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. Many of us also received third class relics of Mother Teresa. One thing I really appreciated was being able to write down my prayer intentions and place a candle in front of the altar with those intentions.
After Eucharistic adoration, we headed to another church where we regularly have mass and celebrated mass there with Fr. Tom and Fr. Cesar.
On our way to where we would be seeing the Pope, Fr. Cesar came up with a great idea of getting gelato. I got strawberry and almond and it was delicious and was definitely a goal of mine to get gelato in Europe. Then, we headed to the park where dozens of countries were gathered, waiting patiently for the Pope to arrive. Although it was a rough couple of hours, it was all worth it to see the leader of the Catholic Church. Even through the heat, you could feel the joy radiating off of these young Catholics around us. It truly felt like such a united experience because everyone was filled with the joy that could only be the Holy Spirit. I know we can't wait for the closing mass on Sunday. Today just goes to show you that those who believe are never alone. There are millions like us all over the world and today was just a sliver of that.
We greatly miss our families and are keeping everyone back at home in our intentions every day. Please continue to pray for us too as we continue our journey through this pilgrimage.
We appreciate your continuous prayers and support,
Allison Shewfelt
