World Youth Day - Portugal

  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 ...

We're coming home!!  As I reflect on these past two weeks, I am once again so amazed by the goodness of God. Before embarking on this pilgrimage, I had an idea of the personal intentions I wanted to take before the Lord, but I had no idea of the old wounded places in my heart he was going to ask me to revisit. It was hard but even in the hurt, God provided me the grace to see what he was doing. Our loving and merciful Father is a healer. He fixes those who are broken and finds those who are lost. These past two weeks I have been stretched beyond my "breaking point". When my mind, heart, or body felt heavy, I would cry out, "God, I can't do this, please give me strength" and he always did. He still is.  God's timing is so perfect. I am one who runs away when my wounds become too much. But being in a foreign country with the same 25 people, I had nowhere to run to, but to the Father. Each time I encountered Him in prayer with a heavy heart, He was there gi...

Mass with Pope Francis & the Long Walk Home Dear blog followers! I am writing to you about the last day of World Youth, this past Sunday! The night before we traveled far to get to a camp site. Less than half the group took the train but then still had to walk 3 hours after that. The other half had to travel the entire way in the heat! So we were exhausted! The night had a speech from the Pope some performances and then adoration. When it was sleep time about 1 third of the people chose to stay up and sing praises to the lord and dance for the lord inbetween the camp site areas! What a joy it was. I did not sleep til  around 2am  from so much festivities.  Now in the morning they started playing an alarm music to wake us all up. I was so tired. We wanted to leave right after mass so I was scarfing down my food and putting away my camping gear as soon as possible! Then all of a sudden people around me started screaming he’s coming! I stood up and it was Pope Francis!! ...

          Today we set out for the park where the Saturday Vigil and Closing Mass would be. We began our day with a later wake up time: a rare chance to sleep in and gain back some much needed energy. Little did we know how much we would really need that rest! After this easy start, Fr. Cesar celebrated Mass in an old Carmelite monastery across the street from our hostel. The monastery is currently being used by Dominican Sisters who care for women with vision impairments. We were especially grateful to them for their hospitality to us today. Fr. Tom preached in his homily about the importance of perseverance, especially since today was the day of our “Big Hike”. Emphasizing today’s Gospel about the beheading of John the Baptist for speaking against Herod, Father told us not to worry about anyone else other than the most important thing, “we don’t need to please anyone except Jesus…He is the one we have to keep in mind”. These words gave me hope during our hike ...

  BOM DIA!   As I begin my day with four espressos and two cough drops, I find our group flag and make my way to the lobby. It is always noisy and full of so much life; what a beautiful foreshadowing of events. Our group makes its way by subway to the beach. Not the kind you swim in tho, but just as majestic. We learn about their culture and Portugal’s spirit of Adventure. I can’t help be feel like I am right where I am suppose to be. The City of Joy lived up to its name, especially when the THEE PAPA FRANCISCO decided to stop by to listen to some confessions. Never have I wanted to have sin in my life, as an excuse to meet the Pope. On the outskirts of the area is an ocean of confessionals and priest scattered across the field. I pondered on how many volunteers it took to make this whole thing happen, and marveled over the joy of their sacrifices. Adjacent to that was the biggest ministry and vocations fair I’d ever seen. Possibilities in Christ everywhere, and the perfect dr...