On our way from here to there one day we accidentally ran into the route by which the Holy Father would be arriving for the Via Crucis (stations of the cross) ... I got a pretty good (albeit quick) clip...

at Cuatro Vientos

Pictures from the last week or so...

A pretty cool "pilgrim" menu where we could use our WYD tickets for a meal

Maggie and I with my niece/Maggie's cousin Becky Porter from Hanford, CA. We ran into her on the street TWICE that day completely by accident!

Fr. Uriel with Nena waiting outside the English Speaking Center

SHOPPING!!!

Waiting for the Opening Ceremony to begin...this picture features one young person from each of the 4 parishes that sent young people: Chaz from St. Theresas in Tahoe, Claudia from Sacred Heart Red Bluff, Maggie from St. Joseph Redding and Elyse from Our Lady of Mercy Redding.

Our girls with Bishop Soto after our Diocesan prayer service during World Youth Day.

more to come...

Joy is a choice

I'm not sure if anyone is even reading this anymore but its worth a shot. My SD card stopped cooperating somewhere along the last week or so and I couldn't get any pictures off of it. Not to mention I got entirely fed up with the lack of WiFi access. Ann's patience turned out to be much better than mine! Today I was able to get all my pictures and videos off my SD card thanks to Crown Camera. YAY!!!

So...pictures to come, but first I want to share the most important thing that I personally experienced on this pilgrimage...

Along the way somewhere I noticed that our young people as well as those from around the world had an amazing way of cultivating JOY wherever they went. They just naturally choose to have fun and where its not finding them they create it. Somewhere along the way in life as we get older "life" starts to happen to us and we get cynical...cranky even. But I witnessed that JOY is a CHOICE. We have the option every day to smile and say HOLA! to the people we pass or just to keep our head down and carry on. My most beautiful moments on this pilgrimage came from random encounters with strangers where we smiled and said hello and started up a conversation. Being happy is a choice. No matter what life has dealt you. "Life gives you lemons, then make LEMONADE!"

more to come...

Some final thoughts, August 27, 2011

Some final thoughts as a wrap up for my portion of this blog.
My family and I thank you all once again for helping all of us get to Madrid. If you donated to a second collection, ordered a flamingo flocking, bought See's candy, had your car washed by a pilgrim, bought a tri tip dinner or prayed for us, we thank you. It was a great honor to represent our parishioners at this huge, energetic gathering of our universal church. We were honored to carry your prayer intentions with us. We are humbled by your faith in us.
Thank you again for an unforgettable experience.

Margaret, Bridgit and Stephanie taking an ice

cream break.

Fr. Uriel and Beth enjoying Haagen Daz!

The flipside of our cool Portuguese shirts.

Dinner curbside our last night in Madrid

Airport

Amanda with all her extra luggage!

Curbside dinner 2

Front of our Portugal shirts with Fr. Lawrence
(Pater Joao)

This and That August 24, 2011

Here are just a few things to look at:
Official World Youth Day song for Madrid 2011:
Firmes el la Fe
The typical stuff that happens in the mainstream press every three years...
The Press Doesn't Get World Youth Day
The homily at the opening mass:
WYD 2011: Cardinal Varela's Homily 'You are the Generation of Benedict XVI'
Lots of cool things to see and read here from our neighbors in Canada-Salt and Light Television:
World Youth Day Central

Back in Redding! August 23 and 24, 2011

Just got back into town after a very long day of travel. More in a day or two...

Madrid, August 21, 2011

Today there is a hotel full of exhausted pilgrims. The pilgrims who stayed all night just want a shower and a clean bed. There is lots of sunburn, sweat and dirt to be had all over our hotel, among our pilgrims and throughout the city. I was not able to stay all night, but a shower and bed felt very good. The pilgrims who went back for mass this morning were glad they did. For the rest of us, Father Uriel will celebrate mass with us at 4 pm in the hotel.
After we celebrated mass with Father Uriel, we played a game (Purple Socks) for those who are familiar. We then had some sharing and prayer time with our group. It was a review of the trip; where we have been, who we met, new friends made.
We will go to dinner tonight as a group for the last time . It seems like we have been together for years, yet just had our first dinner the night before we flew out of Sacramento.
The restaurant that Alfredo found for us was a tapas place called La Divina. It was delicious. One of the best things we had was a tortilla. This isn't a tortilla like you are familiar with. It's more like a potato fritatta. That would be slices of potato sliced thin with just a little bit of beaten egg and baking soda to keep it fluffy. It looks like it's baked in an iron frying pan til crispy. Crispy and yummy!
Some photos from today.

Celebrating Fr. Uriel's 32nd birthday.


Blowing out the candles.


At La Divina, the "adult" table.


One of the "kids" tables.


The other "kids" table. Susan didn't stay there long!


Weston playing guitar during our guided meditation.
We did a review of our trip as part of the prayer
experience.

Madrid, August 20, 2011

Today was our earliest day yet. We were to meet at 730 am, then start towards the big military airfield where we were to have our overnight vigil and mass with the Pope the next morning. We left as our large group, then split down the metro line, so that all the "old ladies " (me, Ellen, Susan, Jessica and Debbie) could arrive earlier and stake out our area at Cuatro Vientos . We also were not able to walk the entire route. We arrived at the field about 1030 am. After a reasonably short wait, we were able to go through the large gate. There were already so many people there, that security just waved us through instead of checking bags and backpacks and having us go through the metal detector. We walked for about 20 minutes (I would guess the better part of a mile). We were one of the first groups to arrive in that section (D3). We measured out our spot and waited for the rest of our group to arrive. At about 130 pm, our group did arrive and we continued to set up. The section quickly overfilled, and the temperatures continued to rise. Someone did say later in the afternoon that the temperature rose to 41 C or nearly 106 F with at least 50 % humidity. Unfortunately, about the time we found that out, the potable water that was piped in for the event was no longer available, due to a broken water pipe. The vendors were charging 1 euro for a. 5 liter of water. We were finally able to get water for our group and things were looking better. We decided to stick it out and wait for sundown. After the sun went down, we were cooled down by overcast and stormy looking skies. For those of you following on EWTN, you probably saw when the first storm came up. There was lots of wind, water and lightning. When the first huge gust of wind came up, things were blowing fiercely on the stage where the Pope was. Pope Benedict was totally calm throughout the fierceness of the storm. We hated to leave, but half the group was ready to go and none of us was prepared for foul weather. The first group left and fought the storm most of the way back to the hotel. The the second group arrived shortly after. Most of them would have stayed, but another wave of the storm came up. The second group was not prepared for rain, so they came back. Jeremy and Lorenz stayed all night and a group went back for mass in the morning. I haven't talked with them yet, but it looked wonderful on live tv. Photos from today, some of the sights we saw on the way to the overnight, various before and after of our area and the last photo or two are of the crowds and the firemen hosing down the crowd. I did ask Father Ben later if the regular hosing down of the pilgrims was some sort of sprinkling rite. He did mention something about " life giving water ".

A hosing down of the crowd by fireman. This
may be the new Catholic sprinkling rite...


Hanging our at our site for the vigil.


Jessica and Ellen helping to hold our spot before
the rest of the pilgrims arrived.


In one of the beautiful churches along the route
to Cuatro Vientos.


More hosing.


A tired pilgrim waiting to go in...


Bishops assembling for a liturgy.


The "new" Wisconsin state flag.


Before our area filled with pilgrims, about 11 am.


Waiting to get in the gate.


Waiting to get in the gate.


Some of the pilgrims entertaining themselves.
Gary is in the background wiping his brow. At
this time, it was already quite hot.


One of the many gates into the city, on our
pilgrim route.

Madrid, August 22, 2011

Our last day in Madrid! This morning Susan found an English mass for us, right across the street from our hotel. It was a group of young adults from Buffalo, New York. They had 4 priests in their group. After returning to the hotel and having breakfast, some went shopping and some took a bus tour around the city. It was nice to see the other big sites that we haven't been able to get to. We were also able to track down a chocolate bar, with churros and a chocolate sampler. Check out the photo to see how delicious it looks. There were 4 different chocolates to sample ; white, milk, Spanish chocolate and dark. Delicious! I'm pretty sure these are not allowed on Weight Watchers! Tonight most of our group will meet for dinner at an Italian place that Alfredo recommended. This will be my last post until we reach Philadelphia tomorrow (Tuesday, August 23).

Amanda making more friends in Madrid.


The chocolate sampler and churros at Valor.
Super yummy!