Finding gratitude in MAGIS

The two and a half weeks of MAGIS and World Youth Day have greatly influenced my spiritual mind and my point of view of the world. When I first saw the poster for the meeting, I was in Paris, France studying as an exchange student. Thinking that it would be difficult to attend since I was not with the Korea group, I envied those who could participate in it and quickly forgot about the event.

However one day, I was told that I could join the MAGIS Korea group by directly going to Poland. I signed up right away even though I was a bit hesitant because I had not been to any of the preparatory meetings and was afraid that I would feel left out, but I was so excited to see Pope Francis again after seeing him during the Korea Youth Day in Daejeon two years ago.

When I arrived in Poland, my hesitations completely disappeared. Everybody in the group was so welcoming and friendly. It was my first time to attend MAGIS so I was really excited to interact with so many people from different cultures.

On the third day, each participant was to join a smaller experiment group that he/she previously signed up for. I participated in the Taizé singing experiment in Ruzomberok, Slovakia. I could not wait for it to begin because I had already been to a Taizé community in France right before going to Poland and had experienced how beautiful Taizé songs are.

It took about 10 hours to get to Ruzomberok, so we were all exhausted by the time we arrived at about midnight. We attended the morning prayer, silent prayer, song practice, and evening prayer daily in the chapel of the cottage we stayed in. We sang the Taizé songs during all the activities. It was amazing how 30 people can become one and create such beautiful harmony, just as the 2,000 people in the Taizé community I met in France had.

On the fourth day of the experiment, the theme of the morning prayer was ‘gratitude’. After we gathered to listen to the reading of the day, we were allowed to go anywhere in or out of the cottage to do some individual meditation. I went out of the chapel and sat on a bench in the middle of the field. While I was thinking back on my life and of the present moment, trying to remember what things I should be grateful for, I realised how lucky I was to be chosen for such a great experiment where I could spend all day singing while praying. Just when I was thinking about that, I looked down at my feet and realised that I was in a field of clovers. I was eager to find a four-leaf clover but did not find one. Suddenly, it came to my mind that while four-leaf ones symbolize ‘luck’, the three-leaf clovers mean ‘happiness’. I realised that I do not need ‘luck’ to feel gratitude; what really matters is that I am happy with everything I do, see and feel.

From that day on, I was grateful for every little thing. We did not have water at our cottage for almost five days but that meant we got to go to the town and visit the nunnery to wash ourselves.

MAGIS has changed the way I look at things around me. Before the MAGIS experiment, I was easily stressed and wanted to rush everything. However, by singing in harmony with people from different parts of the world – Slovakia, Poland, Spain, and Australia – I was able to feel how different nations can become one and how easy it is to find things to be grateful for, and most importantly, how much God loves me.

So Hyun Kim was one of 229 delegates from Asia Pacific who participated in the MAGIS 2016 in Poland held from July 15 to 25 in the run up to World Youth Day.