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| Rachelle at Cuatro Vientos |
Hola!! Rachelle here, to tell you a bit about the end of the WYD week.....
Pilgrims from all around the world were both excited and anxious as they made their way to Cuatro Vientos for the evening vigil, sleep-out and final Mass. During the small group sessions with our Tassie pilgrims before departing on our journey to Cuatro Vientos our pilgrims spoke of being anxious of the unknown - would it be too hot? Would we be able to access water? Would we be able to access toilets? How far would we have to walk? How long would we have to wait?.....but how exciting would the adventure be......we would never have been able to anticipate anything that happened as the evening and following day unfolded. We certainly once again learned that God works in mysterious ways, and to expect God in the unexpected!!
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| walking to Cuatro Vientos |
Having been to previous WYD's, I found it a relatively easy and stress free experience getting to Cuatro Vientos (although that wasn't the opinion of all pilgrims). As we walked past buildings, people threw buckets of waters on passing pilgrims from the higher floors, a few were even standing on the very top of the building holding hoses straight into the air to spray passing pilgrims. It got quite hot as we continued to walk another few kilometres, with no buildings for shade or to be sprayed with water. It was very hot and dusty as we arrived at Cuatro Vientos, we quickly purchased more water for the entire group and were grateful to the fire engine that drove past spraying pilgrims with refreshing water.
As I'm sure you are well aware by now, when we arrived the gate to the main venue had been closed by Police, and we were re-directed to sit in the space allocated to locals (unregistered pilgrims) who were to arrive the next morning. But, we were in good company, with almost 500,000 registered pilgrims being in the same boat. This meant there was a fantastic atmosphere where we were, we could see a screen, had sound, and access to water and toilets, which we were extremely grateful for. The way our pilgrims handled this first major challenge of the Vigil/sleep-out was inspiring and they truly took on the 'Pilgrim, not Tourist' attitude. We were actually quite lucky as the area we were re-allocated to, also filled up, and up to 100,000 registered pilgrims did not make it into the venue at all (including some fellow Australians), which also meant that no locals were allowed in the following morning either. Hats off to the police in Madrid for the forward thinking and crowd control management across the week, and particularly this event.
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| Just after the first down pour |
We knew we had God on our side when, not only did we find we had access to water and toilets, but as we were settling into 'our spot', a light cloud cover came over and gave some much needed relief from the heat - YES!!......until the sky continued to cover with very dark clouds, followed by thunder, lightning, wind and pouring rain. So much so, that the Pope stopped the Vigil half way through, until the rain and wind let up a bit. The garbage bags we bought to sit on to keep off some of the dust, and the umbrellas we bought to sheild us from sun, were quickly moved to help shelter us from rain and wind. During preparation for our pilgrimage I had assured our pilgrims that it only rains 3 days a year in Spain, and we would not need to worry ourselves with ideas of rain. The evening was filled with many of our pilgrims yelling through the wind and rain......"Only three days a year Rachelle??".....I told them they were lucky, they got to see four of those three days! Again, our Tassie guys, were true pilgrims, pulling together to use what we had to shelter from the rain, and when the rain was slightly lighter, got out of their hideaways, to sing 'singing in the rain' and always kept their spirits high.
At this point I would like to thank you all for your prayers for cooler weather and access to water - God surely listened to all our prayers!!
The Pope was able to complete the Vigil a while later, and the clouds did eventually part (although I was concerned for a while there), and we were able to lay down on the rock solid, very lumpy, ground for some sort of rest, before the blazing sun arose the next morning, and we were thinking back to why we ever wished the rain away!
The Final Mass was of course spectacular. Two million people is incomprehensible and unexplainable, it is the feeling you get, a feeling of unity, of love, and of life that comes from the atmosphere, the spirit, the inexplicable and undeniable presence of God in that place and in every single one of the people present there that unifies the Church and affirms you as a member of that Church and disciple of Christ.
As we were further towards the back than anticipated, we were able to make a bit of a quicker get away than we intially thought we would be able to, after the Holy Father announced that the next World Youth Day will take place in Rio. Although there was some standing around in a tightly packed, and very hot, train station for about an hour, the police and train station management handled the situation relatively well, and we had a great trip home for a WYD, taking us only 2.5 hours to get back to our accommodation.
This meant we were lucky enough to have a shower and get changed, before heading to the farwell soccer event! A soccer match between ex-pro soccer players from Spain versus ex-pro soccer players from the rest of the world. Our very own Marla Giacon (Cathedral Parish) was lucky enough to represent Australia on the ground and welcome all of the players to the ground!!
After an enormous, exhausting, exciting and truly memorable week and World Youth Day experience, pilgrims were ready to board the bus to Segovia for a few days of rest, relaxation and time to process and reflect before the long journey home.
Rachelle
