Skip to main content

Day 4 of World Youth Day 7-28-23



Bon dia! 

Our time in Portugal has not been very long, but we’ve certainly made the most of it! Our third full day here started with a bus ride to a local monastery. Its name was Batalha, and it’s one of the most beautiful monasteries I’ve been lucky enough to visit. And part of it wasn’t even completely finished!  From there we rode to a small town with a name that meant “place of bears”. There were no bears.

We spent a good while in both locations, and each one felt like we were in a fairytale. And to make a great day even better, we left there to attend mass in the beautiful city of Fatima. The statues, the church, the basilica, and everything else was overwhelming in the truest sense of the word. The number of people walking on their knees along the pathway while praying the rosary let me know I was not alone in this feeling.

To wrap up this blessed day, we held a candlelight procession with the whole town. Walking the streets of Cortes, hearing song and prayer in all different languages, and connecting with people through the faith, was the perfect way to end the day. 

I am very quickly falling in love with this place and its people. 

All the best, 
Grace Etcheverry



Prayer in Cortes




Batalha Monastery 












Mass at Fatima











Rosary & Candlelight Procession 





















 





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Day 10 of World Youth Day 8-3-23

  Olá! Today was an exciting day because we got to see a glimpse of our Holy Father, Pope Francis. We started off the day right with morning prayer. Praying with everyone before setting off for the day reminds me to stay hopeful through the difficulties we will face today and to be open to anything that the Lord hands us. After morning prayer, we headed to the Basilica de Nossa Senhora dos Mártires to visit the religious objects of Catholic Iraqis and to observe the relics from different saints as well as posters describing some of the many Eucharistic miracles. Many of these miracles involved the host bleeding or the host turning to heart tissue. A fun thing we got to do on the way to the next church was visit the oldest operating bookstore in the world. We spent a couple minutes inside exploring the store and cafe. The next church we visited was the Igreja do Santíssimo Sacramento. We spent some time inside adoring the Eucharist with Mother Teresa's order, the Sisters of Charity....

Bem-vindos! Five Days Away!

  We are FIVE days away from setting off to Portugal!  World Youth Day is a world wide encounter with the Pope celebrated about every three years in a different country. This event is an opportunity for young adults to personally experience the universality of the Catholic Church, and to share with the whole world the hope of many young people who are committing their lives to Christ. World Youth Day was started by Pope, St. John Paul II and was first held in Rome in 1986. 26 Pilgrims are embarking on this pilgrimage from All Saints University parish. This consists of two priests (Fr. Tom Orlando and Fr. Cesar Martinez), three seminarians (Josue, Patrick, and Saul) and 21 young adults from our community.  It may seem like our pilgrimage begins next Tuesday, but as we’ve been telling our pilgrims, it began when we first said “yes” to God’s invitation to encounter him in this radical way. From accepting our Father’s invitation, we then invited all of you to partake in this ...

Day 15 of World Youth Day 8-8-23

  Yesterday, Aug 7th ,we concluded our pilgrimage to World Youth Day. We visited the shrine of our lady of Fatima , where our blessed mother appeared to the three Little shepherds, Jacinta, Francisco and Lucia back in 1917.  It was such a huge blessing to go and visited our blessed mother , to thank her for all the graces received thorough this pilgrimage. I know for a fact that she is the reason why I went to this beautiful pilgrimage. For,  I always feel her protection and intersession.  During this trip I had such a beautiful encounter with our Lord at the moment when our Holy Father Pope Francis passed by within a couple of feet away from us All Saints group. There was a flame of fire burning on my heart as Pope Francis was passing by that was filling me with love from head to toe. My  eyes fall into tears for the persona of Christ was so close to me.  I am totally convence that our pope is the successor of Peter , the representer of Christ in our Holy ...