Friday, Day 4 in Madrid

Awoke to another warm day, almost enjoying the cool showers, surprised the towel feels hot against my skin when I step out.  9am we all met for train travel to Catechesis, we are definitely getting the hang of these trains.  Everyone stay together, my group is now in sync with each other, always checking that we all got on.  Friday saw us listening to Bishop Coleridge, talking about being witnesses to God. Standing up and being counted.  Needing to open our eyes and ears to God in our lives.  So we can be God in the lives of others.  That once we start looking, and seeing God, we will start seeing Him everywhere.  This was followed by mass with an english speaking congregation.  The session was organised by an Antioch group from Sydney, lots of singing, and the theme song from the 1985 Antioch convention I attended in Sydney which brought back great memories.  We then headed to the Life and Love centre, a delightfully air conditioned large auditorium, where we got up close to the front and listened to a panel presentation on "Faith and Media".  An actor from Hollywood, a singer from Ireland, two evangelical TV presenting priests kept us engaged with the imprortance of supporting Christian ideals in movies, and expecting excellence not mediocrity in these shows.  They all acknowledged that good Chrsitian scripts were few and far between, but were often well supported when they  came along.  They challenged us to become good christian script writers.  The next panel discussion was on How to Pray, and the four speakers presented several ways, from simple ever morning and evening to Mary devotion, to rosary and Lectio divina.  This was followed by watching the Stations of the Cross with 8000 other pilgrims, and a live cross to Canada.  Many Spanish communities provided a statue depicting each station.  I must close quickly now as we are due to head off to a soccer match between Spain and "the rest of the world", somhow Australian pilgrims all got free tickets.  It will be an awesome conclusion to our time in Madrid.  Until we see you all again in a few sleeps.  Thank you for your ongoing thoughts and prayers.   Dianne Haworth