My experience at the Youth Days

Imagine you could join an event with fellow Catholics where you could pray, take part in the sacraments, receive formation, and have a lot of fun. Well, this is exactly what the Youth Days are about. This year (2025), they took place in Helvoirt (Netherlands) between Friday June 13th and Sunday June 15th, which in the liturgical calendar corresponded to Holy Trinity Sunday. My main discovery and point of reflection from this experience is that going to heaven is a joint collaboration, not a private achievement.

Upon arriving at the event on Friday evening, I was immediately impressed by the amount of decoration that was put in the building. This showed to me the importance that the IVE gave to this event. The posters with sayings of the saints (many of them young and recent) led me to see how holiness is a calling for all of us, and that these saints can be our example of how to correspond to this universal calling. 

After going to my room to drop my bags, I went to the chapel where we had our first Holy Mass, presided by Bishop Mutsaerts, whose presence showed to me how much the church is willing to help and accompany us in the journey to holiness. This Mass, as well as all other liturgical celebrations, were celebrated beautifully, being a true encounter with Christ. 

After Mass, we had dinner together in the tent. I was impressed to see so many people, and already started to get to know some of them. Once the dinner ended, it was time for entertainment: this was something I absolutely loved. The priests and the sisters would make funny performances, as well as playing songs, also with participation of some of the youth from different countries. 

On the next day, we had a schedule full of activities. We started the day with Lauds (morning prayer), followed by breakfast, a very interesting conference on “wokism”, and then Holy Mass. On this day, we also had the opportunity to choose two talks out of six. This turned out to be a difficult choice, because all talks seemed interesting and useful! I ended up going to one on Christian relationships and marriage, which gave me some good insights on how a Christian couple should live, prioritizing prayer and discernment. The other talk I went to was on prayer and eucharistic adoration, which helped me understand a bit more the reality of the presence of Christ in the Eucharist. 

That same day, we also had a bit more than one hour of free time, which could be used in different ways. Some of my friends went for a walk, choir practice, or a talk with a religious sister. My choice was clear and premeditated from the start: football. Though a fairly bad player, I scored a goal, and most importantly, had fun. After more entertainment (including heated competitions), we finished off the day with a Marian procession, and eucharistic adoration outside. This was among the most beautiful moments of the whole weekend. But this was not the end: later that night, we had a bonfire!

The final day came: Sunday. I started feeling a bit sad that it was going to end. But still, I enjoyed every moment of it. We had our last conference on the topic of conscience. I found this a very engaging conference. It was helpful to understand what a well-formed conscience is, and the causes of an ill-formed conscience. I also liked that this conference (as well as the one on wokism) touched here and there on the topic of evangelization. This was also something that came up in a group talk we had on Saturday. Everything we receive from the Church is to be shared: we received it freely, and freely we should give. However, we must be clever in the way we do it, because often we can be counter-productive in the way we try to evangelize. 

Afterwards, we had Holy Mass in honor of the Most Holy Trinity, the source of all the graces we had received this weekend, and the ultimate goal of our earthly pilgrimage. As before, the liturgy was esplendid, with Gregorian chant and even sacred polyphony. Very conveniently (and I think this was thought out before), the sermon from the priest was about cosmic loneliness. The reader might wonder why I said “conveniently”. The reason is that, after such a fun weekend and the company of friends (old and new), what is left out of it when I go back home? The desires of our heart must ultimately rest in God, for in Him alone can we find true peace. All of the good things that we had this weekend should be ordered towards Him. As I write this, the words started echoing in my head: “we are pilgrims of hope; this world is not our home”, which the sisters very effectively inculcated in our heads. 

With these words I want to end this article. I really recommend the IVE Youth Days for anyone who wants to deepen their faith by sharing experiences with other people who are in the same journey to holiness.

Pedro