Chronicle of Friday 8 August

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

One more day of our pilgrimage, we get up with sleep still in our eyes to set off walking at 3:00. We’ve really got into the pilgrim’s rhythm now, and it is lovely always to start the day with a good time of prayer as we walk. Today Fr Ferran spoke to us about the value of community in the Church, and told us that it is very important not to seek ourselves in the community, jumping from one place to another until we feel comfortable, but that it is good to accept the place where God has put each of us and to grow in holiness there.

At the stop, after a good breakfast, stretching our legs and cooling off with a little water, we carried on reading the conversation between Cardinal Ratzinger and Peter Seewald. Today the future Pope Benedict XVI told us about the different tasks he took on in his first years as a priest: that he was a university professor, that he also worked with children and young people and that he took part as an adviser in the Second Vatican Council. It is lovely to see how this ties in perfectly with what we have been praying and meditating on these days about doing God’s will, and to see how the future Pope guides us on the way.

Once we had arrived, the parishioners had lovingly prepared us an exquisite lunch of pasta with cheese, fresh tomato salad and all kinds of cakes for dessert. The truth is we give great thanks to God for how good the people who welcome us are. Please keep praying for them too, for gratitude is the mark of a good upbringing.

Then came the moment all the pilgrims had been waiting for most. Father treated us all to a water park, where we had a great time among pools, slides and rubber rings. One of the most fun things was racing each other on rubber rings down some straight slides there; Martí always won, and still no one can explain why. We’ll also have to ask Beto what the plastic inside a slide tastes like: when he went down with Albert on one of the double doughnuts, both of them shot out of the tube while the ring stayed stuck inside the ride. It was a really fun and heart-warming moment, because we were able to spend a good time together as a family, laughing and playing with one another. Heaven must be a bit like that. We love Fr Ferran’s pilgrimages.

When we got back, we had Holy Mass together with the rest of the town, in which the parish priest, Don Massimo, spoke some warm and affectionate words to us and encouraged us to keep on pilgrimage through life and to build parish community from the perspective of faith, with the eyes of Jesus.

As usual, to end the day, we had a get-together with songs for Don Massimo, Ciara and Fr Gary, who welcomed us so warmly today. Tomorrow we have a good long way to walk, 34 km, the longest stage so far, but surely, beside Jesus and holding Our Lady’s hand, we will all finish it with a smile from ear to ear and hearts full of joy.