After struggling among the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to glimpse the pope Aug. 18, many youths found a more subdued atmosphere a day later in churches in and outside Cologne, where Cardinals and bishops led catechesis sessions with youth.

At St. Nicholas Church in Cologne, Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony urged young people to find new ways to live as true worshippers of Christ.

"World Youth Day teaches us the ability to be unafraid to be seen with other young people together in prayer," he said. "Prayer is our means of outreach because we can pray for healing in our families, our communities, our friends, or for peace in the world."

The cardinal said he looks for a connection with people in other parts of the world each day.

"When I open the newspaper in the morning, sometimes I read stories of people in need, of victims of accidents and disasters. So I pray for them, even though I have never met them. I pray for those who died and for the families they left behind who I know are hurting. We must keep the needs of others in our prayer, because we are all linked to one another," he said.

The cardinal spoke at one of more than a dozen English-language sessions for pilgrims attending the Aug. 16-21 World Youth Day activities in Germany. The sessions -- and additional talks in other languages -- were at sites in Cologne and surrounding cities.

Washington Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick told the hundreds of young people from nearly a dozen countries to be like the three kings who followed the star to Bethlehem seeking Jesus. He advised the pilgrims to ask themselves, "Where is the star leading me?"

Any pilgrimage, the cardinal said, is about leaving one place and moving to a new one. Leave sin, fault, flaw and weakness behind, he told the crowd, and just as the Magi took a different route home from Bethlehem, pilgrims at World Youth Day should do the same.

"Make progress," the cardinal said. "Pack the grace God has given you."

Cardinal McCarrick told the youths to have fun at World Youth Day and meet new people; he also asked them to think about their future and how God might be calling them. Some of them, he said, would be called to religious life.

"If you hear him, don't walk away," he said. He then noted that "everyone is called to something."

Continuing his comparison of the Magi pilgrimage with the youths' pilgrimage in Cologne, he noted that the Magi did not listen to King Herod. So, too, Cardinal McCarrick told the youths, don't listen to the kings of this world who say that the way to happiness is pleasure, power and money.

He concluded his speech with a story about a visit he made about 10 years ago to the war-torn Balkans. He said that he had met a group of young people there who were dedicated to risking their lives to deliver food to the elderly. Even though two of their friends died helping others, the young people remained committed.

The cardinal asked them why they continued their work. They replied, "We think this is what God wants us to do," the cardinal said.

"Dear brothers and sisters, God is talking to every one of us here, saying to us, be with me, walk with me, serve me and your neighbor, love me, and make a difference in your life," he said.

Chris Friel, a 21-year-old from Philadelphia, said that, as an American, she especially appreciated the cardinal's story about the young people in the Balkans. She related them to the young men and women serving in the U.S. military.

Canadian Shelley Mcewen said the cardinal's talk affected her in a more personal way. She said that she had made a sacrifice to come to World Youth Day and was uncertain about the journey. Coming to Cologne, however, reaffirmed her calling as a sixth-grade teacher, she said, and she finally knew what God wanted her to do.

"I wanted to come here to have a change in my life, but I didn't think it would be so powerful," she said.

At Christ the King Church in Neuss, English Archbishop Kevin McDonald of Southwark said that many World Youth Day participants will soon have to make a choice on what kind of path they would follow in life.

"So what guides our decisions and our choices in life," he asked during the catechetical session. "What route, what path have you chosen in life? What choices or decisions inform your actions?"

The archbishop said that the answers to these questions will help young people determine their "unique vocation in life."

"Each of us is gifted and empowered to fulfill a particular role in God's plan. It may take the form of a vocation to priesthood or religious life, or marriage or the single life. But whatever it is we are called to fulfill a unique role in the purposes of God -- a role that no one else can fulfill," he said.

Contributing to this story was Tess Crebbin in Cologne.