WYD part 5

Friday of WYD started much the same as Wednesday and Thursday with catechesis at the Love & Life Centre. As a funny reminder of what had happened with Cardinal Erdő, both Archbishop Dolan and pretty much everyone who spoke in the morning, kept repeating "Praised be Jesus Christ." To which we all would respond "Now and forever." After catechesis, I got lunch with some of the group. Food in Madrid was set up differently than in Toronto and Cologne. Rather than having food tents or trucks sponsored by WYD, we had coupons which could be used at hundreds of restaurants throughout the city. That kept the lines down (somewhat.. lol) and provided many different options. The place where we ate lunch on Friday was a little Spanish restaurant. They were taking pictures of different pilgrim groups that came through with their flags. I don't know the name of the restaurant, but somewhere on facebook, there is a picture of me as part of the group... and I'm one of the people holding the Canadian flag :-D

On the way back to the L&L Centre I did what no trip is complete without...

got a picture with a pig!

I had wanted to go to an exhibit at the L&L Centre entitled "You and Me" and finally had a chance on Friday afternoon. Sponsored by the Sisters of Life, this chronicled the stories of four people/couples faced with unplanned pregnancies and how they responded to them. It was a very interesting set up with each person being given an mp3 player with the people telling their stories as we walked through the exhibit. I was definitely fighting tears at a few points as it was moving to see pictures of the real people and listen to their voices.

Because Friday is the day commemorating Christ's passion, the Pope always leads the Stations of the Cross. A popular Catholic devotional, this is a set of 14 stations telling the story of Jesus' way from the garden of Gethsemane to His burial. At each station there is a prayer and a short reflection on that particular situation. Typically the stations are posted (for example on the walls in a church) and one walks from one to the next, but this setting was different. Towns all around Spain nominated statues to represent the different stations and they were displayed in the main square where Papa Ben had been the night before. Different groups of youth carried the WYD cross from one statue to the next as we "walked" with Jesus.

Each group was somehow connected with the station, for example after Judas Betrays Christ with a Kiss (the some of the stations were different from the traditional ones) the cross was carried by young people from areas where Christians face persecution because of their faith.

For the station, Jesus is stripped of His Garments, young people from Rwanda/Burundi carried the cross as a symbol of people who are stripped of their dignity through genocide.

After all 14 stations, Papa Ben gave a short homily on the importance of carrying our own crosses and following Christ. Although the stations took place outside, we stayed and watched them from inside the L&L Centre... I was glad not to have another long day outside in the sun.

When the stations were finished, I stayed with some of the group for Lectio Divina - a time of reading and meditating on scripture. Concluding the night was a healing Eucharistic Adoration service with procession. There's nothing like quiet time with Jesus... especially when He walks through the room.

I was a bit worried because I had wanted to stay for Adoration but knew that I needed to eat as well. Just as we were leaving, I mentioned to the girls I was with that I needed to stop somewhere and get some food on the way home. No sooner had I said that then we passed someone who offered us most of a pizza that they couldn't eat (we were still inside... this was other pilgrim not some random person on the street). Amazing how God provides!

WYD part 4

Thursday was the day that Papa Ben (The Pope/B16/etc) arrived in Madrid. After catechesis, I went with most of the group to the welcome ceremony. We arrived around 2pm and got pretty close -- we had a good view of a screen and could even see the stage somewhat.

People that arrived after us:

There were pilgrims from ALL OVER the world.


We had to wait from 2pm until the Pope arrived at 7:30 so we saw a ton of strange/awesome things... for example

The "Monk-arena"
(sorry it's turned sideways, I couldn't figure out how to fix that)

It was terribly hot. I'm amazed that I managed not to get sunburned. That's only because I was reapplying sunscreen about every hour. Unfortunately, some people got really nasty as well. I went to the toilet with a couple of the other girls and we had a serious problem getting back to the group. Some other pilgrims wouldn't move a few feet (they had loads of room because they were sitting in a circle playing cards) to let us past and even when a girl fainted from the heat right behind us they didn't want to move. They did finally move so that the girl could get medical assistance and we were able to fight our way back to the group.

Over all, though the atmosphere was great. So many young adults so excited to see the Holy Father. Seriously, there has to be something to the papacy. Otherwise, there is no reason for 100's of thousands of youth to be gathered in the 40+C (well over 100F) heat to see one short, 84 year old man. There is no other reason for us to be chanting with one voice (as we did dozens of times throughout the week, both in the presence of the pope and anywhere else... opposite platforms of the metro, walking down the street, you name it) “¡Esta es la juventud del papa!” ("We are the youth of the pope!") He really is our spiritual father. Forget Dumbledore's Army... I'm in Benedict's Army. Which, ultimately, is Jesus' Army.

Finally, Papa Ben arrived! And we could see him!!


Five young adults representing the five continents presented welcome gifts to the Holy Father. I didn't catch a picture of him putting on the cowboy hat from the North American representative but I did get one of him wearing the flower garland from the Asian rep.



After the gifts, there was a short prayer service with a reading from the Bible and intercessions. Papa Ben greeted the pilgrims and gave a short message in each of the "official" WYD languages (Spanish, French, Italian, German, English, and Polish) eliciting massive cheers from each language group in turn.



After the prayer service, he rode back out of the square in the pope-mobile. We were kind of disappointed because there had been plenty of space right along the fence on the street where he came in but we chose to get closer to the stage rather than stand there. Oh well... we were still there.

We waited a little while for the crowds to start to clear (hah) a little bit and then headed out of the square to find some food. On the way, we passed two cardinals walking down the road. Now, one doesn't normally see two "Princes of the Church" ambling down a city street. I caught a picture and then some of the group decided we should talk to them.



American's are often very irritating in international settings. Not everyone and not always but there is enough truth in the stereotype for me to downplay my citizenship when abroad. Because of this, I was telling people at WYD that I live in Hungary. When we met the cardinals, the rest of the group said they were from Canada and I chimed in (as I had been doing up until that point but sort of stopped afterwards) that I was coming from Hungary.

One of the cardinals looked at me strangely and asked
"Where?"
I figured that he either hadn't heard or didn't know where I was talking about so I repeated "Budapest, Hungary."
No sooner had I said that then, in flawless Hungarian, he says
"Dicsértessék a Jézus Krisztus!" (Praised be Jesus Christ!)

Now, you have to understand that for Hungarian Catholics, that is the common greeting from a priest to the people. If you're Hungarian and Catholic it's about as well known as the Sign of the Cross. Basically, if you don't know it (and the proper response), you are either not Hungarian or not Catholic or neither. When I'm in Hungary, the response flies off the tip of my tongue as easy as pie. However.... I was NOT expecting this random cardinal to be Cardinal Erdő -- the archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest (my home diocese) and the only Hungarian cardinal. I knew that he had to be in Budapest on Saturday for St. Stephen's day so I figured he wasn't going to be at WYD. Apparently, I was wrong. My poor brain was so befuddled with the sudden switch from English/Spanish to Hungarian. I recognized the phrase to be Hungarian, I knew it was the standard greeting from a priest, and I knew that I knew the proper response. What I didn't manage was to come up with the response. Instead, I mumbled, "igen," (yes) looking quite bewildered, I'm sure. The cardinal frowned and, somewhat sharply, gave me the response "Mindörökké, ámen!" (Forever, amen!)

I can't blame him... the poor guy was probably thinking "who is this girl and why is she claiming to be Hungarian/Catholic?!" ... Sorry, Your Eminence, I promise I'm not that thick - just wasn't expecting the language switch.

After that excitement (read: embarrassment -- at least for me) we got dinner and then headed home after a LONG day in the sun.

WYD part 3

Continuing the impossible task of setting my World Youth Day experience in words.

As I briefly mentioned, I spent Monday evening/night with a group from Edmonton, Alberta (hereafter known as Alberta group 1... or my (adopted) group). We got tapas that evening and then I stayed the night with them.

Tuesday morning I had to go to registration. There were some problems: because I registered so late, I never actually got a "pilgrim registration email" and they didn't want to give me my meal tickets and transportation pass without that. Finally, it got worked out and I left the office with my backpack, meal tickets, transportation pass, and some of the books/maps (not everything was in my backpack). After registration I went to the Love & Life Centre which was a "home" for English speaking pilgrims sponsored by the Knights of Columbus and the Sisters of Life.

First on the schedule was the opening concert by L'Angelus (a Catholic Cajun band of four siblings from Louisiana). They were awesome! Not only was the group itself great, they also had their little siblings perform with them. Here's a clip with all of them -- not from the concert but still at WYD... the little twin boys are named Maximilian and Kolbe.. how cute is that! I don't typically listen to that type of music but they are enthusiastic performers and it was very enjoyable.

Fr. Robert Barron spoke next, giving a preview of his new tv series "Catholicism." If you are in the States, I highly recommend this series which will start in the fall on both EWTN and PBS to anyone who is Catholic or interested in Catholicism... especially the historical aspects of it. Apparently, Fr. Barron will be the first Catholic priest to have a show on public tv since the 1950's (Archbishop Fulton Sheen).

A lot of people left at that point to head over to the Opening of WYD Mass but I stayed at the Love & Life Centre for Catholic Underground with Eucharistic Adoration. It was amazing but I basically missed Mass because of it.

By the time I got out of Adoration, there was only an hour before Mass and I ended up on the very fringe of the crowd -- well outside of the area with screens and speakers (I'm sure I was at least a mile away from the actual Mass). That was incredibly frustrating and I ended up leaving before Mass was over (I couldn't see, couldn't hear, and I didn't have the English liturgy booklet so I couldn't follow along). At that point, things got a little funky. I had hoped to run into the Alberta group 1 at some point during the day but that didn't happen (something about there being a few hundred thousand - literally - people there made that difficult). Since I didn't, I found myself wandering home... only I didn't know exactly where "home" was. Somehow, I didn't have the address of the church which was my "home base." I wasn't even sure what metro stop I would have to go to -- much less how to get back from the metro. This sent me into quite a panic. I managed to find an information center with some volunteers and thankfully, I at least knew the name of the church. They managed to point me in the right direction and I made my way to the metro. While riding back, I met another group from Edmonton (Alberta group 2) and rode the rest of the way home with them. When we got back to the church, one of the volunteers took me over to my host family's house. That was when I met my "Spanish Grandma" Filo (short for Filomena).

Suffice it to say staying with Filo and her husband was a fascinating experience. I don't speak Spanish although I can understand a little thanks to studying French and Italian. Filo doesn't speak English. I'm used to not understanding everything (in Hungarian) but being completely unable to communicate was something I'm less comfortable with. We made it work though. She and her husband were incredibly sweet and accommodating. Unlike 99% of the pilgrims I actually had a bed (which I didn't really tell anyone during WYD... didn't want to rub it in) and Filo even insisted on doing my laundry later in the week. Staying there, I learned an interesting fact about differences between Spanish and Hungarian culture: both have greeting kisses on both cheeks (or the air next to your cheek) but in Spain it's left then right and in Hungary it's right then left side. That took me a little while to get used to.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings were spent in catechesis at the L&L Centre. A traditional part of WYD, this consists of the pilgrims being split into language groups (there were 250 of these catechesis sites all over the city ... 24 in English and the rest in all sort of languages from Spanish to Hungarian, Arabic to Mandarin). In each of the sites, the pilgrims gather to hear teachings from a bishop/archbishop/cardinal in their language and then celebrate Mass. There are also other speakers or music groups before the main address. On Wednesday, Cardinal Pell from Sydney, Australia spoke on belief in God being rational. He gave some funny statistics on how it is more likely for a chimp to produce a Shakespearean sonnet than for amino acids to randomly arrange themselves in a way to produce life without someone/something prompting it. Thursday, Archbishop Miller from Vancouver, Canada spoke about the parable of the wise man building his house on the rock and the importance of building our lives on the Rock of Christ and His Church. "Lose yourself in Jesus to find out who you really are," he encouraged us. He was preceded by Jason and Crystalina Everett who shared their experiences on the importance of chastity. I hadn't heard them speak before and found them very real and engaging with some humor thrown in for good measure: "Daily Mass is only for those who have nothing better to do ... which is all of us!" Our final catechesis was lead by Archbishop Dolan of NYC. He gave a very practical talk on ways to witness to the faith, listing four main points: charity, joy, hope, and love for the Church. He also repeated a short prayer over and over which was ironic because of something that happened Thursday night (my "infamous" run-in with Cardinal Erdo -- my archbishop -- story here!). The Masses which followed were enormous -

30 bishops at each of the first two days and closer to 50 on Friday

250-350 priests depending on the day
(that white stream.. coming from the right side and filling up the seats on either side of the floor -- that's all priests)

On Wednesday, I went to catechesis with the Alberta group 2. Afterwards, we tried to see Christopher West but the line was too long for us to get in. We did a little shopping and then headed home "early" for a prayer service at 9pm followed by dinner hosted by our church. The evening ended with the Real Madrid vs. Barcelona match. I went back to Filo's house and went to bed before the match ended... she told me she and her husband were praying for Real Madrid to win but I heard the next day that despite a valiant effort Barcelona won.

While I was very grateful that the Alberta group 2 welcomed me on Wednesday, they were quite a bit younger than the first group. Of course there is nothing wrong with that and I was glad to have met them. However, given the choice, I would rather spend time with late college/grad school/working young adults over high school/early college students. Because of this and the fact that timing worked out well, I spent Thursday (and then Friday-Sunday) with Alberta group 1. At that point I was pretty much "adopted" as part of the group -- they even told me I was an "honorary Canadian" for the week!

WYD part 2

Short note in pictures....

World Youth Day is one of the most visible signs of the thriving Church.

The


One
But the cross by itself doesn't save us. It is the Crucified One who saves us.
Taken from the WYD Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) text


Holy
"If angels could be jealous of men, they would be so for one reason: Holy Communion"
~~ St. Maximilian Kolbe


Catholic
Which in the broadest sense, means universal.

and

Apostolic
Not only were hundreds of bishops there (the successors of the apostles) but so was ...


Papa Ben!
The Vicar of Christ on Earth:
the successor of St. Peter,
still holding the keys to the kingdom of heaven given him by Christ.
Matthew 16:13-20

Church


Oh how I love being Catholic!

This cool guy I met in Madrid

I promise that I will write about everything that happened during WYD, but if I had to sum it up... I'd have to simply tell you all about this guy that I met.

Before I left, at least two of my friends here made comments about how amazing it would be if I met someone in Madrid. Coming off of this summer (and the months leading up to it), I wasn't sure if I wanted that to happen or really hoped it wouldn't. Taking into account all the gory details not included in my blog post (and there were many, unfortunately, even continuing after the relationship ended), things just got really ugly. I understand that this guy was lashing out because he was hurt. However, that didn't make it any easier. Add in a heavy dose of "Catholic guilt" due to some rad-trad beliefs that he has and I was a mess. Although I doubt he meant to, some things that I heard over and over again really gave me a beating. These aren't doctrines or dogma. Nothing that is essential to Catholic teaching. To sum it up... I do not believe that a woman has to wear a high-necked shirt with a long skirt and a veil to be modest. Modesty is awesome, don't get me wrong. And I definitely consider myself modest. But, when I'm subjected to talk about legalistic rules, I want nothing more than to put on a bikini and go to the beach. When Jesus appears to me and tells me that I must only wear blouses dipping no lower than two finger widths below the pit of my throat and a skirt that fully covers my knees while sitting or standing, I'll listen to Him. Until then, I'll have to keep fighting this ridiculous guilt over nothing. Honestly, when I think about it, what comes to mind is Eowyn's comment to Wormtongue in the Two Towers: "Your words are poison!" ... minus the evil intent.

What does any of that have to do with WYD in Madrid?

Well, my friends were right - sort of. I did meet a guy in Madrid. But then, I've known Him for years. Even so, I really needed the week away with Him. Jesus is the only one who can heal my heart and clean up this mess that I've gotten into. And WYD was the beginning of that. Through the people around me, speakers, bishops, Papa Ben (of course!), and just the general atmosphere, He was present in so many ways. But nothing compares to the sacraments. I was blessed to spend time in adoration twice (technically thrice if you count the Saturday vigil but I wasn't participating in that much for reasons which I'll get into later) -- there is nothing more beautiful than gazing at the very face of God and letting Him gaze back at you... except for receiving Him at Mass. I really needed to go to confession (yet another very tangible expression of His love) and had the chance - finally - on Friday morning. While I don't recommend getting into such a situation, after not being able to receive Communion before I went to the sacrament of reconciliation, it was incredible to to to Mass directly after. Although knowing that I was still so unworthy, being able to welcome Christ into a "freshly cleaned house" was priceless.

SO, was my future husband in Madrid? No clue. I kind of doubt it, even though I met some awesome people and there were more than a million who I didn't meet, but I don't know for sure. And, theoretically, there is always the option of religious life... although there really aren't many opera singing nuns. In any case, the week was spent rediscovering the love of the One who has always loved me and can never stop and, especially right now, that was better than being with anyone else.

WYD part 1

Rooted and built up in Jesus Christ,
firm in the faith
Colossians 2:7

That was the theme of World Youth Day this past week in Madrid.

I'm at quite a loss as to how to describe/condense my experience into a blog post(s) but I'll give it a shot.

From my notebook in the air on the way there:

Of course, as soon as I begin writing we hit some turbulence. The trip is going fine so far. I was worried about my backpack being too big to carry on - with my sleeping bag and foam roll both inside but it was fine. Interestingly, they were more concerned with number of bags rather than size. Two girls who had been in Budapest for Sziget had some trouble because they had sleeping bags and bed rolls separate from their carry ons - they each had about three things. Wizzair is very particular about having one item.. including purses/laptops/etc that most other airlines allow in addition to one carry on. I had everything in my backpack and just took things out on the plane before putting my bag up.

There is at least one WYD group on board. The priest traveling with them is sitting directly in front of me. I always feel much better about a flight (not that I usually feel bad) when I know there is a priest on board. Probably even more so than if I knew there was a doctor.

One of my goals on this pilgrimage is to actually interact with other people and not just stick to myself. That is such a challenge for me. I'm hoping that being alone - without a friend/group to find behind - that will be easier.

Speaking of friends, I'm curious to see if I run into anyone I know. When I was a volunteer in Cologne, a girl on the other volunteer team working with mine had been my babysitter when she was going to college. She came to WYD from her home in Kenya. That's the crazy type of thing that can happen at these. I do actually know one person who's here. A girl I went to school with our first time in Hungary is on the Hungarian social media volunteer team. I haven't talked to her in years but I've seen things she's posted on Facebook.

I really hope there is someone at the airport to pick me up. I called the volunteers at the parish that is hosting me and told them what time and from where I'm arriving. Hopefully they automatically knew which terminal to meet me based on my coming from budapest. If not, I've got my phone. Which I really hope is not the reason we're going through so much turbulence. I don't use it much so I forget about my phone all the time. By the time I remembered it was turned on, my bag was in the overhead a few rows ahead and we had started taxiing. Must be better about remembering that!

I hope this doesn't turn into a lonely trip. The group next to me is having a blast. I miss traveling/going to events with a youth group-type thing. If they weren't all a big group, I might be able to screw up the courage to talk to a person or two but alone compared with a group it's extremely hard. I'm such an introvert. Sigh.

(This next bit was written Tuesday night)

Just a quick note before I fall asleep. Got in fine last night. A volunteer picked me up at the airport. Spet the evening with a grad school group from Alberta. I was suppsoed to stay with a host family but we got back from "dinner" too late -- this is Spain -- we didn't start getting our food until 11:20 - so I spent the night on the floor with that group.

This morning I had to spend a few hours getting paperwork sorted out. Will have to finish in the morning because I'm exhausted => you'll see why soon.

Quick note

Just a short post to say that Madrid is awesome! Christ is so present! Got to see Papa Ben last night and I'm about to watch Stations of the Cross on the screen in the huge "home center" for English pilgrims. I've been hanging out with a group from Alberta, CA who have made me an honorary Canadian for the week. Had a horribly embarrassing run-in with Peter Cardinal Erdo of the Esztergom-Budapest diocese... talk about a slice of "humble pie"...


Gotta run because there is a line for the computer!!

More when I get back!