Day Eight

Back to 7am starts today :( We had to have breakfast by 8am and met at 8:15am. We then got on the coach, which I never thought I'd be happy to get on again but after the metro yesterday I was, to go to Catechesis at Palacio de Deportes.

Outside one of the Sisters of Life helped us to get in because we no longer had our passes, as we had to give them and our passports into our group leaders earlier on. We went in to find the band that was playing comprised of some Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. They were brilliant and they taught us lots of songs but my favourite was about being a friar. It went "I'm in love with Jesus and he's in love with me, I'm in love with Jesus and he's in love with me, I'm in love with Jesus and he's in love with me, I love the church, I love the Pope, I even love my rope."

After the band, the inimitable Sister Bethany Madonna took the stage. She was extremely entertaining and became the source of much joy throughout the pilgrimage. She got us to have Mexican wave races naming one of the teams grace and the other mercy. After the races she said that 'waves of grace and mercy are surging through this place.' It sounded rather cheesy in her accent, but a lovely intention behind it all.

She introduced us to Sister Mary Gabriel who did a brilliant, funny talk. She was followed by Cardinal Pell from Australia. His talk was good but quite theological. After this we had a lovely Mass, though we were stood for ages at the beginning because of the amount of priests and bishops that were concelebrating.

Throughout the talks I was sat with some people from the Caymen Islands. I was sat next to Caitlin and we swapped some things. I got a cool pirate turtle keyring from her in exchange for a badge. The pirate turtle is their logo. As they were leaving someone else gave me a hat clip before I could give them anything in return.

After Mass, we went in search of some food before we split in two, half of us going back to the hotel and the other half of us going to explore a bit of Madrid. So off we went to the metro and Laura, Marie, Sophie, Bridget and I went off towards the Prada. I was keen to go in but when we got there the queue was enormous so we went into the church opposite, St Jeronimo's. Bridget and Sophie headed in while Laura, Marie and I were taking pictures outside. As we went up the steps the aid to the Church in need was outside and mentioned that if we signed up we could get a free t-shirt and other things. So in we went to the portacabin to sign up. We got some great things and spoke to the lovely people at the stand. I even got a handshake for being Welsh!

We then went around the church which was beautiful, and had lots of paintings in there from the Prada. It was a really lovely way to spend the afternoon. We had lost Bridget and Sophie by this point so we waited at the front of the Church for as long as we could and then headed to the metro. When we got back they were at the hotel, so all was well.

After a short time at the hotel, we headed to get food at the McDonalds near to the hotel, before we all made our way to the Alpha Awakening event. Worship Central was the band for the night, they were great. We had a lot of praise and worship and some testimonies, and some things about the Alpha Course. We had a good talk from an Anglican priest called Toby. I think we were all shocked that he was an Anglican priest. They showed us some great cartoons as well. During some more praise and worship I felt really moved standing holding hands with our diocese. It was a very special moment.

On getting back to the hotel a few of us sat with our feet in the pool. It was so good because it was nice and cool after a hot night dancing and singing. Finally I collapsed into bed ready for a good night's sleep.