Suddenly, the words from the Gospel we heard on the day we left Toronto came to mind: “Do not be afraid” (Matthew 14:22-33). A few other pilgrims and I started to sing “Trading My Sorrows” and, not long after, we gathered a group together and prayed our evening prayer.
It was beautiful and uplifting. Pilgrims from other groups who were in the same situation as us stopped and listened to us pray. By the grace of the Holy Spirit, not only were we uplifted, but so were those around us.
Moments later, our group began exiting the site to head back to our hotel. Sad to be walking away, we looked up at the sky and realised that the heavens were about to shed the tears we were holding back. As the rain drops began to fall, a few of us stopped to hurriedly put on our rain ponchos and, as a result, we got separated from the rest of the group.
Gale force winds began blowing, making it hard to walk as the rain fell harder and harder. In this moment, when things seemed like they couldn’t get any worse, we took cover from the wind, hid behind a building and started to laugh. In the midst of that storm, we found calm with each other and the Lord. As the heavy weather began to die down, we headed to the nearest metro station and returned to our hotel.
Soon after arriving, we heard that the few from our group who made it into Cuatro Vientos, including Bishop William McGrattan, found out that the rest of us had to turn around and decided to come back to the hotel to be with us. These people demonstrated a unity that truly brought us all together in our biggest disappointment, such that it was transformed into a positive memory.
To paraphrase a fellow pilgrim, it is easy to have faith in God when things are going right. But when circumstances fail to meet our lowest expectations, our faith is tested — and strengthened.
Memories of Madrid #1 - Alycia Rodrigues
By Alycia Rodrigues, Memories of Madrid entrant
On Aug. 7, I embarked on a pilgrimage to Madrid with a group of 96 youth from the archdiocese of Toronto’s Office of Catholic Youth (OCY). During our two-week journey through Rome, Cintruenigo, Spain (for Days in the Diocese), and Madrid, there were numerous ups and downs. On our last night in Madrid, our leaders asked all the pilgrims in our group to reflect on the highs and lows of the experience; the memories that I take away with me are undeniably founded on those very moments.
My lowest point of the pilgrimage was near the end: the night of the papal vigil. My group and I spent the afternoon walking 13 km under the oppressive Spanish sun in 47 C heat. When we finally arrived at Cuatro Vientos, the vigil site, we were exhausted, hungry, thirsty and anxious to enter the gates, to see the Pope and to get some rest. To our dismay, we were informed that Gate 2 was closed and that we would have to continue walking to Gate 3. Upon our arrival there, we learned that it, too, was closed and, further, there was no more room for pilgrims. As the result of poor organization and security, we found ourselves unsure of what to do in what seemed like a desolate, barren desert.
This was not the first disappointment we experienced on pilgrimage, and many of us felt like this was a breaking point; while we understood that it would not be safe to camp outside the gates, we did not want to leave. I remember looking around at my fellow pilgrims feeling heartbroken and worried.
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