Köln. . . Six Months Later

As I mentioned earlier this week, I recently received a letter from a friend of mine who is a seminarian in Bonn, Germany. If you went to Germany for World Youth Day, or if you know anything about the area, you know that Köln and Bonn are essentially twin cities. In fact many of the venues for World Youth Day 2005 were in Bonn. Anyways, in his letter he spoke briefly about the impact World Youth Day has left on the area. I thought I'd share that with you since it's encouraging and important to remember that these events truly do impact the countries in which they are held.

So, my friend writes:

"Ich hoffe dass der WYD in Deutschland weiterhin Frucht bringt. Ein Kameramann von Fernsehen hat sich taufen lassen. Ausserdem sind im Jahr 2005 so viele Menschen in die Kirche eingetreten wie seit langen nicht mehr. Das sind die ersten "Wunder" von Köln."

(Translation: I hope that WYD in Germany brings further fruit. A camera man from TV had himself baptised. Moreover many more people came to church in 2005 than have come for a long time. These are the first "miracles" of Cologne.)

In his letter he also requested prayers for him and his fellow seminarians:

"Alle Seminaristen brauchen das Gebet der Gläubigen. Bete bitte besonders für unsere Treue zum Herrn und um unsere Heiligskeit. Nur wenn wir als treue und heilige Priester Christi dienen, können wir reiche Frucht bringen."

(Translation: All seminarians need the prayers of the faithful. Please pray especially for our faithfulness to the Lord and our holiness. Only when we serve Christ as faithful and holy priests can we bring rich fruit.)

For the sake of the whole Body of Christ, please keep my friend and all the seminarians you know, as well as those you don't know, in your prayers.

At WYD I had the opportunity to meet and speak briefly with an Armenian seminarian. He said that he was one of six Catholic seminarians in his whole country and the only one attending WYD. He commented that he felt somewhat alone surrounded by the Italian seminarians who arrived by the busload. I only spoke with him for maybe five or ten minutes, as I shared my umbrella with him during a downpour, but our brief conversation left an impression on me. Let us pray especially for those seminarians studying in parts of the world where Catholicism is practiced only among a small minority or where the threat of severe persecution is very real.