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.
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!! He was about 20 feet away! I got to see him one last time! What a joy!! I got to see the successor of Peter, the Vicar of Christ right up close! The camping site had 1.5 million young people there! And that’s how we did mass! Mass starts. I did not understand the first two readings but the gospel they did in multiple languages! It was on the transfiguration. Pope Francis in his homily spoke about that we too can transfigure when we love one another. He also had us ponder the number one thing mentioned in the Bible, Be not afraid. That’s what Jesus told Peter. Last point the Pope made was about people having a problem with falling down in the spiritual life but made the point that the issue is not falling down but not getting back up is the real issue. He told us young people to help eachother get up as well. Said that the only time we should ever look down at someone in need is to extend a hand.
The mass ended and it was so beautiful! But now we were all packed and we had to to go walk shoulder to shoulder with a sea of people in the Portuguese highways and bridges! Did I mention that it’s burning hot outside?!!! Well the journey began, we held each others backpacks to not lose any of our members and we persevered. I was very sleep deprived, already exhausted from the previous weeks and I had 2-3 hours of walking ahead of us in the Sun. My mood was negative till my brother Josue started a rosary! And then he started the second rosary, and then a third rosary. And then a Fourth Rosary! Some of us did the full rosary all four mysteries! And it gave us the strength to persevere! Finally after a long journey we made it back to the hostel! I did Laundry! Showered and then slept for 2 hours! When I woke up Saul the seminarian came with me to visit one of my closest friends at a nice little bar I’m downtown Lisbon. I enjoyed my time with my friend! It had been 8 months since I saw him since he lived in Mexico now. At 8 o’clock we had to leave my friends and Saul and I walked around downtown to find food. We found good at a burger joint that had a man with a guitar playing Ed Sheeran songs next to us. Was an enjoyable experience. Then Saul and I kept walking around and found the Official famous CR7 Cristiano Ronaldo store. I bought a World Cup jersey from 2022. Then we walked toward the ocean where a violinist was playing. It was a rather soothing time as we stared at the ocean and walked down steps close to the water with beautiful music to end the night. All in all, though injured and sick from such a rigorous journey we still had a beautiful day our last day of world youth day!
With much love,
Christian Montoya
The mass ended and it was so beautiful! But now we were all packed and we had to to go walk shoulder to shoulder with a sea of people in the Portuguese highways and bridges! Did I mention that it’s burning hot outside?!!! Well the journey began, we held each others backpacks to not lose any of our members and we persevered. I was very sleep deprived, already exhausted from the previous weeks and I had 2-3 hours of walking ahead of us in the Sun. My mood was negative till my brother Josue started a rosary! And then he started the second rosary, and then a third rosary. And then a Fourth Rosary! Some of us did the full rosary all four mysteries! And it gave us the strength to persevere! Finally after a long journey we made it back to the hostel! I did Laundry! Showered and then slept for 2 hours! When I woke up Saul the seminarian came with me to visit one of my closest friends at a nice little bar I’m downtown Lisbon. I enjoyed my time with my friend! It had been 8 months since I saw him since he lived in Mexico now. At 8 o’clock we had to leave my friends and Saul and I walked around downtown to find food. We found good at a burger joint that had a man with a guitar playing Ed Sheeran songs next to us. Was an enjoyable experience. Then Saul and I kept walking around and found the Official famous CR7 Cristiano Ronaldo store. I bought a World Cup jersey from 2022. Then we walked toward the ocean where a violinist was playing. It was a rather soothing time as we stared at the ocean and walked down steps close to the water with beautiful music to end the night. All in all, though injured and sick from such a rigorous journey we still had a beautiful day our last day of world youth day!
With much love,
Christian Montoya
Comments
Post a Comment