Pilgrims Come Home

Greetings from Los Estados Unidos! The 24 hour mark is approaching since we left Spain, so I thought I'd offer a brief reflection on the three weeks of pilgrimage we experienced.

Many people told us beforehand that a pilgrimage is less about the destination then the journey itself. Given Ignatius' emphasis on our constant discernment of God's call in our lives, I'd say there's a lot of truth to that. At the same time though, upon some reflection I see the destination of this journey, at least for me, as Christ as Ignatius himself saw him. And I know that I certainly caught glimpses of this throughout the three weeks.

The first major part of the journey, and in many ways the most important for me personally, was the 70 mile walk from Xavier to Loyola undertaken with Chrissy, Bea, Jen, Kevin, Mike, Jackie, Shana, Rosa, Carmina, Cristina, Maria, Rocio, Belen, Curro, Aymeric, Peroline, Jeanne, Sixtine, Xavier, Marie, Clemente, Mathilde, Aline, Iker, Eva, Borja, Jose Maria, Petri, and Eduarda. I list each name because we truly became a family, and to leave out even one name is to miss Christ in the experience. Walking, being with these people, carrying our lives on our backs, appreciating the beauty of Spain, these among others strike me as the overarching sources of grace that held our experience together. The conversations we had were heartfelt, the canyons, mountains, and rivers prayerful, and the individual time for reflection fruitful. When we finally arrived in Loyola after 6 days and 70 miles, my first gut feeling was that I was leaving something profound, like I was leaving my heart on the road from Xavier to Loyola. Each step that final day was a time of offering each face to God, asking for God's love bestowed upon them. This was one of the ways in which I distinctly saw Christ, in the beauty in each person and the way in which I felt the love of God for each pilgrim.

This grace pursued me throughout the rest of our Spanish pilgrimage. The idea of offering someone else or one's own self up to God followed all of us through WYD as we offered up the world to God, Montserrat as we saw Ignatius do the same with himself to the Black Madonna, and Manresa as we got the opportunity to offer ourselves up in the cave in which Ignatius first prayed the following prayer:

Take, Lord, receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will
All the I have and hold, you have given me.
I restore it all to you and surrender it wholly to be governed by your will.
Give me only your love and your grace
And I am rich enough and ask for nothing more.

The road of our pilgrimage for me was a road to more authentically offering myself to the Lord. Today I propose a challenge for all of you who continue to journey with us (Spain is ended but the pilgrimage to Christ never is). Picture one person's face a day, someone you treasure, and give them away to the Lord while saying the prayer of St. Ignatius listed above. Thank you for being with us in our journey "con Cristo en el corazon del mundo." You continue to be in our prayers. Peace

-Mike Finucane

And Together We Praise....

Mass in the Chapel of the Spirituality Center at the Sanctuary of Loyola

The Basilica of St. Ignatius of Loyola

Magis Send-Off Mass before our experiments

Father General Adolf Nicholas, SJ at the Magis send-off Mass

Pilgrimage Experience Mass at a Medieval Chapel in a small town called Arroz-Villa

Seeing God in the Sunrise

¨Smiling Jesus¨ crucifix in the Chapel at Castillo de Javier

End of Pilgrimage Thanksgiving Mass in the newer chapel in Castillo de Javier

Reunited at the Magis Closing Mass in Madrid

World Youth Day Cross and Icon

Mass for 12,000 after Morning Catechesis at the Palacio de Deportes

The Mass was so full that it was Standing (or rather, Kneeling) Room Only!

Archbishop Dolan celebrates Mass for a full stadium of young pilgrims

USCCB Young Americans Mass

Vigil and Eucharistic Adoration with El Papa at Cuatro Vientos Airfield

Rain at Cuatro Vientos

Wind-Swept Benedict after the Storm at Cuatro Vientos

Eucharistic Adoration with Pope Benedict XVI

Our German Shepherd!

WYD Closing Mass with over 1 million other young pilgrims
(Next WYD in 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil!)

The ¨Nativity Facade¨ of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona

Inside La Basilica de la Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

Team Mass in one of our tiny apartments in Barcelona, presided over by Fr. Paul Rourke, SJ

The Basilica of Our Lady of Monserrat

Our Lady of Monserrat

Kevin lights a candle at the Basilica of Our Lady of Monserrat

Inside the Cave at Manresa

¨Take and receive, Lord, all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will...¨

Revelations & Lessons Learned

Greetings to everyone back home! Now that we are here in Barcelona, we finally have a little more free time on our hands so I figured it would be a good opportunity to reflect on my experiences in Spain. This entire trip has been a truly unique experience, and while it hasn´t always gone the way I expected, I feel that I´ve learned a lot about my faith and about myself along the way. Some of them have been more directly related to the spiritual part of my journey than others, but I think all of them had an impact on my experience here in Spain.

1) I am apparently capable of falling asleep anywhere, regardless of time of day, location, the position I´m sitting/laying in, how many people are around, or how much noise there is. Since I haven´t been able to either fall asleep or sleep through the night in about 2 years, this was a surprising revelation. While you are probably laughing at the fact that I´m actually including this here, I *do* think my falling asleep in often embarrassing places was relevant to my journey. I entered this pilgrimage ready to push myself to the limit, make as many sacrifices as possible, and hopefully reap the many benefits that come along with suffering. The first time I fell asleep in the middle of an event (on the lawn at Loyola no less) I was absolutely mortified. I felt that I had already failed as a pilgrim and that I wasn´t worthy to seek the spiritual gifts of the pilgrimage. When sharing this disappointment with one of my fellow team members, they framed it in a different light- maybe my sleep was a gift from God of what I needed most in that moment. I´ve come to accept ove rthe past few weeks that in spite of my good intentions, there are physical limits that I can´t completely overcome, and that this reality will not stop God from allowing me to receive his graces. While some level of sacrifice is a great way to spiritually focus myself and take myself out of my normal mindset, I´m not going to be doing anyone (including God) much good if I push myself to the point where I´m sick in bed.

2) We plan, God laughs. I know that Rox used this phrase in her blog post as well, but I´ve been writing it a lot in my journal these past few weeks because it has been a running theme for me. Coming into this experience I tried to keep an open mind, but I admit that I had some expectations about what things would be like. My actual experiences shattered just about every one of those preconceived ideas. My Magis experiment was nothing like I thought it would be, I wasn´t able to participate as fully as I wanted to because I got sick, the crowds in Madrid kept me from getting to events I had looked forward to, and there were more changes in plans than I could count. Those that know me well know that I like to have a set plan ahead of time (and often several contingency plans) so as to feel like I´m in control of what I´m doing. I had struggled with this even before we left for the trip, since we didn´t know until we left what Magis experiences we would be placed in or even what country we would be doing them in. I made it my goal for the trip to let myself be moved by God in each moment so that I could experience those things he wanted for me rather than what I *thought* I needed. God really tested me in this area, and at times I became frustrated, overwhelmed, and even started to question whether I was getting what I wanted out of the experience. Yet every time this started to happen, I realized that those changes in plans led me to things that I really grew from and probably needed. I was able to bond with people I may never have otherwise spent time with, see things I never knew to look for, and take time away from the crowds to reflect and refocus. So in spite of my frustrations, I really do believe that God has been leading me where I am meant to be and that I am learning from this experience.

3) You say goodbye, I say hello. It seems like ever since we left the States life has been a series of hellos and goodbyes. Saying goodbye to our families to join the pilgrimage team, breaking off from our Fordham group to meet our Magis groups, leaving our Magis groups to rejoin the Fordham crew, and (very soon) saying goodbye to our fellow pilgrims to see our families again. I am so grateful for the people I´ve met and grown close to. While the entire Magis/WYD experience has been one that I will always cherish, the moments that meant the most to me were the conversations I have had with people. I´ve grown much closer to people from Fordham on our team who I had never really spent time with before and made what I hope will be lasting relationships with people from my Magis group. As we prepare to go back home and I personally prepare to go back to living alone, it really helps to know that there are other young people out there with whom I have a connection on a deep and genuine level. And while it is difficult to say goodbye, I believe that even if I never get to see some of the people I have met again, I am carrying a piece of each of them home with me. Thankfully, the age of Facebook will make it much more likely for people to keep in touch!

As usual, there is much more that I would love to share, but sleep is calling me... Tomorrow is our last full day in Spain so I´ll see you all back home very soon! (And a happy 21st birthday to my sister Kerry!!!)

Peace & Love,
Cait

The Suffering Servant

Greetings to All...

So I´m here at the Sant Jordi Hostel - Sagrada Familia Apts in Barcelona Spain (if you wanna see our cool hostel, go to http://www.santjordihostels.com/). Everyone else has gone out to do some exploring, but I´ve decided to take a quiet day to myself here to run some errands (mostly laundy) and to do some reflecting via blog :) Then, I´m planning to go out and see the Basilica of La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi´s final masterpiece.

It has certainly been a whirlwind these past couple of weeks. There were many, many times where I found myself overwhelmed, frustrated, stressed, and unappreciative, but luckily, 2 days ago we had a group reflection which really allowed me to just step back and count my blessings. I´d like to share some of these thoughts with you now as I further process my experience on this pilgrimage.

I´m not sure if I mentioned this before, but Madrid11 is my second WYD, with my first having been in Sydney in 2008. In many ways, WYD2008 in Sydney changed my life. It gave me the gift of a renewed spiritual life, confidence in the everlasting love of God, and sureness of my call to a vocation in youth ministry. I am sure that God led me to Australia in 2008 for a very specific reason, and without my experiences there, I wouldn´t be where I am today, having completed a degree in Youth Ministry and on my way to begin 3 years of service with the Cabrini Mission Corps.

My gratefulness for having experienced WYD 2008 is what led me to help organize this Fordham Pilgrimage Team to Madrid in 2011, with the hope that we would all be further transformed in the same ways that I had been changed in Australia. But, of course, we cannot put God in a box, and we cannot assume what graces God will grant us at any given moment. So while I was expecting (mostly hoping) for those same fuzzy feelings that defined my last WYD experience and helped me to climb to great peaks in my spiritual journey, this time around the feelings were less joyful and fluffy. 

¨We plan, and God laughs.¨ A friend of mine found this quote for me once, and it has been on my mind quite a lot over the past couple of weeks. The plans in my mind and in my heart have definitely not coincided with what I have experienced here in Spain, but it does not mean that I have not grown or learned some incredibly important life lessons during my second WYD. In fact, I think that I have been given the grace to better understand one of the most difficult parts of our Catholic faith -- a spirituality of suffering.

Pope Benedict has said that ¨a life without suffering is not a human life,¨ and he has repeated this sentiment several times throughout this WYD. I have spent many years contemplating this idea, and quite frankly, I have not had the best experiences trying to understand it. At the lowest point in my spiritual life, I was pretty much ready to give up on believing in a God who would allow poor and innocent people to suffer, to be persecuted, and to die. ¨Where is God when a child starves to death, when the innocent are murdered, when a natural disaster kills thousands?¨ I could never understand how an all-powerful God could just sit back and watch.

Oh, how very wrong I was...and I truly believe that God was working extra-hard to bring some clarity to my mind and my heart during these past couple of weeks. Many times during both Magis and WYD, I was pushed to my limits, and truly brought to the edges of what I thought I could and could not do. And in those moments of delirium, frustration, stress, overwhelming demoralization, and anger, I found myself closer to God than what I´ve felt in quite some time. To say that I was shocked to find myself feeling this way would be an understatement.

The first moments of realization came during my Magis pilgrimage week between Loyola and Javier. The days were really brutal and I found myself constantly questioning how walking 90 miles through the backwoods of the Basque Country (when there were perfectly functioning automobiles at our disposal) was relevant to my life today. But on the third day, as we were climbing our steepest and most complicated slope, I found myself dwelling solely in the presence of God.....I was no longer thinking about my steps or the pains in my body. I was on autopilot and only the thought that God was carrying me was getting me through. When I finally reached the top after an hour of walking uphill, I just fell to the ground and looking up to the sky, I thanked God because I know I would not have overcome that challenge without Him.

God does not abandon us in our sufferings. Rather, God is there, suffering with us and giving us hope to move forward. The greatest realization of this pilgrimage for me has been to gain a deeper appreciation for the extreme sacrifice that Jesus gave for us during the Way of the Cross. I, by no means, felt the way that Jesus felt during his walk to Calvary. But by feeling my own physical pains and experiencing the weakness of the human will without God, I now more deeply appreciate Jesus´ sacrifice. For Him to have suffered, to have been pushed to his limits, and to ultimately be tortured and murdered for a world of sinners is truly incredible. Jesus knows what it is to truly suffer -- to be humiliated, persecuted, dehumanized, demoralized, and killed -- and so He walks with us in our daily sufferings, even carrying us when we no longer have the strength to do it ourselves.

So although this World Youth Day has been so incredibly taxing for me, both physically and mentally, I cannot thank the Lord enough for giving me this experience and for showing me how truly great we can be, even in the midst of dejection and hardship, if we only have hope and place our trust in Christ. Yes, suffering is part of human life, and life would be incomplete without it. Without knowing suffering, we cannot know the suffering of Christ. And without internalizing the pains of Christ´s suffering, we cannot know, acknowledge, and reach out to those suffering daily in the world around us. And so I pray that we may find grace in our sufferings.....not to rejoice whenever hardships come along, because that´s just stupid and unrealistic. But we need to learn from the tough times in our life, and I believe that God´s challenge to us is to cling to Jesus in our sufferings, He who knows the full spectrum of human pain and sacrifice. And once we overcome those mountains in our life, those really difficult slopes, may we pull up those who are staggering behind us, stand at the mountain-top and together in thanksgiving, scream out:

Glory be to God, now and forever...
Amen.

Roxanne

Jesus´Lonliness during the Scourging at the Pillar
from the front ¨Passion¨ facade at La Basilica de la Sagrda Familia in Barcelona, Spain 

Quick Check-In

Hello Everyone!!!

Just a quick check-in at 1am in the morning here in Barcelona!

World Youth Day officially ended today (with the Pope conferring his blessings on us and announcing that the next WYD will be in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil in 2013!). The last leg of our journey to Spain begins today, and we are all incredibly excited to explore this amazing city, relax, sleep in beds, have regular access to showers, and spend some good quality time together. We also hope to visit a few more special places in the history of St. Ignatius, including Manresa, Monserrat, and the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Mar (where Ignatius begged for alms on his journey to the Holy Land). All in all, it promises to be a wonderful couple of days before we head back home to NY on Thursday.

Many of us will be updating in the coming days, especially in regards to our WYD experiences, seeing the Pope, and reflecting on the Papal message, so stay tuned! But for now, buenas noches and thanks for your prayers!

Roxanne

Thoughts from Peter II

August 16^th, 2011

Hello to all!! It has been a quick and not-so-quick trip so far! My group, Team Granada, spent a week intended for “A Dialogue With Islam” mostly working with the elderly, staying at the convent of the Little Sisters of the Poor in Granada. We spent one morning speaking with practicing Muslims in the streets of old Granada, which was very interesting considering the fact that they are performing their dawn-to-dusk Ramadan fast in a city of great heat where the sun doesn’t set until almost ten p.m. Everyone was overwhelmingly welcoming and open! We also had a Muslim member of our experience group from France who was only able to stay with us for the first half of the week, and a Jewish member who was only able to join us for the second part of the week, but both of whom were able to also help our experience be one of inter-faith dialogue. As a whole, however, our experience was a slower one and mostly just involved working with the elderly at the convent – the sisters devote their lives to tending for those whom they have admitted to their facilities, for which the criteria are poverty and age. In Granada, however, the sisters have been very fortunate with the financial support they have been offered, and all their beneficiaries live like kings and queens, even having a fully functional theatre with which to put on – and/or watch – shows and musicals.

It was a challenge for us to have the stated goal of our week not remain our primary activity – especially because a large part of this was due to miscommunications and failed organization – but whatever challenges we expected to find in dialoguing and growing together with our Muslim brothers and sisters we found in dialoguing and growing together with our own group! 8 Americans of differing levels of proficiency in foreign languages – Father Paul, Rebecca, John, Christina, Kristin, Rose, Andrew/Bev, and myself – were with a group of Spanish speakers from Spain and French speakers from France (the latter of whom were actually an interfaith community comprised of several Catholics but also a couple spiritual seekers and our Muslim and Jew). While most of the group knew English, the site’s three MAGIS coordinators, as well as the Sisters at the convent, did not, and therefore the official languages of the week were Spanish and French – confusing translations going on all day long but only rarely for English. This was a constant source of both struggle and accomplishment for us, as was the social tensions both between different groups and within groups as plans continued to change without notice, different communications were misunderstood, and people got tired.

Upon traveling to Madrid yesterday and meeting up with the rest of the Fordham groups, we found out that one group – while doing service – visited the beach everyday, and that a couple groups persevered through great physical duress and trauma on tough, long pilgrimages. Reflecting on how all had meaningful experiences in their own way, but in terms of luxury, placing ourselves somewhere in the middle, we realized just how grateful we were for our week: not a single one of us had gone without seeing God in – and being profoundly touched by (and hugged by, and kissed by, and hugged by, and kissed by, and kissed by, and kissed by, and kissed by – I’m sorry Amanda; I had no idea what I was signing up for!! ;P The Spanish people are so adorable and physical!) the elderly. We were also blessed to be able to visit the Alhambra – a wonder of the world, a palace and city on a mountain above Granada built by a gradual combination, over different times, of ancient empires, the Muslim empire, the Catholic Kings of Spain, and even at one point some Jewish Spaniards. On three quarters of the walls of this mini city were minute carvings covering each square centimeter of room after room, which was unbelievable to fathom even before we got to the colorful, heavenly gardens and fountains which went up, down, around, through, inside, outside, above and below all the paths, hills, cliffs, and courtyards of the area.

We had various personal quiet spiritual experiences throughout the week – mine came mostly in the form of extreme gratitude for those in my life who have loved me the most forgivingly and patiently and tenderly, like these seniors love each other and like we are told God loves us – but for most of us, the biggest benefits of our week was getting closer to our new Spanish and French friends and meeting God in them. Dear readers, I wish I could share EACH of them with you, in person and for many days! We return with many new friendships, many offers of homes in which to stay around Spain, and several promises to receive visitors in New York. Even when we returned to Madrid yesterday afternoon, we were offered our most relaxing experience so far in Spain – an opportunity to visit the serene, beautiful, clean, and quiet pool at the apartment complex of our new Spanish friend Lolo, who went to high school at the place we are staying and lives one minute outside its gates!

Another benefit of our week was a wonderful theatrical presentation on Sunday, where various SUPER-ENERGETIC seniors sang and danced for us, and we all danced two songs from Magis for them, and each country presented several skits and songs they had prepared (we sang “This Land as Your Land” as a patriotic culture song, mimed some Baseball, mimed some American Football, and sang “Empire State of Mind” (Clean) as hip hop artists from NY, USA. Everyone loved it and the sisters and elderly surprised us all with small but thoughtful gifts! Today many went their separate ways in Madrid, but I and 4 others from Team Granada wandered around the city, missing the times for most workshops (which I plan on attending tomorrow) and discovering where things are. The Mass and festival last night at this high school were all the Magis Jesuit groups are staying, for the closing of Magis, was great, and now we are headed to the huge Inaugaration Mass for the start of World Youth Day (week) proper!!

I’m excited to see what else this week has in store for us, and I am grateful for this past week, but most of all I cannot wait to bring home the experiences I have already had and share them with those I love. I miss everyone like crazy and everyday think of people from home and pray for them. We are ALLL so grateful for your prayers. Internet and electronics are rare here, so most do not have time to blog or twitter (which reminds me, check magis2011.org, videos, interreligious dialogue, for a short film about the Granada group! And other media with many of us in it as well!!). But all of us are so grateful for the love and support of those back stateside and we will see you soon!! All my love to Amanda and my family! We are all (myself included) sorry we are not really checking our emails, but rest assured we are all safe and your prayers for us are gradually being answered!!

Just In Case You Missed Our Smiling Faces...

Roxanne, standing in the back lawn of the Sanctuary of Loyola.

The group, learning the Magis Dance :)

Shane, serving as an altar-server for the Magis English-speaking Mass.

The entire group after the Magis send-off Mass presided over by Father General Adolfo Nicholas, SJ.

The Loyola-Javier Pilgrimage Team at the Castle of Javier, St. Francis Xavier's family home.

Viva World Youth Day! Day 1 in Madrid...

Helllllllooooooo Everyone!

So we are back from our experiences and reunited in Madrid. Everyone has had an amazing week and hopefully everyone will get a chance to share what they did over the past few days.

My group (Mike Prescia, Nicole Casey, and Mateusz Plaza) had an incredible time journeying between Loyola and Javier in the Basque Country. But at least for me, it was also the most physically, mentally, and spiritually challenging experience of my life. At the end of the week, we walked over 144 kilometers (almost 90 miles) through steep slopes, rocky passages, jungles, forests, and endless plains and have gained immeasurable spiritual insights. We all feel so blessed to have had this experience and to have shared it with one another and with our new friends from Spain, Mauritius, and Taiwan.

Today, WYD begins with an opening Mass and an wide assortment of programs (concerts, prayer sessions, conferences, etc). Everyone's excited for the events of this week and to finally see the Pope on Wednesday!

I hope to update with some pictures later, but for now, keep us in your prayers!!!

Many Blessings Always,
Roxanne

Sleepless in Vigo: Video Update!

Hey all--

In case you're in need of another multimedia format in which to learn of our happenings, here´s a link to one of Cait´s regular ¨video updates,¨ this time narrated by Tom and me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fltzgzuG1vQ

Enjoy!
Alexis

Viva La Vigo

Hola,

I am currently sitting in front of a state-of-the-art computer (we´re spoiled here) with the rest of the Vigo group, hurriedly pulling together a music video that will accompany a song that our group has been composing for the past week. So far it has consisted of turning on PhotoBooth and dancing around with a pilgrim hat and walking stick. But that´s ok. Even though it´s not the most sophisticated, we had a lot of fun doing it (all of us laughing histerically in our current states of sleep deprivation).

Casey dubbed our experience in Vigo ¨Catholic Glee,¨and I think that´s pretty accurate. Another term could be music boot camp. The crystal-blue eyes of Manuel, our coordinator, sparkle with an enthusiasm that comes across even though he speaks only Spanish most of the time. In our various workshops, we have learned how to compose an entire song using only three chords, how to record different instruments in GarageBand, and how to sing properly. It´s been a lot of fun getting to know the other Spanish and Hungarian young people in our group--a feat I thought would never be possible with the language barrier. At our reflection the night before Father Jim left, everyone agreed that it´s amazing how much can be communicated between people with the use of only a few words.

We have all become great friends, staying up until 3-ish am (hence the sleep deprivation) teaching each other dances and games (USA´s contribution included Soulja Boy and Cotton-Eye Joe), sharing countless loaves of bread at meals (I estimate that at least the equivalent of one full-length baguette is consumed by every person each day), and frolicking at the beach.

All right, now we have to go share the fruits of our musical labor with the elderly nuns that live in the upstairs of the school in which we are currently residing. This shall be interesting!

Much love from Vigo,
Alexis (and Tom and Casey and John and Cait and Carol)

Another Blog to Catch Up On!

Since we here in Vigo probably won`t have the chance to update again before leaving for Madrid early tomorrow morning, I´m posting the address for our Magis experience´s blog. Most of it is in Spanish, but it has some great pictures and videos so everyone at home can catch up on what we have been up to this week!

http://www.ponmusicaatuvida.blogspot.com/

Peace & Love
Cait

Magis Experience group A2

Warmest of greeting to all!
Tomorrow is our last day in our experiecen groups, so I thought it fit to send out an blog.

We have been worinking in a nursing home that is owned by the Bishop of Alicanto and run by the Sisters of Charity. We spend about two hours a day with the residents witnessing their love, giving them as much of our own that we can and engaging in various activities with them. The first day was a meet and greet where we got ot know teh residents. We introduced oursleves adn did what we could to engage in a back in forth, our activity was the making and decorating of name tags. We helped the resident to make and devcorate their own name tags and helped place the around their necks. Our second day colored in pinwheels of various degrees of difficulty, two, and sang a Someon-says type chuildren´s song. The residents loved it. our third day we played Parcheese with them or simply visited with them, our fifth day we gave them massages with ping pong balls and listen4ed to soothing music. Today was our sixth day and we used tooth picks and markers to decorate images we preovided. Tomorrow is our last day, adn we are going to have a farwell party. Most days there is a part near the end where there is always singing of typical Spanish songs adn dancing. Dana has made up a super catchy one called ¨Viva España¨, the song is mostly in Italian.

We have been blessed with not only the opportunity to serve these wonderful people, but also with the chance to see much of this town we are in. Each afternoon after lunch, siesta time adn our various Magis circles, where we gather in our groups and eflect over how our day went, the good the bad and how it ties into thereading of the day, we go on small cultural encounters. We have gone to seen the face of Chirst at La Santa Faz, where they have one of teh three folds of Veronica´s veil that cleaned the face of Jesus on his way to Golgota. We have been to teh beach on the Medditerranean. We have seent eh University, been visisted by a few of teh students of the school we are staying in, gone to see La Virgen de Orito and climbed the mountain through the vineyards to the cave where the Capuchin Saint Pascual de Orito. WE had mass as the sun set in front of the cave on the hillside.

Our group has become so close. It is hard to believe that it has only been six days. WE stay up late after our evening examen and teach each other how to dance. We stay up frequently duing the siesta time, talking, sharing, getting to know one another. On the beach we had spent an increadible time playing volleyball, soccer and in teh waves. Today we go to see the castle of Alicante adn walk downtown. Tomorrow we have a mass with the families of teh children that go to school where we have been staying, adn then we shall walk the port.

Love to all of our fmailies adn friend back home. We are praying for you, for the rest of those going to WYD and leave on Monday for Madrid!

Peace,

-e

From Rose and Rebecca -

We have been in Granada since Monday night, after an 11 hour bus ride. Our time here has passed amazingly quickly, but it also seems as if we have been here for months! We are here with a group of Spanish from Valladolid and Madrid and a group from France who are part of the organization Coexister. Our experience is taking place in the house of Las Hermanitas de los Pobres (Little Sisters of the Poor) and we have wonderful accomodations with beds and all! We would love to go into more detail, but we have limited time on the computer so here are some highlights from our time here:

*trying to find a bullet point on a Spanish keyboard

*greatly improving our skills with Spanish and French, as nothing is translated into English for us

*discussion and dialogue with Alseny, a French Muslim who is part of the interreligious group Coexister

*spending time with the elderly who are cared for by the sisters and live here as well, including helping with their dinners, feeding those who need more assistance, playing life-size board games, and taking them for a walk to the supermarket and to the park - where we learned Spanish children's songs and dances

*visiting "El Barrio de los Muselmanes" and speaking with Muslim shopowners and others we encountered about their experiences living their religion here in Granada and their Ramadan here in the hottest part of the year

*multilingual Masses

*trip to the Alhambra to see what beauty God can work through human hands, as well as the gorgeous gardens of the Generalife

*discussion and dialogue with Benjamin, a French Jew who is also a part of Coexister, and sharing a Shabbat dinner with him

*getting to know and love our fellow pilgrims both in our group and in the others

*mandatory siestas from 3 to 4

We are so grateful for the time we have been given here and the wonderful people that we have to share it with, despite the initial language barriers. But now, we should get back to our siesta! Love and prayers to you all.

Rose and Rebecca

A Journey Half Over

Greetings from Vigo!

I can´t believe that Magis is almost over- it simultaneously feels like we just got here and that we´ve been here for months. I am here in Vigo with Carol, Tom, Alexis, Casey, and John H. for a musical experience. Since this is my first update on the blog, I feel overwhelmed by the number of things I would love to share, but I´ll try to pick out some of my favorite moments.

Loyola was BEAUTIFUL! It was so humbling to be staying in the sanctuary at Loyola itself and thinking about how Ignatius had walked on the same ground hundreds of years ago. The energy and atmosphere created by the gathering of pilgrims from all over the world was intoxicating- there was no way to NOT be swept up in the spirit of love and communion.

Mass on Sunday was said by the Father General, and the Fordham group had great seats near the front. Since we were off to the side, we were quite surprised when Father General walked over to distribute the Eucharist to our section! I have to admit that receiving the Eucharist was a bit overwhelming, and I started to tear up as I realized just how special this once in a lifetime journey truly is.

After what turned out to be a 10 hour journey to Vigo on Monday, we began participating in numerous workshops about all aspects of music, including singing, dancing, and composition. Currently, each of the groups (American, Spanish, and Hungarian) are recording songs we have composed ourselves, so this is sure to be interesting...

One of my favorite moments here in Vigo was having mass on the beach. We waited until after the sun had gone down and all of the other beach goers had left and then gathered around in a circle on the sand. We created a makeshift altar with a blanket and a box, and Fr. Jim spoke about God providing what we need so long as we trust in Him. When it came time for the Kiss of Peace, everyone hugged and kissed, and it struck me how close you can grow to people in a few short days.

There´s so much more I´d love to share, bu this is getting a little long so I´ll end here. Love & Peace to everyone back home!

Alicanto

Time has been a fiend, it seems as if I have been here for months, in Spain, and that is has been only a few hours at once. The first few days we spent in Spain, at Loyola were lovely. The weather and scenery like that from a picture book. Rolling mountains and hills all the most brilliant green. Picturesque houses and sheep dotted the hills... Even the pine trees that grew on the mountains grow in the perfect rows of a regular orchard giving the appearance of cultivation and planning even in the "wild" parts of our surroundings. In our Magis circles many expressed the "Language of Love" that seemed to guide and lead us all, making up for the different cultures and languages so that we all understood each other. People spoke of our differences, how varied and lovely they are. I have been most struck by our similarities. We are all Catholics inspired by the Holy Spirit and our faith the happily leave all we know and come from to humble ourselves to service, disscomfort, and possible missunderstandings to search for more, deeper and better relationships with Our God and thus with ourselves. I loves looking out into a crowd and seeing three thousand others that are as stuck in this world of ours as I am, yet hopefull and eagerly awaiting the experiences to come.

The bus drive to Alicante was pleasantly short, just enough rests in between so that at a time we only drove two to three hours maximum. We were travleing in song, translations and assumed interpretaions, mounting expectations.

My experience group works in a public home for the elderly run by the Sisters of St. Vincent du Paul, the Sisters of Charity. The love they show those they care for, and the response of love that the elderly return to those who help them is astonishing; a constand beam of smiles, kisses, hugs and hand holding. The entire experience is nothing but simple expressions of love and affection, both humbling and wonderful. I do feel that our time with them is so short, yet everything happens for a reason, and i feel that the point of such short time is to give us each more time to reflect. There have been more comforts than I expected, but way more silence and reflection as well and to grow in our own spirituality and in our relationships with one another. The community here us beautiful, I feel that I am learning more about Love here in this short spaces of time than I thought possible, more than I feel I have learned before. It is a lesson long overdue.

I love and miss everyone greatly, and daily pray for you back home and on the other pilgrimages.

All my love,

<3<3<3
-e

Alicante, Vale

In from Lorenzo, Dana, and Anna - the three non- Spanish speaking pilgrims to Alicante:

Although disappointed to leave this beautiful place and not looking forward to our 10 hour bus ride, we're excited to begin our "experiment" leg of our Magis journey. We know very little about Alicante, it's community, and even what we're doing. Most of us will be working with the elderly while a small group is working with excluded children, who are either disabled or have AIDS. We know it will be difficult to communicate with the people we're serving because of our lack of Spanish skills. But, we hope our relationships and spiritual communion with them can transcend this spoken language barrier.

We look forward to further immersing ourselves in this culture. More importantly, we hope to experience and share God's love with those we encounter in Alicante.

We are fortunate to be traveling with a fun and fantastic group of Spainards and Italians, who we spent some time with yesterday. Dana even sang "Empire State of Mind" - representing New York, you know what it is (Mike Martinez).

Peace, love, and happiness. We'll be praying for you. Please continue to do the same for us.

Sent Forth! -- Our Experiment Assignments

Hello Family and Friends!

I don´t have much time to blog today, so I´ll make this a quick one... We´ve received our assignments for experiments this week, so this is where we´ll be going and what we´ll be doing:

Group 1: Roxanne, Mike Prescia, Mateusz, and Nicole
Pilgrimage from Loyola to Javier, the birthplaces of St. Ignatius Loyola and St. Francis Xavier

Group2: Shana, Mike Finucane, Mike Martinez, Kevin, Bea, Chrissy, Jackie, Jen
Pilgrimage from Javier to Loyola (Basque Country)

Group 3: Carol, Tom, John Huh, Alexis, Cait, Casey, Fr. Jim Hederman, SJ
Arts, Perfomance, and Faith in Vigo, Northwest Spain

Group 4: Shane, Lorenzo, Christopher, Anna, Shannon, Dana, Christian, Erika
Service Project with Youth and Elderly in Alicante (Southeast), Spain

Group 5: Fr. Paul Rourke, SJ, Peter, Andrew, Rose, Christina, Kristin, John Byrd, Rebecca
Dialogue with the Islam Faith through music, arts, architecture, and conversations Granada (Southern), Spain

We will try to update throughout the week, but we are unsure about the availabilities of computers and internet, so I won´t make any promises....but we´ll try our best!!! As always, please keep us in your prayers as we will most certainly keep you in ours!

Pax,
Roxanne

God´s language -- the language of love

I can´t believe it´s only been a day and a half in Loyola (plus about 20 hours of traveling from New York). So far, Magis has been overwhelming, joyous, intimidating, blessed, mind-blowing, chaotic, and wonderful all at the same time.

Yesterday, we started with a multi-lingual morning prayer in Ignatius´ backyard (for lack of a better word). The Bishop of San Sebastian said something that framed my experience thus far. He essentially said, ¨Ignatius studied all different languages. All of us here speak different languages. But there is one language that we all understand-- the language of love.¨ Throughout the day, I felt that love, God´s love, in the way that St. Paul describes it in 1 Corinthians 13. In one day, I danced with Kenyans; danced for Tanzanians; played games with people across the world; had an in-depth conversation with a man from Nairobi; learned more about my fellow Fordham pilgrims; had a very open breakfast conversation about my faith and politics with a student from South Carolina; and joked with Lebanese students and the Egyptian Lebanese priest chaperoning their trip. Every person with whom I´ve interacted has been welcoming and non-judgmental. Every person has been genuinely interested in who I am and I have been interested in every person who I have met. It may sound cliche, but --- every person has reminded me of how God sees me. He´s genuinely intrigued by and interested in me. The Bishop´s words seemed to permeate throughout the day as we all openly and beautifully welcomed each person for who they are.

One thing has blown my mind. We are all here for one reason. We all share this language of love for one reason. We all care for one reason. And that is our faith in God. This one thought has been with me since last night after reflecting on the day. I´m still grappling with this overwhelming, international, cross-cultural unity. It´s incredible.


I want to share one quote that I found and have been praying over. ¨In its essence, seeking has to do with our profoundest desires. If we let Him, God teaches us to desire whatever is better for our lives and those of others.¨


Much love from Spain,
Anna

A Long 24 Hours

Saturday night we broke into our smaller experiment groups for a bit of reflection and look ahead at our next experience. It quickly became clear that everyone had one common experience of the previous 24 hours: those few hours felt more like several days or weeks than they did one day. Arriving here in Loyola has been the result of great anticipation. Particularly for me, as a Jesuit, St. Ignatius has been a fundamental part of my life and my vocation. Thus, arriving at Loyola and being with a few thousand animated, joyful people empassioned with love for Christ has been a very intense experience of great hope for the Church and Society of Jesus. That all culminated today with large Mass presided by Father General Adolfo Nicolas!

Shane Mulligan, SJ

Thoughts from Peter!

Hello to everyone!! Hola! Buenos dias!

Just have some thoughts to share from this gorgeous summer afternoon up here in the town/area of Azpeitia within which we are attending Magis at the Jesuit-run traditional Loyola family estate. The Americans here at Magis – which are a small minority! – have the privilege of sleeping on the floor inside the huge castle (although only part of the castle goes back to the time of Ignatius). This means that we have a beautiful and awe-inspiring place to stay, cool marble floors on which to sleep, and incredible closeness to all the activities and festivities and meetings, which take place on the field immediately behind the castle. Most of the nationalities actually have quite a walk!

Today, as I mentioned, is a truly gorgeous day here! It is so sunny and breezy! The view is beautiful, just as it has been constantly since we arrived yesterday afternoon. However, unlike yesterday, the sun is hot! Sitting out for morning prayer on the field in the sun, we had to put on sunscreen. But it is very nice to be here in the sun, for me personally. The trip has been so hectic, with a 3 hour wait for our flight, a 6 hour overnight red-eye flight, a 3 hour wait for our bus, and a six hour bus trip, and prior to all this traveling, only two and a half hours of sleep the night before we left. With sleepiness, jet lag, and pop songs from the bus ride ringing in my head, it had remained rather hard to come into the presence of God, despite the beautiful locale and excited strangers. The sun today is therefore especially welcome, for warm sunshine always helps me feel the presence of God, no matter what is troubling me or where I currently am with God. It makes me think of when Jesus said we should love our enemies because we ought to be like God, who “makes the sun to shine on the just and on the unjust.” It is a sign that no matter where we are at, God is still giving us life and a chance to move forward towards him: a great reminder for the beginning of a pilgrimage!!

I took a break after finishing the last paragraph. Many of us had walked into the city of Loyola to try to find somewhere to supplement our typical European breakfast of coffee, juice, and bread. Unfortunately, the closest restaurants had almost doubled their ordinary prices, so five of us ended up finding a supermarket where everything was nice and affordable to make our own baguette sandwiches and stock up on snacks. The city is gorgeous – there is an ancient picturesque building to see set back from many of the corners, an apple orchard right next to the road, and many fancy apartments that we guess are vacation summer homes. The construction of many new aparments was also going on in one section of the city closest to the Loyola estate. Our little group returned to Magis for more conversations and for our humble free lunch and afterwards spoke to a very friendly Kenyan who explained a lot about his country. We are now relaxing in the shade until Mass. :-)

Today has been a long day and a hot day but a good day. I look forward to whatever insights tonight might bring, for last night I had two insights in particular that were very nice!

We are a group of pilgrims coming to grow in a journey towards God. Many people, myself included, have a hard time believing in the unconditional love of God – whether it means not feeling good enough, not feeling worthy, not feeling forgiven or anything else. We can never be worthy of God’s love, but if we cannot accept the fact that He loves us anyway, it is hard to do anything! During our Mass itself, I – and many others – kept drifting off, for which I felt pretty guilty. However, during the Lamb of God, petitioning Christ to take away our sins and to grant us mercy and peace, I was struck by the commitment that we were offering to God and was able to believe that we would be offered mercy and peace and were not too unworthy to ask God for them! We had spent a couple thousand dollars and traveled for a day and a half halfway across the world, sore, cramped, and tired, all in order to offer ourselves to an experience designed to help us come closer to Him. We are far from perfect, but we have thrown ourselves into this, and I can no longer worry that God will not meet us halfway! I can’t wait to report to everyone what blessings he brings us.

Lest I seem tooo proud, there was another insight last night. We survived a long “welcoming presentation” constituted of many songs and a Portuguese interpretive dance/play production of one moment in Saint Ignatius’ life and were dropping like flies, succumbing to sleep. Afterwards, the Evening Prayer was starting over an hour late, at about 11:30. We had been told that our sleeping quarters – where we leave most our belongings – would be open all day yesterday and reopened at 11pm each other night. We had also been told that attendance all the events were strongly encouraged but optional. Seeing our sleepiness and no longer wanting to distract others in the crowd – and wanting to save some energy for the next day – we went to the door of our building and were met by several staff members who told us “No. Is it over? You cannot come in until it is finished.” Frustrated but struggling to maintain a pilgrim’s patience, we stood outside the door, dozing off on our feet. However, there was a benefit to this unfortunate situation: part of night prayer consisted of a long candlelight procession while the musicians and singers performed “You Raise Me Up,” a tune which we sleepy Americans were able to sing along to. We sang the refrain about five times, which goes:

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains.

You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas.

I am strong when I am on your shoulders.

You raise me up to more than I can be.

I was struck with an intense sense of gratitude for all those who have supported me on my way to this place – physically here and spiritually/emotionally here. I know that all no members of our 37-person group could have arrived here alone, and that each one appreciates the support of their families and friends and all those back home who have raised them up, just as I am appreciative of, and so blessed to be able to encounter God in, those whose prayers I carry with me, who have supported me in my personal faith journey and my journey here, and who make this pilgrimage with me in spirit. I am strong because I am on the caring shoulders of my family, Mom, Dad, Philip, Cara, and Luke, and of my best friend Amanda Kwon, and of all those who are praying for me and whose intentions I carry to Spain – my grandparents, my Godmother and her religious community, the Catholic elderly women I visit at the Jewish Home and Hospital in the Bronx, and so many others…. Including all of you who are reading this blog! Thank you for your prayers, your time, and your attention. Know that you are also in our prayers! You raise us up to more than we can be!3643