ukpilgrims

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Yesterday we had our first cathocesis session an overwhelmingly big event in which passion was there in abundance.

It was an event which took place in a large concert venue ( Palacio de Deportes de la Comunidad de Madrid) holding up to 14,000 and which was full of pilgrims, youth workers, priests, nuns, speakers, Bishops and a Cardinal. It was an event which allowed us to look further into our own faith and explore what it meant to us. Speakers from the sisters of life group spoke to us about the meaning of love and life as did cardinal George Pell, the archbishop of Sydney. After we celebrated mass with all inside a huge event that was overwhelmingly powerful and a great way to end the morning.

We then headed out to look around the city some more and grasp a fuller understanding of what was happening. Through walking around the street seeing the many other pilgrims glowing with anticipation and excitement or exploring the park some more to look at the stalls on offer and use them to help ourselves or explore the citys culture and the different famous areas of the city.

It was another good day and one which had a much more relaxed feel, a day where you could reflect more and look deeper into oneself. But it still had the same World Youth Day hype.

Leo M

WYD Madrid 2011, a photo by Catholic Church (England and Wales) on Flickr.

Another pic from the Palacio De Deportes Mass for English speaking pilgrims.

In our blog today, we’re concentrating on the Opening Mass in Madrid.

We gathered in our small groups, then we left and proceeded towards Mass. As we crowded on the roads that were shut off for Mass, we realised that there was hardly anywhere to sit. It was extremely cramped as we had to sit where we stood. We have been given a Magnificat, so that we can follow all the services that happen. However, this Mass was particularly hard to follow, because we couldn’t hear some parts of the Mass, due to the microphone not really working properly, and everything was in Spanish (which we kind of expected, but we were expecting some help!). However, the experience to of sitting with people from all over the world was brilliant, because we were mingling with them and it was good to be part of such a big crowd. The World Youth Day song was played at the start and it was good to hear everyone singing and joining in, as it sounded really catchy! It also reflected the essence of World Youth Day.

The next morning, we began our Catechesis sessions in local parishes . Various English-speaking countries were put together, from Canada, America, Ireland, the UK, South Africa, etc. We had a Canadian Bishop to lead the Catechesis and he was speaking very clearly of how faith is a gift from God and at the same time our response to His call. He gave us different steps for remaining “Firm in the Faith” and likened it to our baptismal promises. After a long question-and-answer session, we finally had an English Mass! This was really lovely, as we were able to understand exactly where we were in the Mass, even if we did say everything a bit fast!

Tomorrow, it’s the Yellow Group! They’ll be covering the Welcoming Ceremony, as the Pope landed at 12 today and is, as I type this, around the streets of Madrid.

The Red Group

Sorry it’s a bit late – have only just been given it, plus dodgy internet! Hope you enjoy:

Today is the turn of the Purple Group, i.e. the Ribenas! Each day, we have grown closer as a team and we have a lot of love for each other!

We left Zaragoza after a wonderful few days, making a final stop in what seemed to be a random car park to pick up our last lot of vomit sandwiches [I'll explain in another post]. Thankfully, there was also a tuna sandwich to get us through the hunger!

Back on the coach, our journey didn’t seem as long as it should have done, due to the fact that we had spent best part of 2 and a half days on the coach, so another 3 hours wasn’t going to make a huge difference! Well, it wouldn’t have done, had it not been for the police stopping us on the way into Madrid, the horrendously busy service station, being served by stroppy bar staff and the systems failing at the registration point. However, this gave us the opportunity to mingle with other excited pilgrims, play games and sing songs! Mother and Son team, Anne and Sam managed to slip in a cheeky ballroom dancing lesson, which helped bond nationalities. Anna and a few others were even treated to a quick tour of an American coach. It was an opportunity for those who considered themselves ‘strapping’ to volunteer and help carry our pilgrim packs from the inside out to the coach. This included our very own Stefan!! They managed to pray the entire Rosary in the time they were waiting and still had an hour to spare!

There was a combination of tiredness, relief and hunger upon arrival at our rooms. We actually have BEDS!!!! A quick turnaround saw us back out for dinner in no time at all. The Spanish have done really well with regards to the food vouchers! Gone is the Sydney slop; our vouchers get us into most restaurants in the city. Us Ribenas, along with Team Tango, The Smurfs, and The Aliens, found a little Mexican (that’s a restaurant, not a person, just in case you were wondering!) and enjoyed a real meal, especially Sabrina, as she was constantly saying how much she was loving it! We also played games. I’m going to call it the hand games, as it doesn’t actually have a title yet! Philip showed his cocktail mixing skills as he put together all our drinks and, surprisingly, it tasted like cucumber! Weird, huh? Back at our accommodation, the boys enjoyed a touch of make shift, wheely chair, midnight jousting. They certainly don’t  lack imagination!

We woke up to a lovely breakfast and a very smiley Spanish lady. Everyone seemed considerably chirpier after the beds(!!!) and semi lay-in. We then set off in teams to the Vocations Fair. Perhaps it will bring about a new set of priests and nuns from East Anglia! Although, we did have what we would like to call a proposal from Ciaran to Emma, after mentions of Emma becoming a nun. Ciaran is, of course, still being teased about it – good old Freudian slips! At the fair, we were given lots of freebies, met many people from all over the world and swapped our badges and bits. Chrissie proved good at bargaining and got herself a Malaysian shirt! Araba, Sabrina, Claire and Anna went street and learnt to rap the Hail Mary with a boombox carrying Texan! This was when we weren’t dodging the woman who insisted on sticking stickers on us repeatedly. Excitingly, we met lots of English groups, our favourites being the group from Portsmouth, who were very friendly and excited to meet us. WYD is only just kicking off and have plenty more in store – it’s only going to keep getting better and better, so keep checking back to see our progress!!!

Love and prayers

Chrissie, Araba, Joe, Anna, Claire, Stefan, Philip, Vanecia and Sabrina (The Ribenas!)

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The first time I left my country was when I came to England. I was 18 at the time. I was full of excitement as I looked forward to my gap year there. I’ve always wanted to come to England and experience the country and culture. However, there was one single thing, fundamentally different from my home country that made me feel uneasy: Abortion was legal in England.

So, some years later whilst checking the program for World Youth Day, I found Viva La Vida prolife conference, I watched their videos on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9tuQ7fs4Hs) and after that I did not hesitate to sign for it, because it looked so cool.

As I entered Palacio de Bellas Artes, I realised that I was entering Irish territory. The event: Viva La Vida pro-life conference was my first catechism of the week in Madrid.

We started mass with Fr Stan Fortuna (http://www.francescoproductions.com/) a Franciscan friar from South Bronx, NY. He was a professional jazz musician and his mass was literally full of soul. After a very moving mass he played some music for us, which started quite jazzy with the first song. By the time we were in the 4th song, the style had changed to a mixture of Hip-Hop and rap. The same happened with the lyrics, whilst the first song did not have any, by the time the last song came along, the lyrics had become more hardcore, addressing issues such as teenage pregnancy, the role of the father, his responsibilities and of course the abortion of the baby.

The rest of the event was a mixture of talks by different pro-life organisations from around the world who are fighting and lobbying against the evil of abortion. It was truly inspirational to see so many young people standing up for life so eloquently. Putting their argument forward so convincingly. ‘This is a matter which springs from the heart’, they said, because ‘life is a right and not a privilege’.

I was astonished to see how much work the Irish are doing to keep Ireland an abortion free country. Roadshows, street stands and displays with images showing the reality of abortion, are now used to bring awareness to all. These images showed that babies are ‘more than a blob of tissue’ and are helping in changing people’s perception on the issue as well as being a decision aid for people who are contemplating abortion.

Generation Life USA, another group, dedicates their message linking abortion to chastity, because for example, in the USA 84% of women that have abortions are unmarried. She said: ‘at the heart of abortion there is a disrespect for human life’, ‘we are using people’ and ‘by practicing chastity will free us from our bodies and soul’.

The representative from Poland, gave evidence on how laws can be overturned in parliament, as Poland has achieved. Since 2005 they have campaigned endlessly to bring awareness and get signatures and finally this year Poland will make abortion illegal. (www.stopaborji.pl)

We have to answer JP2′s call to protect life! – said another representative from Canada. ‘Unmask the truth about abortion, that this is as repulsive as child abuse’. (www.unmaskingchoice.ca)

Then another 23-year-old from the USA gave her testimony of undercover work to unmask abortion clinics that facilitate abortion to underage girls victim of sexual abused. Their film showed  a pimp with a 14-year-old girl sex worker. This woman, believe it on not, told them to lie about her age and told them exactly how to jump all the loops so abortion would go uncovered, even though she was clearly a minor who was being exploited in the sexual industry.  (Live action Films) After the video was released on youtube (‘because normal media are not interested in covering the story of abortion’). This agency was de-funded by the government. ‘Abortion is connected to all our ills of our society’ – she said – ‘Just ask and pray to God to use you to fight abortion, just as I did’.

“Everybody counts’ was New Zealand’s motto – http://www.young and prolife.org.nz

Music and dance was also at the heart of the event: Ooberfuse and Elation ministries, two top amazing catholic bands – please do check them out!

Abort67 is the British equivalent of these pro-life groups and are also doing a great job.  in doing ‘the word on the street’  they showed us a video of a woman in Brixton who aborted 5 years ago. They GP told her the baby was not formed and did not have things like little arms and legs at 2 month. Therefore much of this group’s work is to bring awareness of the truth about medical facts, that are often not explained to women before they have an abortion. The pain and anguish this woman was feeling now could have been avoided it she’d known the facts 5 years ago. (www.abort67.co.uk)

We ended the session with Cardinal George Pell from Sydney who said: ‘Young people’s role is to bring fire to the church, old people’s role is to make sure you don’t burn the place down’. He also gave us a more detail account of what is happening in Australia from his perspective and also confirmed his support to the work young people are doing in pro-life charities around the world.

After all this, I took a break. There was so much interesting content in that conference that was worth taking so I went to Parque del Retiro. This is where the vocation fair and the confessionals  are – 200 of them. On Saturday, it is here where the Pope will hear confession of 5 young people.

So…less than 12 hours till the Pope arrives, how exciting! Tomorrow’s schedule is planned…goodnight!

Paula