Chronicle of Saturday 30 August

Dear parents, grandparents, friends and the rest of the pilgrims,

After a good night’s rest, the few pilgrims still left at the residence were able to start the day in the best possible way, very close to Jesus, with a morning meditation in which we read together the last chapters of In Conversation with God that we had left. We meditated on the figure of Our Lady and on how our mother looks after us from heaven.

After a short breakfast, we got the bedrooms and the other rooms we had used ready in an intense cleaning battalion that ended with the vans full of all the remaining equipment, which is due to arrive in Barcelona safe and sound tomorrow at midday. With the vans packed to the brim, we all got on the coach that took us to St Paul Outside the Walls, the last papal basilica we had left to visit. There we were able to cross the threshold of the fourth Holy Door and celebrate Holy Mass in a beautiful chapel, as well as admire the enormous colonnaded courtyard outside and the imposing central nave of the basilica.

After the Eucharist, the time came for the first goodbyes. The van group had already set off early in the morning on their journey to the parish, supplied with sandwiches and croissants that the Seniors had secretly taken in bags from their hotel buffet, and the rest of the pilgrims and Seniors went to the airport, where they caught their flights in stages; the last ones left on a flight shortly after 21:00, which must have landed in the Catalan capital by now.

Messages from the families who left yesterday have also been coming in, confirming that they are now in Barcelona and giving thanks for all the moments lived as a family. They were able to celebrate the Eucharist together at Les Olives and are now all resting at home.

After 12 hours on the road and stops for petrol, the six brave souls travelling with the luggage in the vans are also now resting in Aix-en-Provence, in France, just some 400 km from the parish, where they will arrive tomorrow after a night’s rest and a good dinner that the Seniors lovingly prepared for us this morning with cold meats and bread rolls. Although we are not physically together, we still feel the fraternity of the community in these little details.