4 August, the day we have been waiting for for months. It’s here, and it began completely naturally, like any other day of this pilgrimage. Even so, we all knew that today was no ordinary day. That’s why we all walked the stage, absolutely all of us, including Jaime and Luis from the logistics team, and also the new arrivals from Arbúcies. And just so nobody could say otherwise, we crowned it with a whopping 40 km stage. It was a bit of a slog, because most of it was along roads and through industrial estates. What’s more, the outskirts of Lisbon go on forever! Many kilometres went by from when we saw the first signs for the city until we actually reached the centre, and it was a bit hard to keep our spirits up…
But hope was more powerful than the tarmac. Half an hour from the cathedral we met a little group of pilgrims’ families. We walked with them praying the Rosary and, when we were about 500 metres from the church, we got carried away. We started singing “Dona toda tu vida” with the guitar, which has now become the anthem of our pilgrimages (thank you, Nacho Lorda, for insisting that we all learn it last year in Poland!). In front of the cathedral we shouted “¡Esta es la juventud del Papa!” a few times and finally we entered our Promised Land.
There we celebrated a Mass of thanksgiving, all squeezed into the Blessed Sacrament chapel. More than one or two little tears were shed, and that’s normal, because what we completed today is MADNESS in capital letters. Many of us didn’t believe we could do it, and here we are! Truly the Lord works miracles in us: may we not forget it when we go back to the battle of everyday life!
There’s an amazing atmosphere in Lisbon: we wish you were here to see it. You can see a constant exchange of goods: flags from different countries, holy cards, bracelets… Xavi Campmany has already put three different badges on his blue bum bag (which, by the way, is the most talked-about object of the pilgrimage). It’s incredible, because among the thousands and thousands of young people, more than one of us has bumped into friends and acquaintances. Little gifts from the Lord!
After Mass, we went to the railway station (Santa Apolónia, in case you’re interested) and settled in to wait for our train. To make good use of the time, we did the spiritual reading with our super-megaphone, so all the station staff benefited from the wisdom of Jacques Philippe. When we got on the train, we relived a forgotten feeling. In the words of Jose Gomar: “It’s wonderful to ride on something that moves and isn’t our own legs”.
In the evening there was a celebration dinner, with pizzas and delicious ice creams. Then we had a get-together with the families, with a star moment from Antonio, who seems to be rather fond of the microphone…
Tomorrow we’ll wake up at 9: what great news! We need to recover from the tiredness of 40 days, because tomorrow the great adventures of WYD await us. At last we’ll see the Pope and spend time with young people from every corner of the world. With this exciting prospect, we wish you all a very good night!