Chronicle of Friday 22 August

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

It’s the middle of the night. The sound of an alarm wakes Núria Morer, who sees the rest of her companions sleeping peacefully. She leaps out of bed and wakes Bea. We’ve overslept, they tell each other. The next victim is Marina, who doesn’t hesitate to get up off her inflatable mattress at the first call. Together they rush to the bathroom to brush their teeth before setting off walking. Then a burst of laughter from Núria baffles the other two girls. She has looked at the clock: it’s 00:49, false alarm. They can still rest for a couple more hours.

Today’s route was peaceful. We began by meditating in silence on creation and the duty to protect it and take care of it. Going on pilgrimage while picking up litter from the ground is becoming a recurring idea in our walkers’ minds as the days go by. The pace, more than decent: 5 km/h. The croaking of frogs kept us company in the darkness for the first four hours. Looking at the ground, some pilgrims saw quite a few little frogs alive, and some others that no longer were.

After the stop and the spiritual reading, three more hours until we reached Orte. A huge sports centre was waiting to take us in. Showers and off to bed. The truth is everything went very quickly today, until the boys discovered something that fascinated them: the place had a “chorrimanguera”. For anyone not familiar with the term, a “chorrimanguera” is an expandable garden hose with a multi-spray head that shrinks or stretches depending on the water going through it. A kind of Swiss Army knife of hoses. As there was a huge football pitch in front, they decided to spend a good while playing with the contraption. Pilgrim stuff.

In the afternoon, as usual, we had our time of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament and the meditation, in which we went on exploring the idea of the beauty of creation and the fact that we can find Jesus by admiring, for example, the landscape we contemplate as we walk. Then we celebrated Holy Mass. We spent this lovely time in the company of Jesus and Our Lady in the church of Our Lady of Loreto, next to the hospital in the town of Orte. Like the rest of the churches in Italy, it was also very beautiful and truly invited prayer.

To round off our celebration of the Queenship of Mary, we had some good cheeseburgers for dinner, buns and all, and a yoghurt in different flavours. We didn’t have a get-together today, because we went to bed late and we’re a bit tired. We are really looking forward to seeing you again in Rome and we hope you know that, in our daily walking, these days we are especially praying for the vans’ journey. Until Monday — not long to go now!