Today all the international pilgrims gathered at the magnificent 12th century Cathedral in Plock. There were vibrant scenes of waving flags from Armenia, Venezuela and Ukraine and of course several of our own tricolour! Mass was celebrate by Bishop Piotr, Bishop of Płock,  who praised and encouraged the youth: “Be in the Church and with the Church”, encouraging the 10,000 young people to live the bonds of friendship with God and each other when you return home. Bishop Piotr affirmed that building a relationship with Jesus and by it will find our identity in Him. He warned against a culture of technological connections with little personal interaction.
Fr Mark offered a word of thanks to Bishop Piotr and his diocese for their warm welcome and drew connections between the Irish missionaries who evangelised this far into Europe from our ancient monasteries, and presented Bishop Piotr with a gift of a Mullingar Pewter Celtic Cross, and one of our pilgrim t-shirts, with the help of Odhrán and Tara.
The afternoon had a relaxing timetable which we took full advantage of: Some of us rested while foe others it was more energetic with canoeing on the Vistula, swimming, volleyball and even dodgeball.
Tonight the diocesan youth group performed “St Patrick The Musical” on stage at Płock. We had our very own Steven Spielberg in Jane Hodgkinson who wrote and directed the musical. Our star-studded performance included Mark Caffrey as St Patrick, Odhran Daly as the High King of Tara and Connell Blake as Niall of the Nine Hostages. Our musical naration of the history of our faith entertained our international audience with drama, song and Irish wit. What’s the Polish for Leprechaun???
(Barry White)