that I think makes World Youth Day so attractive in what draws so many people to it, and so I think that's definitely a high of mine of just being able to experience that again. You go to different conferences and SEEK all these different things, but there's something about knowing that that person next to you is from France, that other person they're from Venezuela or whatever it is, you don't know, but it's just like they have that in common with you and it's beautiful.
Joan:Yeah, like walking through the streets after those events, especially in, like the night, where there was just this energy like I've never experienced, and it was like we were all like high on Jesus and it was amazing and just this unity between the countries and between us because we shared Christ, and that was really powerful. You're right, you can't really put into words how it feels Just to see the flags, the flags and flags and flags for days and, yeah, I agree, that was a high.
Taylor:For me too, it's pretty oh, it's crazy, that's for sure. Yes, I would say a low. I know a low.
Joan:I mean, you could easily say losing your luggage but you've told us that's actually turned out to be high, but I think it's a low.
Taylor:It is a low in sort of sense, and I think, like you said before, the reaction that I had was a normal reaction of something upsetting happening. There was, I guess I'll share. There was one evening it was Wednesday evening so we arrived, it was like three days after I had lost the luggage and I actually hadn't called my parents or anything yet since we had left. I had messaged them a few times but I was like feeling this I don't know, when you pack certain things when you go on vacation, even if you're just going to Florida and the United States, you have those pieces of home in your bag.
Taylor:And I think that was honestly the first time that I quite literally felt homesick, because I was like I don't really have anything, Like I just have a few pairs of shorts and my toothbrush and I'm like, ah. So I had called my parents that evening and I was like crying. I was like I promise I'm having a good time, but it kind of just like hit me then, but like it was so good to be able to like talk to my parents that evening about like just some of the things that had happened so far, of like when we were in Rome and it was beautiful and I felt bad because I was like man, they probably think I'm just having a terrible time. But then I like made a point to like make sure I was sending like really moments that I was joyful on the trip, so that they knew I was still having a good time.
Joan:But yeah, and then do you have a disco moment to share with us? Disco, oh, I mean with Father Meyer. There's a multitude of disco moments, I know.
Taylor:yeah, so many yeah, I think one I want to share in particular was when. So okay, right next to our hotel was a Chinese restaurant, which was awesome, and so one of the first nights there was a small group of us of young adults that we went to the Chinese restaurant and they gave us a private room and I think we were all very slap happy. I know we were all very slap happy and it was just hilarious having our own room sitting in a circle table. I can't even describe to you the funny things that went on, but our bellies hurt by the end of it, not because we were full but because we were laughing so hard. And later on that Chinese restaurant they provided a table for us. Father Meyer graciously asked them that if we could use one of their little like folding dinner table, almost like a movie TV dinner table Like a TV tray almost.
Taylor:Yeah, yeah, to go out into the like to take with us into the field that Saturday for adoration. And so Father Meyer in Panama we had, like seen a group do this where they had a little cardboard box altar and a monstrance displayed with the Eucharist and the Blessed Sacrament present throughout the day. And Father Meyer, when he saw that in Panama, he was like, yeah, we need to do that. So I think it was that ended up being so special that we were able to pray eight hours in the hot sun and just when everything was so chaos and loud around us, it was so peaceful in that moment to just have the Eucharist present, have Jesus present with us. So, yeah, we love that Chinese restaurant. I'll never forget that it was the best.
Joan:Like when I found out he was gonna do adoration in the field we need to get him on the podcast to tell the story. But when I found out he's gonna do adoration in the field, I was like how, like, my logistical brain started like what is this gonna be like? And he said we're getting a table from the Chinese restaurant. And I said, excuse me, I mean we're walking to the pilgrimage site, we're walking to this field and you're carrying a table. Yep, okay, here we go. And those boys carried that table and they carried it back, they gave it back to the Chinese restaurant and, yeah, the graces that are gonna be poured out. I love my father and I was like who knows what graces are gonna come out of that Chinese restaurant now, because they gave this table to the Lord. Yeah, so funny.
Joan:Yeah, well, we could probably stay a very long time and just tell stories about our trip. I'd love to have you back on sometime to talk about Rome, because we haven't even talked about our three days in Rome prior to World Youth Day. But it was a joy. Taylor, thanks so much for joining us. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It was great. It was great. So our next pilgrimage. I heard you're going to Seoul, right? Oh yeah, I'll be there.
Taylor:We can't break the streak. I mean, once you start, you just can't, so yeah.
Joan:I'll be there. That's right. You're our veteran World Youth Day person, so you and.
Joan:Father Meyer, Seoul 2027. Yes, 2027. So excellent. Well, thanks, Taylor. God bless, Thank you listeners for listening and don't forget to leave us some reviews and give us a rating. So other people find this podcast. But as we continue on this pilgrimage of life, we navigate it together through the hardships. We are all together, as Taylor learned very firsthand from her fellow pilgrims who took care of her. We are together even across the airwaves. We're praying for you, Please pray for us, and God bless.
