The Ultimate Challenge

Here I am writing from Cuatro Vientros on a tarp in the middle of at least a million people, probably up to 2.

This is a combination of Woodstock, the Quidditch World Cup, ACL times 50, or some futuristic war refugee camp. We walked over 13 miles with about 15-20 pounds of luggage on our backs. We are here to camp out and see the Pope, if we can and have mass with him tomorrow morning.

My feet are disgusting. I can't name a body part that doesn't hurt. We were supposed to be fed by 4 and it's almost 8 and we have only had breakfast and assorted nuts. We are tired, sweaty, burned and fatigued. We walked for over 6 hours in the heat of the day. Even though our group of 21 that wanted to walk the whole entire way almost didn't make it, we made it here together. We had to stop a few times and we suffered some minor injuries but I know none of us would change anything.

God came to our rescue many times. There were no water stops that we found along the way, but the good people of Spain were pouring buckets, emptying water bottles and spray hoses out of their windows to douse us with water. We came across a few fountains on the way and we soaked our bandanas and other people jumped in. It was a relief. There were times when we were too tired to say anything, but we were able to pray the Divine Mercy and a rosary to offer up our suffering for the intentions that we brought with us from our family and friends. Everytime someone needed water, a snack, a break, pain meds or help, we were there to help each other. We sang songs and smiled a people along the way. After a while it got too crowded and we had to hold hands and go single file through the huge crowds. It was fun to see smiles from people as we passed and hear shouts of "USA!" and "Deep in the Heart of Texas". We waved at the locals and yelled out countries that we passed. One time I heard a group of Koreans singing a beautiful song and it moved me to tears.

Just seeing the huge amount of people here all saying the same thing in different ways is overwhelming. You see hundreds of flags in every direction. You hear songs and chants from all over the world. It's so unifying.

More later from the final mass...

fbt&<3

Sabrina