Day 8--August 19--An Adventurous Day

After yet another late night following the Pope's arrival, we had an early morning.  Today's event for us was the catechesis session with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.  The event took place at the Palacio de Deportes.  It was a magnificent event that the students really enjoyed.  Archbishop Dolan of New York gave the keynote address and the students were really impressed by it.  They are now Dolan fans!

The event concluded with a wonderful liturgy which was celebrated by Dolan and about 30 other Bishops and 100 plus priests.  The stadium was filled to capacity with many English-speaking pilgrims.  We met up with our other Lasallian friends from the U.S., the east coast group.  Following the event we enjoyed lunch in the area...then the adventure began.

We decided that in order to rest and prepare for tomorrow--a day of sitting out in the sun and camping out all night--we would not attend the Via Crucis.  However, we wished to see the wonderful stations that had been set up using statues from various Cathedrals/Churches in Spain.  They were amazing!

Once we had taken a look, we decided to head home.  Rather than taking the closest metro station we decided to walk further to the next one to avoid the crowds.  This strategy failed miserably!  We made one attempt to enter the station and simply got cut off by all those exiting to attend the Via Crucis.  Once we figured out a strategy we all went in.  Our initial attempt to get past the turnstiles was stopped by a security guard holding us back as hundreds of people attempted to exit.   When we were cleared to go we basically ended up in a mass of hundreds more people trying to exit as some of us tried to enter.  It seemed impossible to move forward but eventually the group made it through...well...some of it...and then the adventure began.  One group was sent back by security as he tried to simply get everyone to exit the station.  The group had no idea what happened to those who went in.  One hour later that final group finally made it back to the hotel.  It was there that it was concluded that our group of 23 ended up in five groups as they tried to get to the crowd.  All five groups got back in different ways--but thank God made it back!  Brother Chris did not have to go venture the streets of Spain for anyone!

Nonetheless, everyone took some time to rest and recoup before having a nice dinner together!

There is no doubt that the faith of the students has been impacted by this experience.  The Church/Christ has become more real for them.  Let us all pray that this may be a source of strength for years to come!

Live Jesus in our hearts forever!

Now, off to our intense Saturday...pray for us!

Day 8 photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/102724799321486999240/August192011#