What a day! Actually, for some the day began very relaxed and casual. The students spent the mid-morning and early afternoon at the city center doing some shopping, eating, and meeting many other pilgrims. Brother Chris was off buying sleeping bags and mats for our "camp out" on Saturday into Sunday for the closing mass with the Holy Father. Three of our students will have the opportunity to sit in the "front row." Apparently, the front row means 5,000 people. We'll try to get their early so that the three students can sit as close as possible. Brother Chris went to get their passes with our Tour Director, Monica Lopez, who has just been amazing.
The group met up at 2:30 PM to head out to el Parque de Retiro for the Vocation fair. Upon our arrival in Downtown Madrid and at the park, it was apparent the pilgrims had arrived. Moving around became tougher and staying close meant holding on to each other. The visit to the park was very nice and it gave the students an opportunity to meet people and relax a bit. They enjoyed the vocation fair.
After spending some time there it was time to go find our spot for the Opening Mass. Moving continued to get tougher, but we managed to stay together. We made it to our spot at about 6 PM. We were lucky to get so close (see the pictures). Now we had to wait two hours before mass started--in 90 degree plus heat. It's official--Catholics are crazy! We were given water by two very nice volunteers who took bottle out of their backpacks. No matter what direction you looked it was simply a mass of people. Flags everywhere!
The mass finally got started and it was worth the wait. The photos say it all. Yes, communion was distributed, very efficiently I must say!
The real adventure was leaving. You simply walked with the crowd and headed in the same direction without know exactly where you were going--people simply walked and you simply followed. We finally made it to one of the plazas with a metro stop. Rather than venture into the metro station with thousands of others we decided to stop for dinner. This was a smart move as the metro station was a lot calmer heading home, nonetheless still jam packed. We made it back to the hotel around 12:30 AM and now it was time to shower and get some rest.
Pictures can be seen here: https://picasaweb.google.com/102724799321486999240/August16Day5#
By the way, if you were having problems with the previous link it has been fixed!
Hasta mañana!
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