Our last day in Madrid...

Our last day in Madrid has been filled with mixed emotions.  While we are beginning to miss home--the food, our beds and normal comforts, we also have grown to love Spain and the adventure it provides us each day.  Today, Fr. Schultz celebrated Mass for us at our hotel, then we spent the early afternoon getting lunch, enjoying Plaza Mayor and buying last minute souveniors for our family and friends. 

This afternoon we toured the Prado museum which hosted a special exhibit for WYD, ¨The Word made Image."  Beautiful pieces were included in this collection, Velasquezś Crucifixtion, Fra Angelicoś ¨Annunciation¨ and a few from Carvaggio and El Greco.  It was very impressive and gave us time to really reflect on all the beauty we have experienced over the past two weeks.

We´ve been talking about what has inspired us the most over the last day and many of us have mentioned the awesome universality of our Church.  We´ve met people from all over the world, we don´t share their language, but we feel so connected to them because we share the one true faith. 

We have also been inspired by the beauty of the Churches and use of art to help lead the faithful to a deeper understanding of mysteries of our faith.

We have made some neat friendships this past week in Madrid and have been touched by the generousity of our hosts who have cared for us in our times of need and shared more joyous occasions with us as well.  One young volunteer has come out to visit us and spend the day with us the past two days.  We are sure he is just as exhausted as we are, but his friendship has reminded us of the friendship that Christ desires with each one of us--one that is personal and authentic.

Now we sit and wait...for our bus that is, to take us to the airport!  What a great adventure this has been--God has truly blessed us and we are so grateful to have been able to witness His love.  We can´t wait to see you all very soon!!

It's Monday morning and as we look back on this past weekend we see many blessings that God has showered upon us!  We had to slow our pilgrimage down for the sake of our safety--the heat here in Madrid is quite intense. It has been close to 100 degrees each day this past week and with little places to rest during the hottest parts of the day the sun has drained many of our pilgrims. 

For this reason we watched the Vigil and closing Mass on television.  And, what a blessing it was!  On Saturday night during the vigil there was a very heavy thunder storm that swept through, but God kept us very safe. 

As we reflected on our Holy Father's homily and his idea that we do not come to Christ alone, he said, ¨Having faith means drawing support from the faith of your brothers and sisters, even as your own faith serves as a support for the faith of others. I ask you, dear friends, to love the Church which brought you to birth in the faith, which helped you to grow in the knowledge of Christ and which led you to discover the beauty of his love.¨

We are beginning to re-discover the beauty of God's great love for us through the sacrifices of missing some of the WYD events we would have prefered to attend in person.  But, we know that God is using and will continue to use the disappoint and sacrifices we have made for the good of His Church.  And, we have become much more a family through this experience.  We are caring for eachother and making sure each one knows they are important and loved by us.  We are so pleased to be a part of St. Timothy's.

And, for those who were feeling up to it last night, they attended a futbol game in one of the largest stadiums in Madrid!  What an experience to see!  The game was an all-star game of sorts with former players from all different teams.  It was a great match, Spain vs. the rest of the World with a final score of 1-2.

This afternoon, Fr. Schultz celebrated Mass for us and reminded us of the Queenship of Mary, our Mother and that she cares for us so deeply.  Many of us renewed our great love and affection for Mary that we made just last week in our Marian consecration on the feast of her Assumption.  What a gift it is to have Mass each day!  This evening we are headed to Madrid's Cathedral.  And, tomorrow we are headed to the Prado and then to the airport.  What a great adventure this has been.  We can't wait to share stories of our personal blessings with you upon our return.

What a wonderful World Youth Day week!

The last time we posted was on Monday from Grenada, and we've been in Madrid since Monday night. Each morning we've attended catechesis with other English speakers and celebrated Mass. Yesterday we met the group from our Diocese at the Madrid Arena for Mass. Bishop Burns from Juneau, Alaska was the main celebrant and preached a very moving homily about the peace Christ gives us in the Resurrection. It was great to see other priests from Arlington and meet up with other pilgrims we know from home. Gretchen Crowe, a writer from the Catholic Herald, interviewed some of our teens for the paper, so maybe we'll see some of quotes on the website for the Herald or in print next week!

Friday morning we saw the stations of the Via Crucis up close - many great works of art gathered from around Spain just for WYD. We returned to pray the stations with the Holy Father at 7:30, though we had to stake out a place on the street more than two hours in advance.

The teens have been having a lot of fun meeting others from all over the world. One the things everyone does is trade - hats, pins, flags - everything! Our US flag bandanas have been a popular trade, but by far the thing everyone wants is our "Team Jesus" t-shirts. We even met a spaniard in the street who told us, "My name is Jesus - you are my group!"

This week has truly been wonderful, and we've all experienced the Church in a new way. The Church truly is universal - all nations adore Him! The Church is ever young and continually being renewed by the Holy Spirit. As we've been riding the metro and walking the streets, seeing and hearing groups sing songs about the Lord from their own place, I've thought, what a gift it is that this city is full of such song and dynamism! Would that every city be so joyful in the Lord!

Today we'll celebrate Mass on our own, then make our way to the airfield where we'll spend the night and celebrate Mass with the Holy Father tomorrow. Please pray for us, as it is expected to be 98 degrees today and 102 tomorrow. We'll just have to find some shade and stay in it!

Hola from Granada!

Here are some pictures from Alahambra Palace in Granada!

Cordoba, Spain

Hello all, my name is Caroline and I am one of the pilgrims here in Spain. Because I brought my laptop I will be uploading pictures to the blog! Hope you enjoy :)

Hello all, my name is Caroline and I am one of the pilgrims here in Spain. Because I brought my laptop I will be uploading pictures to the blog! Hope you enjoy :)

These feet were made for walking!

Today we said good-bye to Sevilla, boarded the bus and headed to Cordoba, about a 2+ hour ride.  We were all pleasantly surprised by Cordoba´s beauty.  We continued our history lesson of Christianity spreading through Spain and saw a former mosque, La Mezquita, transformed in 1236 to a Catholic Cathedral.  The Cathedral was closed when we arrived due to many French pilgrims holding a private Mass with their Bishop.  We were not disappointed though, we had an amazing tour guide and a great group of pilgrims that convinced the guard that since we were wearing our ¨Team Jesus¨ t-shirts we wanted to go in the Cathedral to pray and would leave quickly.  Bayleigh led the charge and we all followed suit quietly admiring the thousands of columns and beautiful architecture.  We said our prayers at the altar of St. Michael the Archangel and continued on...

We then toured the streets of the Jewish district which was filled with narrow passages and beautiful flowered pots hanging from the walls.  Grabbed an ice cream cone and got back on the bus to Granada!

In Granada we met our tour guide and headed to Alhambra, the red fortress that maintained muslim control of the region until King Ferdinand & Queen Isabella came to power.  We walked and walked through the multiple palaces, servants quarters and gardens of this massive fortress.  Meet some Lebanese pilgrims who were overjoyed to meet us!  Then we walked through the center of the city back to our hotel.  We celebrated Mass at our hotel tonight and are enjoying relaxing our feet after walking two cities!  We are off to Toledo tomorrow and then to Madrid in the evening!!  The excitement for World Youth day is building. 

Sevilla!

This morning we were sad to say goodbye to Fatima, but excited to continue on our adventure into Spain.  We spent half the day driving through southern Portugal to get to Sevilla--what a beautiful drive filled with sheep, cows, olive trees and beautiful low mountains.

We arrived in Sevilla late in the afternoon and raced to see the Cathedral of St. Mary where the feast of the Assumption (August 15th) is a major celebration with a full procession through the streets of Our Lady where she wears a crown that weighs 5 lbs of gold and 11,000 precious stones!  It was very impressive!  The Cathedral was formally a mosque that was converted to a Catholic Cathedral under Ferdinand III who is buried in the Cathedral along with Christopher Columbus and Columbus's son, Antonio.

After visiting the Cathedral we toured the former Jewish quarters filled with quaint streets--TINY streets--filled with shops and beautiful flowers in window boxes.  It was a packed afternoon and we are heading to bed soon.

Here we are in the courtyard of the Royal Palace which overlooks the Catherdal!

And, one of us admiring the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima!

Shrimp cocktail, chocolate mousse & Our Lady of Fatima!

We've arrived and are well on our way.  Our flights went quickly for those of us who slept.  We had an awesome dinner--shrimp cocktail, chicken and mashed potatoes and chocolate mousse for dessert!  After arriving in Lisbon we waited for our other group from California to join us.  The Lisbon airport is not large, but we met Bishop Holley and many OTHER pilgrims.  Our poor pilgrims from California's flight was delayed so we had to cut our tour of Lisbon very short, to just the airport.  But were not too disappointed when we arrived in Santarem where a Eucharistic Miracle took place in 1247!

Fr. Schultz celebrated Mass for us in this amazing Church in this small town.  We'll have to tell you the story of the Eucharistic Miracle at a later time.

Today, Friday, we have spent the whole day in Fatima and what a gift it has been!!  This morning we toured the "Sanctuary" where the two large Shrines for Our Lady.  Our Lady appeared in this area in 1917.  After visiting the Church we traveled to the birthplaces of Francisco & Jacinta and then to Lucia's birthplace.  We also saw where the Angel of Peace appeared to the children in 1916 and where Our Lady appeared to the children in August of 1917, after their release from prison.

We celebrated Mass today in the chapel of our hotel which is run by the Dominican sisters.  What a beautiful gift to have a chapel in our hotel!

Now, we are off to the Rosary procession down at the Shrine and can't wait to see what tomorrow has for us.  Off to the Rosary procession...and on to Sevilla tomorrow!

You are all in our prayers, we have them in our backpacks.

Road trip!

Road trips are always fun, even more so when you know where you are going because the excitement can build prior to departure!  Here is a map of our journey.  We are looking forward to getting a pretty impressive tour of Portugal and Spain.  First stop--Lisbon!

Parish send-off for our pilgrims going to World Youth Day

All the pilgrims and their families attended the 9 AM Mass today, then we met to share a meal and go over some logistics. These are just a few of those teens who are going. I forgot to take a group photo - I guess I'll do that before we get on the plane!

Pray for us! I'm sure we'll all scrambling in the excitement to get everything together, but at least now we have our patriotic hats and bandanas!

I went to confession with Fr. Aitcheson yesterday. For my penance, he told me to make a pilgrimage to World Youth Day. I guess that means no whining or complaining for me - I have to do my penance well!

And here are some of our other happy, holy pilgrims:

A prayer for our pilgrims and those we will meet along the way

This prayer to the Archangel Raphael is quite fitting for us on our journey to Madrid!

O Raphael, lead us towards those we are waiting for, those who are waiting for us! Raphael, Angel of Happy Meetings, lead us by the hand towards those we are looking for! May all our movements, all their movements, be guided by your Light and transfigured by your Joy.

Angel Guide of Tobias, lay the request we now address to you at the feet of Him on whose unveiled Face you are privileged to gaze. Lonely and tired, crushed by the separations and sorrows of earth, we feel the need of calling to you and of pleading for the protection of your wings, so that we may not be as strangers in the Province of Joy, all ignorant of the concerns of our country.

Remember the weak, you who are strong--you whose home lies beyond the region of thunder, in a land that is always peaceful, always serene, and bright with the resplendent glory of God.

Amen.

10 days!!

This weekend we began collecting prayer petitions from our parish.  We placed a box outside the vestibule of the Church with slips of paper for those who wanted to add their own intentions to our prayer list.  We'll be carrying these petitions each day of our pilgrimage.  We'll take them to Our Lady of Fatima, carry them close when we visit the burial place of St. John of the Cross and visit the convents St. Teresa of Avila reformed.  They will be remembered in our prayers daily at Mass and during the Rosary.

There will be a send-off Mass for our pilgrims and families this Sunday at the 9:00 AM Mass.  Please join us in praying for safe travels.  All WYD pilgrims and their families will gather in the McGivney Room following the Mass for a pot-luck breakfast and some last minute goodies!