Letting Go...

I knew it was going to be a memorable pilgrimage when on the first day in Madrid I was greeted with these words in a homily.

"This is not meant to be a vacation. This is meant to be a time to abandon yourself to the will of God."

For all you White Sox fans, I wanted to do my best Hawk Harrelson, "You can put it on the board YESSS!" Or I guess an extended "GGGOOOOLLLLL!!" would have worked as a better sports analogy considering the country we were in. I was deeply moved by this statement. I have heard it a thousand times and said it to people even more, but for some reason, this time it stung. How often do I really do that? How often do I wake up and completely give my day to the Lord and His holy will?

So this became my mantra for the week. I was going to enter into our pilgrimage abandoning myself to His will. And what a pilgrimage it was!

I was touched so deeply by the freedom in this act of letting go. Everyday I said, "Lord put the people in my path today who you want me to see." And everyday I was blown away by His providential timing. Literally everyday of my pilgrimage was filled with life-giving encounters with the greater Body of Christ that took place without a phone, without email or without the Bat Signal.

I saw a friend who was roaming around Spain for a month prior to the pilgrimage. I was in Mass one day praying, "Lord, if it be your will today, how about I run into Josh." Sure enough two hours later there he was. I ran into a friend who had been on my heart in prayer for months. I knew she was heading off the join the Sisters of Life soon and wanted to see her before she moved onto to this next great step in her life. I prayed and sure enough I saw her. Four times! And not to mention, I saw the Pope.

These were just a small sample of the greatness I experienced in God's great timing. A greatness that He called me to throughout my entire pilgrimage and a greatness He is calling me to now every single day of my life.

Photo Galleries

Want to see more than 200 photos from the archdiocesan pilgrimage to Spain? Click on the link below to be taken to our special Criterion photo galleries (five in all) using images taken by Breanna Holder and Megan Fish.

See the Criterion photo galleries

Adoration

Here we are, a couple days after arriving back from World Youth Day and the time has come to look back and reflect on such an awesome trip.
We were only in Madrid for a week, but the World Youth Day experience is one that will undoubtedly change the course of young and old lives from all around the world.  I have heard so many people tell me great stories of how this pilgrimage has changed their lives. Each story is so different but keep finding a common thread, we are one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic church! A universal church that is full of love and life.
For myself, I had, as they call it, an ah-ha moment when we were on a church tour in Madrid. We had traveled to many churches and were about to wrap things up when we walked past a church that none of the group members  had remembered seeing. We went ahead and found our way inside. To our hearts delight, we walked straight into adoration.
As I sat there in adoration, listening to a beautiful choir, I realized that it is a beautiful gift we were given. I had of course known this before but at that moment, I saw Him in the faces of everyone visiting that church. He was truly present in everyone from every nationality.
World Youth Day has and will continue to form and shape the lives of so many. As we all enter back into our daily lives, I ask for your prays that WE ALL dive deeper into our beautiful faith and learn to know, love, and serve God.

World Youth Day News

Tomorrow we should have more photos from our now-returned pilgrims. Until then, here is some of the news coverage that World Youth Day received from Catholic News Service:

• Protesters, pilgrims face minor confrontations on Madrid streets
• At Mass with seminarians, pope says he'll proclaim new doctor of church
• Driving rain, wind don't dampen spirits during World Youth Day vigil
• Pope tells young to build on their faith, share it with the world

 Today we had another good session of catechesis with Archbishop Dolan from New York.  Over the past couple of days many pilgrims from our group have had an opportunity to sit front row at these sessions.  Here's a picture below of some of the group that went down today!  

Some of us walked and prayed the Stations of the Cross with Father Rick and Father Andy in the afternoon.  It was a good experience for us because it was very hot with lots of people which gave us a deeper meaning of what Jesus went through.  We ended this unexpectedly at a church we passed by that was having adoration.  Just beautiful!!!

 The Stations of the Cross were also life size!  Here's a picture!

Tomorrow is going to be GREAT!  We are going to start the day off with a special Mass with only our group.  The four seminarians that are traveling with us will also be having a Mass with the Pope and all other seminarians from all over the world!  Then we will be taking a pilgrimage to an open air field where we will be spending the night that starts with a prayer vigil in anticipation of the closing Mass with our Holy Father!  Stay tuned for updates of this event soon!    

The Pope Has Arrived!!!

Yes, that's right!  Our Holy Father arrived yesterday in Madrid. 

We spent the morning at an awesome catechsis session and Mass.  Some of us spent the afternoon taking a pilgrimage through several churches in Madrid.  What beautiful spaces these are!  The evening was by far an entertaining experience as we got to welcome the Pope.  Crowds very high with close to a million people in gathering around the square in hopes to get a glimpse of the Pope.  Many of our pilgrims got to see him!  Stay tuned for a video once we return to the states!   Here's a picture of the crowd though to hold you over until then!

Prayer Requests

Hello everyone!!  Wanted to let you all know that we have received the prayer requests thus far and keep each of them in our prayers daily as we pray the rosary on our bus ride into catechesis each morning.  Please continue to send any prayer requests.  We would love to give your intentions to one of our pilgrims while on this trip. 

World Youth Day has Started!

It's been a fascinating few days! We are sorry it has taken so long to post...we have limited internet access but be rest assured we are having a GREAT time. 

We spent Tuesday in the beautiful city of Toledo (look for pictures soon).  Toledo is the site where St. John of the Cross was held in prison while under persecution with the church.  We've been blessed to have an awesome guide for both Avila and Toledo, Marie Theresa, who not only knows the history of the places, but also shares with us the same love for our faith!

Tuesday night we all enjoyed the opening Mass with about 1 million other pilgrims from all over the world.  The Mass was followed by concerts, adoration, confessions, and the company of each others presence.

We started WYD today with catechesis with the Sisters of Life and the Archbishop from Sydney, Austrailia.  We ended with Mass and then break out sessions throughout the day as well as festivities around town. 

A group of us spend the afternoon at a vocations fair in the city.  We met many people, religious orders and priests from all around the world.  We ended the afternoon with dinner at a local cafe with great lemon ice cream and wonderful conversation amongst friends. 

We are getting ready to head downstairs now for a Marian festival!!  More posts to come soon! 

-Brea and Megan

From the Archives...

The Criterion, our official archdiocesan newspaper, has hosted a blog during the previous two World Youth Days: in Cologne, Germany in 2005, and in Sydney, Australia in 2008.

As a bonus feature, we thought we'd link to those old blogs as well as to photo galleries from each event.

WYD Blogs:

• 2005 (Cologne)
• 2008 (Sydney)

WYD Photo Galleries:

• 2005 (Cologne)
• 2008 (Sydney)

Hungry for more World Youth Day content? Check out these sites for the latest:

• Official World Youth Day site
• Catholic News Service coverage
• Catholic News Agency coverage
• Virtual World Youth Day pilgrimage

If you know of any other great WYD resources, or other blogs from pilgrims currently in Spain, feel free to leave a link for us in the comment box!

We're Here!!!

After a 6 hour lay over in Charlotte we arrived in Spain!  We took a tour of Madrid once we landed.  Got settled in at our hotel, and spend the first evening in "Old Town" Madrid...and what an awesome market center this is for young adults!  There is always cultural activities out on the circle in this old portion of Madrid, and we enjoyed much of this the first night.

Today, we traveled to Avila where many saints have been inspired by this scared space.  We were blessed to celebrate the Mass with two bishops from Alaska. Many people walked the city walls and others toured the city. Everyone enjoyed a local lunch and shopping.

During the day we have traveled as a group of 44 pilgrims uniting Indianapolis and Lafayette diocese. With a break in the evening we have been able to branch out and get to know each other more personally.

Tomorrow during the day we will be traveling Toledo where we will learn more about St. John of the Cross. Tomorrow night at 10 p.m. we will be having our welcoming Mass for World Youth Day!

Prayer Requests

Our pilgrims would love to pray for you!

Please include your prayer request in the comment section on this post and our pilgrims will take it in their hearts to Madrid. Your prayer request will become part of the global gathering of youth with Pope Benedict XVI.

And don't forget...pray for the pilgrims as well!

Follow us in Spain!

44 young adults from the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and the Diocese of Lafayette will be heading to Madrid, Spain to join tens of thousands people from all over the globe for World Youth Day 2011.

We want to share our experience with you!

We are shoving off Saturday morning so check back to read stories, see pictures and to send prayer requests our way as we spend the week on pilgrimage with the greater Church!

~Matt

P.S. Please keep us in your prayers!