Pilgrim Reflection: AJ Beckner

World Youth Day was the religious experience of a lifetime. Despite the heat, humidity and crowds, Madrid offered an amazing atmosphere of joy, peace, and God's love. Young faces from all around the world filled the streets with chanting, singing, and laughter. The way these people from all different cultures so easily came together over the Lord was truly awe inspiring. Much more plentiful than sightings of the Holy Father, were the faces of the future of the Church. World Youth Day is much more than a pilgrimage to see the pope for all of us. It is a pilgrimage to see each other. It is a get together with tens of thousands of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
At the events spread throughout the week, we stood together in the name of God, as we attended Catechesis with talks by many different Bishops and speakers, Christian rock concerts featuring groups from all over America and Europe, and prayer services attended by all. In the streets we met, conversed somewhat successfully, cheered, and traded trinkets with each other. Not a moment of quiet was left in the city during the whole week. From Saturday night into Sunday, the whole group camped out to await the Pope for Sunday mass. Together at the airfield we, almost two million strong, endured a mini hurricane which left everyone cooler and more disorganized than before. The next day we all celebrated final mass and returned to the streets of Madrid via the now jam packed metro trains. The conclusion of this crazy, holy, week left our group tired. We spent the next two days before our flight home quietly taking in the city as it is when there aren't so many foreigners on the streets. Then we said our goodbyes to the rest of the pilgrims still in the city until WYD Rio de Janeiro 2013.

Pilgrim Reflection: Eric Werneburg

Arguably the most memorable day of the World Youth Day pilgrimage was the Sunday on which we walked seven miles to meet the pope at the aerodrome and slept under the stars. Riding in extremely cramped train cars and walking until there were blisters on our feet finally paid off when we were able to put our tarp on the ground, relax with our fellow pilgrims, and meet two million other teens from all over the world. The torrential rain merely added to the experience when Pope Benedict XVI told us he would be praying for the rain to stop and, five minutes later, it did. To add icing on the cake, Nolan concluded the night by telling his famous "Man Without Hair" ghost story brought to us from New Paltz.