Long Overdue!

I apologize for this long overdue blog post as it has been a very busy last few days both here in the city of Madrid and our ventures out in the Spanish countryside. I hope to finally be able to bring you up to speed! Alrighty, here we go!

Thursday, August 11

In the morning we boarded a bus and trekked to the city of Zaragoza. There we met the Sisters who ran the local Jesuit retreat center where we were staying. Then we explored the Basilica-Cathedral of Our Lady of the Pillar, traditionally held to be the first church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is said that at that location, she appeared in a vision to St. James. It is here that Fr. Zimmer, one of our trip chaplains and a Jesuit priest, began to speak to us about St. Ignatius of Loyola’s writing of The Spiritual Exercises.  The purpose of these spiritual exercises is to develop a deeper relationship with God through self-sacrifice and prayer. However, the challenge is to overcome the distractions in our life that keep us from achieving that deeply personal relationship. In his Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius of Loyola says, “Man is created to praise, reverence and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul. And the other things on the face of the earth are created for man and that they may help him in prosecuting the end for which he is created.” However he emphasizes that anything that keeps us from achieving that goal of praising, reverencing and serving God our Lord, needs to be let go. Unbelievably, St. Ignatius, according to his transcribed autobiography says that he once reached a point where he couldn’t think about his own death because of the great joy he had in thinking about meeting God. Could you imagine that? No fear of death! Aside from these lessons of St. Ignatius, the Basilica-Cathedral in Zaragoza was very impressive, the most interesting feature being the influence of the Islamic architecture used because of the Moors (Muslims) in the areas who converted to Christianity.  Also, I met some pilgrims from Zimbabwe, one of which had the name, Simba! As a fan of “The Lion King” I found this very cool!

Friday, August 12

We first visited the town of Manresa where there is a cave in which St. Ignatius wrote his Spiritual Exercises. The cave is now a small chapel and Fr. Zimmer celebrated mass there. It was clear that it was a special moment for him to celebrate mass in the same place where the founder of his order had lived. In his homily he spoke of the many works of the Jesuit community, which extends beyond just the realm of education, the most familiar sense through which I know of the order. For instance, in the last 100 years, over 300 Jesuit priests have been martyred while working in missions across the globe.

Our next visit was to the mountainside town of Montserrat, by far my favorite place we visited. In the side of these high mountainside cliffs there is a  beautiful basilica in which there is the statue of the Black Madonna. This statue was believed to have been carved by one of the evangelists and then rediscovered when one of the monks living there saw something shining from a cave in the mountain. The Benedictine monks run the church and surrounding area now and have turned it into a thriving tourist destination as well as religious site. While there, I lit a candle for all the intentions of my family and friends, especially those I carry with me on this pilgrimage.

During this day we also ran into some other pilgrims many of our fellow Knights knew, especially the groups from Loyola University and Catholic University.  Just goes to show the universality of our church!

Saturday, August 13

Before leaving we said good bye to the sisters who were our gracious hosts. However, as I went to leave a groups of us wished to take a picture with the sisters. Unfortunately I mixed up my Spanish vocabulary and instead of addressing one of the sisters as “hermana” (sister) I said “Hermosa” (hot chic). This would probably explain why she declined our request for a picture with her. 

We first visited the town of Burgos, where there is a beautiful gothic style Cathedral. Not only was the church amazing, as we walked through the town there were street performers  playing classical music on their violins and cellos. One woman was even singing and had an incredible voice. It very much so felt like quintessential “Europe”…or “Busch Gardens” Europe as I liked to call it. It was well worth the visit!

At our next destination, Calleruego, Fr. John, a Dominican brother who is on our trip had the  opportunity to share with us about the founder of his order, St. Dominic, in the town of the saint’s birth. Clearly, St. Dominic was a great and holy man of God, who had immense faith and yet could connect with those around him, even telling his fellow brothers about his own temptations. The best part about seeing these various sites is that these were not places I would have visited on my own because I had never heard of them. However I would certainly recommend them!

That evening we returned to the city of Madrid and the comfort of our own apartments!    

Sunday, August 14

This was our “free day”! After a group of us went to a Spanish mass at the Cathedral here in Madrid, a friend and I went to the Prado art museum. They were highlighting various paintings for WYD and apparently this museum is like the Louvre of Madrid. I will be the first to admit, I’m not a huge art person but the more I looked at these paintings, the more I found myself appreciating the incredible talent of the artists, even at the most basic level. Not to mention I recognized many familiar paintings I had seen in my Spanish textbooks in high school and even saw the original Vasquez painting “The Crucified Christ” which is hung over our cross on the altar at St. Ann’s throughout Lent each year.

In the evening we had our first opportunity to visit the Palacio des deportes, which is pretty much the Verizon center of Madrid. This has been turned into the “Love and Life Center” a place for English speaking pilgrims to gather. I have to say, I was incredibly impressed with the entire set-up of the arena. We also received our official “Pilgrim” WYD backpacks with our guidebooks, maps, metro pass and the newly released “YouCat” or “Youth Catechism”, a personal gift from the Holy Father to all the attendees.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Today was work, work and more work! We worked at the Palacio for over 12 hours putting up signage around the building, helping set up exhibits and displays, moving chairs, tables and everything else…or so it seemed! Although it has certainly been an exhausting day, it has been rewarding to the center pulling together to welcome all the pilgrims tomorrow.

We also had the opportunity for the sacrament of confession and adoration, which actually turned out to be the highlight of the day. During that time I felt very strongly that God was asking me to place my faith in Him this week and see what He would do. So I guess I’m going along for the ride!

As I walked through the city I could see that the banners are all hung, the stages are built and our own center will be putting the finishing touches on tomorrow morning. Meanwhile the pilgrims have been flocking as their presence has grown in the last couple of days and there is an energy growing about this city, an energy and spirit that can only mean one thing….World Youth Day is about to begin!!