Springtime in August....

...in the heat and sunshine of Madrid. Thousands and thousands and thousands and THOUSANDS of young people teeming in this city, singing, waving flags, praying, and cheering their hearts out as they gather to geet the Pope...World Youth Day is much (MUCH!) more crowded, more enthusiastic, and more prayeful and devout than I had imagined it would be, and the experience of being here is magnificent.

A few snapshots to give you some idea of what is´s like...

Young people from the QUO VADIS group based in South London, are staying at the church of St Maria del Cana, and every morning they gather for Mass and breakfast and have a rota for tidying up etc and then go off for catechesis in various places. I went with them to the ´LOVE AND LIFÉ" centre, excellent talks from Archbishop Chaput (great cheers from a large group from Philadelphia - there are lots of Americans here) and from a priest who runs the Salt and Light Tv in Canada and from the head of the Kts of Columbus in the USA...some very relevant and powerful stuff on religious freedom and the call to Catholics to speak up for the truths of the Faith and the beauty of Christian teachings...

A great Festival of Forgiveness in a large central park, with white confessionals - looking like a great encampment of tepees - set out in rows and priests hearing confessions all day, a rather tender scene as people gather and are given small booklets showing Rembrant´s Prodigal Son and sit or kneel in prayer and preparation and then go to one of the priests and kneel, either directly with the priest or with a screen, depending on choice...

The crowds greeting the H. Father yesterday evening were good natured, exuberant, cheery, prayerful, but slightly scary in their vast numbers - most had waited all day in the heat, singing, chanting, praying, waving flags, swapping badges and greetings with people from different countries, being sprayed with great cooling jets of water from Madrid´s fire brigade. I rested, with a great crowd all around me and squeezing in, against a wall, and at one point was so pressed in that I could not even bend to reach my specs when they fell, and had no possibility of getting into my backpack....but didn´t mind a bit, everyone so helpful, water passed around, greetings exchanged,laughter, friendship, conversations in my limited French and hopeless German, so much goodwill, so many interesting encounters with Africans (esp French speaking), and people from Latin America and from all parts of Asia, from every corner of Europe, from Britain (! one voice suddenly in a restaurant - "Auntie Joanna! Hello!"), from the USA, from India, from Hong Kong... The Holy Father´s warm, kindly voice, speaking with great affection, like a grandpa. No sign of frailty: his arms wide in gesture after gesture of greeting,a friendly talk with each young person coming forward with a message from each continent...A moment of great pride for the British as OUR Deacon James, of the ORDINARIATE, chanted the Gospel in beautiful English...Out in the crowd Union Jacks waved and bobbed...

The speeches of welcome to the H. Father by young people from different continents were so touching, somehow. eg "We have young people here from the great land masses of Oceania and from the islands scattered across the ocean ...all have brought their national flags. Do you see them, Holy Father?" The young voices, clear and sincere reaching out across the vast (VAST!!) crowds, and then the choir singing....the ceremony finished with a magnificent Hallelujah Chorus...

It´s dreadfully, dreadfully hot. Fr Stephen provided the Quo Vadis group with useful water-sprays which we gladly share with others as we splash hands and necks and faces with lovely cool water...we have all, in our backpacks, been provided with fans and water bottles and spare teeshirts...oh, and I can´t decribe the fun to being on trains and people breaking out into song, or "Viva el Papa" or dancing...oh, and the friendliness, the joy, and the KINDNESS of everyone, and the devotion of young people even with the heat and sleeping in halls and schools and so on... We have tickets for meals at local resturants, each offering a simple menu and all so welcoming...and a vigil of prayer in "our" church of St Maria del Cana, and the Spanish people saying the Divine Praises and the British youngsters leading the singing, and the priest bringing the Blessed Sacrament aloft through the church and all kneeling in united adoration...

World Youth day is a sign of hope, of peace and of springtime for the Church and for Europe...