“During the summer I was lucky enough to go to Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day 2013.  I went with a group of over two hundred young people from all over the UK.  Before we left we had a responsibility to fundraise  and so organised a number of events including a ceilidh and bake sale.  Then we made Year of Faith candles and sold them in most of the parishes in Glasgow.  Thanks to the amazing generosity of parishioners in Glasgow we raised enough money to ensure that all who wanted to go to Brazil were able to.

While in Brazil we visited many places such as Salvador, Sao Paulo and Franca. In these cities we stayed in the homes of families from the parishes. It was incredible to see that although they had very little, they welcomed us into their homes and gave us everything that we needed. In Rio we visited the Christ the Redeemer statue and Sugar Loaf mountain.

After two weeks we returned to Rio for World Youth Day. Due to flooding the meeting was moved from an airfield to Copacabana beach where three million young people from around the world celebrated Mass with Pope Francis.  During his homily the Pope spoke of the mission of the Church to go out into the streets and how it must bring the word of God to many people. After evening prayer with the Pope we slept overnight on the beach in our sleeping bags.  It was an incredible experience to be there with three million young people celebrating our faith.

After this meeting we stayed in Rio for a couple of days and then we visited the sanctuary of Our Lady of Aparecida where we prayed the Rosary. It was amazing to experience a whole other life and culture for those three weeks and the trip really strengthened my faith.”

Louise Swan (5a7)