I Saw...The Pope!

What a life changing experience this pilgrimage has been. Us pilgrims have been blessed and given the opportunity to see amazing cathedrals, castles, buildings, and fountains. Some of the greatest moments however came from meeting new people from all over the world, finding each other in tremendous amounts of people, and seeing people unexpectedly. For those of you who know Sarah and Tuan who helped with Life Teen last year, we ended up being able to see and talk to them as they were there with a group from Seattle. This may not seem too exciting, but seeing two certain people out of a group of over 500,000 is quite special.

Before the Opening Mass

                                      

Last night, I was able to attend a Eucharistic healing session at the Love and Life center (the English speaking center for pilgrims) along with about eight other pilgrims from our group. The spiritual experience was the best I have had so far on this trip. We were among about 10,000 other pilgrims all worshiping together. When the Blessed Sacrament entered the stadium, you would have been able to hear a pin drop. All 10,000 or so pilgrims were dead silent, kneeling and praying. I thought that it would be difficult to have an intimate time with God in such a large setting with so many people, but fortunately I was proven wrong.

During adoration

                                     
Seeing so many people excited to express their faith has been awesome, however it has created a problem that we have had a hard time dealing with; crowds. Until you are here, you don't realize how many people there actually are. After the opening mass, our group decided we would try to avoid large crowds at all costs mainly for safety purposes, which unfortunately meant that we skipped greeting the Pope into Madrid. I was a bit sad that I wasn't able to see the Pope arrive. This morning however, I was awoken in my hotel room by tons of sirens outside on the street. I looked off my balcony to find hundreds of pilgrims lining the blocked off street below. There were a bunch of police officers on motorcycles and in cars, and there was a helicopter overhead. I realized it could only mean one thing; the Pope was coming! I grabbed my camera and rushed downstairs in my pajamas. A couple minutes after I got to the sidewalk, Pope Benedict XVI drove by less than 10 feet from me. I was so excited that I got to witness this, especially since I wasn't beeing pushed up against a wall by a huge crowd!

THE POPE!

I hope everything's going well in the 'Couve!

God Bless,
Devon Zahm