Day 6 of World Youth Day 7-30-23

Bom Dia!

Today we finally got a chance to sleep in for the first time this pilgrimage so far. However I’m not so sure we all took advantage of that because of the festa last night. We began with mass at 10:30 this morning with the local parishioners of Cortes and the mass was mainly said in Portuguese but of course the homily, the Gospel and a few other parts were said in the different languages of the people staying in Cortes.

While this isn’t our last day with our host families, we said goodbye to them after mass and were given gifts from them (magnets of world youth day) and at least in my experience, it was quite difficult to say bye. Tomorrow we really do say goodbye as we head to Lisbon for the World Youth Day events. The families here in Cortes have been so grateful and wonderful to all of us, making sure that we all have the best experience possible while also encountering Christ along the way. I realized just how much our host families cared about us and I really felt from my own host family a kind of love that comes from Christ himself.

After Mass we did more dancing with some musical entertainment from the Amigos da Concertina and lunch. Then we all went our separate ways with our host families, mine and many other families went to the beach in Nazaré where we got to ride a trolley, see some phenomenal views and more Churches as well.

We are praying for everyone back at home and we thank you all for supporting us throughout our journey.

God Bless,

Liam Mullins

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World Youth Day - Portugal

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