When asked “how was the world youth day?” I would respond, “It was fun. I enjoyed.” It is the shortest and simplest response. But actually, the experience cannot be accurately described by those 2 words – fun and enjoy.
In fact, it was not “a lot of fun” like partying or having a vacation. There was a lot of walking with the weight of our backpacks on our Spinal Cords. We run sometimes. There were also some misunderstandings between the group leaders and among us delegates. We would sleep very tired and late past midnight and wake up as early as 6:00am. And the scorching heat in Madrid was almost unbearable. But even if our journey was a little bit difficult, we still walked with smiles in our faces. We still had some laughs. And most of all, the journey was meaningful to us because of the prayers and sacrifices we offered – all to see the Pope, our fellow pilgrims all over the world and to strengthen our faith in the Lord.
We gained more friends. We learned to be cheerful. We learned to practice charity, temperance and understanding.
I believe that after joining the World Youth Day, all of us were changed to the better.
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| Waiting for the Pope at the Cuatro Vientos airport, Madrid Photo: courtesy of Valerie Averia |
PS. In my next post, I will tell you our Journey in France before we headed to Madrid for the actual World youth Day. Stay tuned by joining this site or by subscribing to posts. You can find the link at the right side of this blog.
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