Just a Typical Sunday Morning with the Pope

This morning we awoke bright and early to the sound of a booming voice over the loud speakers announcing the approaching arrival of the pope for mass. At the sound of this voice, we immediately leaped to our feet in joy and began to sing the WYD theme song as loudly as we could! Well… maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration.  It certainly wasn’t the most pleasant night of all due to the rain and the cooler temperatures of the night. So, maybe getting up wasn’t all that easy, but slowly we managed to get to our feet and start moving. As you might imagine, the bathroom lines were extraordinarily lengthy, but with aid of our personal toilet paper (there is none supplied) we were able to face the crowds and make our way through many many more people to our spot. After eating a quick breakfast, it was about time for mass with the pope to begin. It was a long, but beautiful mass in the Spanish language. But luckily, some of us were able to hear an English translation through radio broadcasting.  The pope spoke encouraging words to the youth of the world concerning evangelization and how important it is despite the struggles we may encounter along the way.  After mass, we packed up and headed out as a group on our way back to the hotel. We took the subway for much of the trip, but it was still exhausting and we were on our feet for quite some time. You can only imagine how relieved we were to arrive back at the hotel and take a cool shower and change into clean clothes after two days of sweltering heat.  After a few hours or relaxation some of the group headed out to experience the thrill of Spanish culture with a bull fight.  During this time the other half of the group enjoyed dinner in Madrid and some last minute souvenier shopping. We ended the night with small groups. Tomorrow we will be heading home on the plane in the morning. It has certainly been a trip that we will never forget!

Sleeping under the stars… or the clouds

Well today is the big day! Our pilgrimage day! We started the day early with breakfast at the hotel and prepared to embark upon our pilgrimage to the airfield where we will be spending the night and in a prayer vigil. Our walk ended up being probably about 10 miles in all, including a slight detour and confusion with the route. Once we finally reached the destination that would become our home for around 24 hours we set up our campsite and then drank lots of water due to the 105-degree weather and the hot beating Spanish sun. Once everyone was rehydrated and feed we began to explore. The most visited places were the water fountains for refill our water bottles and the fire trucks that were spraying all the youth with the fire hoses because of the extremely hot weather. This hot weather was a huge challenge in many ways but with many prayers the lord helped us conquer this challenge. As the never-ending amount of people continued to pour into the airfield the mass crowds were overwhelming! As we all started to trade our small USA/SMM items and get to know youth from every part of the world it began to sink in that we were with over two million other youth preparing to do Adoration with the pope. Some people (A.K.A Fr. Ariel) took short naps leaning up against the “bathrooms” to seek shade from the heat.  Finally it was time for the Holy Father to arrive and we took our places when we began to notice the dark clouds rolling through the sky. As we proceeded with evening prayer and adoration we began to see lighting then thunder and next the rain hit and the storm came at full force.  Everything was paused until the weather settled down a bit once the weather settled down we were able to enjoy the presence of the pope.  Then there was time for more exploring, sleeping, and even some dancing with certain groups that stayed up and sang and danced. Then it was time for bed and mass in the morning with the pope!

Way of the Cross

We started today with another catechesis session in St. Teresa’s Church. Our keynote bishop was Bishop Anthony Fisher from Australia. His main message was about going out and being a missionary for Christ in our every day lives. With this, he gave us the 10 Commandments for New Evangelization. The first is “Christian, become what you are” meaning be proud of your faith and who you are. The second is “get inspiration from the best places” which includes Adoration, the Word of God, and lives of the saints. The third is “be open to God’s call.” The fourth is “let God lead you down new paths.” The fifth is “dare to be creative.” The sixth is “make ordinary life your first realm of evangelization.” The seventh is “take a genuine interest” which means become friends with and learn about the person before sharing your faith with them. The eighth is “give personal testimonies” because personal stories are more relatable. The ninth is “your message should always be centered on Jesus Christ and the Gospel.” And finally the tenth is “seek the support of godly friends.”  After a quick lunch and some resting time, we headed out to Stations of the Cross. Due to the large amount of people, we watched them on a jumbo tron, but it was really powerful. This is because the cross was carried from station to station by different groups of youth including youth from Haiti and Japan, youth from Rwanda and Burundi, and youth who have been freed from drugs. All in all, the Stations of the Cross helped us to enter into the passion in a new way. We are ending the day with a good night’s sleep so that we can be well rested for the big walk tomorrow!

“Estaes la juventud del Papa” (We are the youth of the Pope)

After a quick breakfast, we started our day with Catechesis again at St. Teresa’s Church. Today’s program was formatted in a similar way to yesterday’s, but today Bishop Rolando Tirona from the Philippines did our Catechesis. He was very full of life and humor and it was such a joy to hear his stories and to learn more about discipleship, experiencing Jesus, and prayer. He gave an acronym for discipleship that spells iPod. The I stands for interiority and the need to listen to God from our interior selves, the P stands for prayer and the importance of being present to our prayer, the O stands for obedience to oblation and how through obedience to God we will learn to sacrifice for God, and finally D stands for devotion to duty and how our faith must be seen by others and other people must experience it as well. Following Mass with Bishop Tirona at the end of Catechesis, we broke up into groups to have lunch and head back to the hotel to prepare for going to the welcoming festivities for Pope Benedict. We had about an hour and a half to freshen up, meet with our prayer partners, and prepare to leave. As we got closer to the stage where the Pope would give his address after journeying through the streets, it became clear that we were not going to be able to get anywhere near the stage and that we were going to watch the address on the nearby jumbo-tron. But the good news was that we would still get to see the Pope as he rode by us in the Pope-mobile! So we staked out our spot and proceeded to wait in excitement and anticipation with all the other pilgrims for the moment that we have all been waiting for: to catch a glimpse of the Holy Father! As it got closer and closer to 7, more and more people flooded the area where we had been waiting and it was soon so crowded that we couldn’t move! The crowds were pushy, and it became difficult to hold our ground, but we persevered and continued waiting in anticipation. Finally, after about 2 and a half hours of waiting in the intense Spain sun with 2 million other people surrounding us, the moment we had so patiently endured waiting for arrived! The cheers and joyful chants as well as the helicopters overhead notified us that the Pope was coming! Finally, we saw the Holy Father for a few moments as he drove past!!! It was such a joyous moment! We then were able to listen to Pope Benedict’s address by watching the nearby jumbo-tron. He asked us to pray for each other, which was really a neat thing because we have been praying for the pope and he has been praying for us! He also encouraged us to root our faith in Jesus and strengthen it. After the welcoming liturgy, we were all filled with such a joy and energy that on our way back we were dancing and singing! After fighting some intense crowds around WYD protestors and many pilgrims, we had a chance to get a bite to eat and are now headed off to bed to get some sleep for another full day tomorrow! Buenas noches!

Pope Benedict!!!

The Whole Wide World is On My Train

Day number two of our WYD activities was filled with praying and playing in the city of Madrid. We started our day with breakfast and Catechesis at St. Teresa’s Church.  Catechesis is a way for us to learn more about our Catholic faith through a mixture of witnesses, key note addresses, music, Adoration and Mass.  We met up with fellow English speaking pilgrims and we expected to receive our Catechesis presentation from a Bishop, however we were pleasantly surprised to have Catechesis with a friend from home, Cardinal Francis George from the Archdiocese of Chicago. The main message this morning was to build relationships and to take up our faith and grow within it.  Allowing ourselves to grow in our faith involves us putting in roots, and watering them to grow, we are working on “Being Rooted” like St. Peter tells us in the Bible.   

            Following Catechesis, we all adventured on the Metro along with hundreds of thousands of our closest friends.  We split into two groups for afternoon activities.  One group ate lunch and chose to attend a Soul Band Concert with a band from Australia, here we learned that a soul band in Australia plays praise and worship music. Following the concert in the heat, we decided ice cream would be a great way to cool ourselves down.  The other group ate some lunch with ice cream for dessert, and then headed to the English Camp which is run by the Knights of Columbus and the Sisters of Life. This was a great opportunity to bond with people who spoke our language, and even reunite with some friends from home.  Here, this group chose to go to Confession, sit in on a live taping of Life on the Rock, and we were chosen to attend a press conference about media and youth with a soon to be Cardinal.  After some more exploring in the English camp, we split in groups again for some evening activities.  We headed to the Metro stations or traveled on foot, to a night full of music and theater. One group headed to a concert in the English language called Contagious Faith, so now we are ready to come home and spread the word.  Here we sang, jumped, danced, and some even got up on stage.  On the way back to the hotel, we decided to have our own concert and sing for everyone we passed and walked with.  Another group headed to a concert in French which involved singing, dancing, jumping, and even some mimes.  We were able to trade with lots of people from many places to get some fun trinkets to bring home.  After this concert, we headed for churros and chocolate followed by dinner, yes you read that correct…DESSERT FIRST! J  A third group headed to the theater to learn about St. Therese and her life.  We are very excited for tomorrow because Pope Benedict will finally arrive in Madrid!  We are ready to greet him with exuberant joy and tons of energy.  So that means…we are signing off for tonight to rest up for the big day tomorrow!! Hasta Luego!

Pictures

Pictures will hopefully be coming soon our internet connection is not very good which makes it very difficult. Sorry for the inconvenience.

WYD Has Officially Begun…A Day of Navigating Maps and Trains!

Our day started with sleeping in, enjoying a wonderful breakfast that was full of many options, receiving our WYD backpacks, and spending time in small group! Upon receiving our WYD backpacks we began to explore all that was in them and there were many great treasures, such as a YouCat, Magnificat, Pope comic book, our Australian style WYD hat, and fans to keep us cool, and this is only a small sampling of all we were given. In each of our small groups we looked through the many options of activities that could be done today and decided which ones we would prefer to do.  As we started on our journey, some groups decided to start with a small shopping trip, a search for lunch and than a Lithuanian concert to follow, after meeting up with other groups we then had dinner. The other group decided to go see Christopher West and theology of the body, this involved them to be daring enough to ride 3 different trains. During this session they heard many things including quotes and words that meant a lot to them such as,

“Beauty has the power to pierce us, to open our hearts to the greatest things we desire. One of the gifts of beauty is that it awakens our desire for God” -JPII

In other words, we must desire heaven. This presentation also included music and art in the sand that went along with Christopher’s talk. Following everyone’s afternoon adventures, we all met up at the hotel to then proceed to the opening mass location!  This mass was estimated to have a million people at it and despite the challenges that went along with such a massive group of people it was a beautiful mass to officially open World Youth Day! This mass included a warm welcoming from the Cardinal Archbishop of Madrid inviting us into their city and their family, and also the blessing of a Blessed John Paul II relic, which was very amazing to witness, as he was the founder of WYD! We ended our night with prayer partners, small group to decide tomorrow’s activities, and now we are prepared for a good night of sleep! Adios!  

The Assumption in a Gas Station Under the Sun…Beat that!

Bonjour! Today we woke up bright and early to another breakfast of French bread and croissants, and embarked upon our journey to Madrid for the start of World Youth Day. Au voir, France! Hola, Espana! And then….another 10 hour bus ride. Our ride was filled with sleep, a 5-language Rosary, and much laughter. At one of our rest stops, we participated in Mass behind the gas station with a group from Poland. It was a stark contrast to the Mass in the cathedral we celebrated just a few days ago. But it was definitely an experience we won’t forget! Then after a couple more hours of travel, we finally made it to Madrid! Our hotel was a really pleasant surprise, because we have beautiful balconies, normal sized elevators (they fit more than two people), the showers are hot, and everything is beautiful! We spent the majority of the evening going on a walking tour of Madrid and finished up the evening with tapas at a local restaurant. The food was amazing and truly authentic Spanish food! We are thankful to be able to get some sleep tonight because we will actually be able to sleep in a little bit tomorrow morning!

Crepes, Mary Poppins, and the Grotto

We started the day with, you guessed it, French bread! As well as croissants and cereal. After breakfast, we experienced a two and a half hour long healing Mass in French in the underground basilica. There were about 25,000 people there, about 150 priests, and a bishop! Although we couldn’t understand the Mass and were confused at some points due to it being a healing Mass (we weren’t expecting that), it was a beautiful Mass to experience and be in communion with so many other Catholics. Today was the national French hospital pilgrimage to Lourdes, so the shrine was extra packed with many wheelchairs and hospital personnel. In addition to the hospital pilgrimage, the shrine was also filled with many fellow World Youth Day pilgrims, making it the busiest it had ever been in 8 years according to our tour guide. Following Mass, we split into two main groups; one group went to the baths, where they could be fully submerged in the healing waters, and the other went for a tour of the city and the shrine. Since we didn’t have much time, a crepe vendor on the side of the street seemed like the best options for a quick bite to eat. Yum! We then met our tour guide who was very energetic and full of knowledge about St. Bernadette and Lourdes. She reminded us of Mary Poppins with her hot pink umbrella and cheerful personality. On the tour, we experienced the jail cell that Bernadette’s family lived in after they lost their home due to the Industrial Revolution, Bernadette’s childhood home where she was born, the grotto, and the Rosary Basilica, the crypt, and the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. Both of the basilicas were wonderfully designed and constructed, and beautifully reflected Mary’s beauty. Following the tour, we had some time to visit the grotto. Although we had to wait in a long line, we eventually were able to actually walk inside the grotto, offer up intentions inside the grotto, touch the rock, and see the actual spring that is still flowing strongly today. This was an amazing experience to take part in! Just outside the entrance of the grotto sound could be heard, but once you stepped inside it was peacefully silent. While some of us were on the tour, others from our group waited in line for four or more hours to go to the baths, which again is full immersion in the healing waters. Those who experience this said it was worth every minute of the wait and will be an experience that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives. Once we met up again, we had a dinner of French fries (haha), miniature meatloaf, and fruit for dessert at the hotel. Following dinner, we bought candles and headed back to the shrine for a candlelight procession. We processed with other WYD pilgrims as well as other pilgrims visiting Lourdes. There were over 150,000 people in the procession, and as such we prayed 10 decades of the Rosary in about 15 languages because not everyone would have been able to process in 5 decades alone. We finished up the evening with some reflective time at the grotto.  During our reflective time, we lit candles for our parishes. Then we headed back to the hotel to pack and be ready to leave early in the morning.

Bouncing Around Burgos and Frolicking Over to France

Today’s breakfast was full of sweet goodness. We had donuts, cheesecakes, chocolate cake, apple sponge cake, pear tart, fruit, bacon, scrambled eggs, Spanish omelet, sausages (that looked like hot dogs), and our new favorite drink, pineapple juice! Needless to say, we were ready to embark on a walking tour of the holy and historical sites of Burgos. This included learning about the architecture, major historical figures, and visiting the beautiful cathedral. The cathedral is modeled after Gothic architecture, took a few centuries to make it what it is today, and all of the altar pieces are made entirely out of finely carved wood. The cathedral was filled with the tombs of many bishops and many chapels. We completed our Burgos visit with Mass in the cathedral with two other pilgrim groups, as well as lunch at a local café. Then we completed the last leg of the journey to Lourdes with a 7-hour bus ride. It was nice to be able to catch up on a little sleep, pray the Rosary in 5 languages, and meet and pray with our prayer partners. Bonjour! Finally, we arrived safely in Lourdes, France! We checked into our hotel and had a very joyful group dinner. Ironically, French fries and French bread was on the menu! Following the dinner, we had some time to visit the grotto at Lourdes. We spent about a half an hour walking around in pairs. We looked at the various areas of the grottos, including the healing water, grotto itself, and candle offerings. We prayed over the Rosaries and intentions we have been carrying by sprinkling them with the healing water. We are excited to spend another day at the shrine tomorrow!

Packing Up!

Tour in Burgos

The Cathedral 

Tour

Eating Lunch in a local cafe

Lourdes Basilica

The Grotto

Tour

Cathedral in Burgos 

Dinner in France

Hotel room in Lourdes 

Cathedral in Burgos

Cathedral

Cathedral

Lunch

You Know You’ve Been on a Bus for 10 Hours When...

·      “Does this sombrero make my butt look big?”

·      T falls up the stairs walking into the hotel

·      You have multiple helpings of appetizer at dinner two nights in a row thinking it’s the entrée

·      The boys in the group think the tablecloth makes them feel like they’re wearing a skirt

·      “Gentlemen, gentlemen, please put your skirts down”

·      “I have a thing for fuzzy fruit”

·      Bread, bread, and more bread

·      Our priests went to the “Bishops’ room” instead of the “Priests’ room” before Mass

·      Our priests play hide and go seek at dinner

On a more serious note, today was filled with a 10 hour journey on the bus. While we were on the bus, we took time to catch up on sleep, meet with prayer partners, and pray the Rosary. Upon arriving in Burgos, Spain, we checked into our hotel and had some time to refresh. We then participated in the opening Mass for the days of the diocese to help prepare for the events in Madrid. At the Mass, were 9 bishops, 60 priests, and about 2,500 WYD pilgrims beginning their journeys. During the Mass, a variety of languages were used and we had an opportunity to pass ribbons through the crowd. The ribbons represented leaving our joys and struggles on the ribbons to later be brought to the WYD Mass and offered up in Madrid next week. Although we had to hurry after Mass, we had a delightful dinner filled with joy and laughter. After some powerful meetings with our small groups, we are ready to finish our journey to Lourdes tomorrow. Hasta luego!

We made it!!!

Lunch on the run

on the bus

the bishop incensing at Mass

Bishop's greeting

the ribbons at Mass

Skirt time!!

Burgos

More of Burgos

the cathedral 

dinner

GDSM and GDMM

hotel room at Fatima

Jacinta's bedroom

Stations of the cross at Fatima

Location of the apparition of the angel

Jacinta and Francisco's childhood home

at the Fatima shrine

Pira

Before the candlelight procession

Candlelight procession

Lucia's niece

at the Fatima shrine

Inside the Church of the Most Holy Trinity

Eucharistic procession

Tree (replacement) of the Marian apparition

inside the basilica 

Francisco's tomb

Jacinta's and Lucia's tombs

chapel next to the tree of the apparition

Pira

Candlelight procession 

Buen Dia!  “It’s so good to sleep vertically!.... I mean, horizontally!”  After 30 hours of no sleep/attempting to nap in chairs, we were ecstatic to finally get a good night’s sleep last night. Despite the fact that we were finally able to sleep in a bed, we really didn’t feel as rested as we would have hoped. After a light European breakfast, we began the ultimate Fatima experience. Our first stop was Stations of the Cross that Fatima received from Hungarian refugees around the world. Amidst the stations, were quotes by the three little shepherds, Francisco, Jacinta, and Lucia. Following the stations, our next stop was the locations where the apparitions of the angel of peace took place. These apparitions prepared the children for the apparitions of Mary that took place a year later in 1917. After seeing the sights of the apparitions of the angel and learning much about the religious lives of the three little shepherds, we were now ready to learn about their home lives. We started by visiting their childhood homes. Duck! If you are over 5’5”, then you would have had to duck down to get through the doorways in the house. These houses were so small that we could only fit about 2 people in each room, yet families of 7 and 8 were living in them! While walking down to the well where Lucia fetched water every day, we met a 91-year-old woman who turned out to be Lucia’s niece! As we left the well and traveled the very narrow European streets, we finally made it to the Church of the Holy Trinity, which is located about 1,000 feet from the tree where Mary appeared to Francisco, Jacinta, and Lucia, although this tree is a replacement because pieces of the original tree were taken by previous pilgrims and it died. The Church of the Most Holy Trinity was built in 2007 because the basilica (which is about 500 feet the opposite direction from the tree) could only hold about 400 people, whereas the new church can hold about 8,000 people. Inside the Church of the Most Holy Trinity, we had an opportunity to spend some time in prayer with your petitions and Rosaries. At a popular pilgrim restaurant/largest gift shop in Fatima, possibly all of Portugal, we had a HUGE lunch and spent some time browsing the gift shop with at least 300 other WYD pilgrims from around the world! We were delighted to discover GLOW IN THE DARK SPARKLY MARY STATUES! (GDSM) On top of that, most of us were given glow in the dark mini-Mary statues! (GDMM) After lunch, we had 2 hours to explore the shrine in small groups. This included looking around the basilica, seeing the tree of the apparitions, the tombs of the three little shepherds, and the pira, which is where many pilgrims offer up candles for a specific intention. Some pilgrims while visiting Fatima will walk on their knees from the Church of the Most Holy Trinity down to the chapel next to the tree where Mary appeared. It is beautiful and inspiring to see the sacrifice of the pilgrims. After Mass by Fr. Darek in the hotel chapel for the feast of St. Clare and a wonderful dinner, we bought candles and walked to the chapel next to the tree of the apparitions, and waited for the candlelight rosary and procession to begin. This was a very unique experience, because we were able to see the community of the Catholic Church. It was so beautiful to see everyone praying the Rosary in their own language at the same time. This procession occurs every night at Fatima, but tonight’s included the Blessed Sacrament in Adoration. After a quick discussion with our prayer partners, we headed up to our rooms to pack and prepare for our early departure to Burgos, Spain in the morning. Buen noche!