World Youth Day for the Fourth Time - Thoughts of Fr Martin

In soaring temperatures trying to sleep on the floor of a school gym full of other people it´s easy to wonder what am I doing here?.. again! But then, with the buzz a happy crowd around and a genuine sense of people committed to being a new generation of Good News across the world I realise I´m receiving a real boost in faith. Over the last couple of days we´ve been at catechesis sessions with lots of real questions arising about the world around ua and the Christian way of living both peacefully and constructively in it. Yesterday´s leading Bishop in our session reminded everyone that Pope Benedict is here to say he trusts young people in their response and he´s here to encourage young people to rise to that challenge.

Santiago to Madrid

Well we did finally make it Santiago we done a short 4mile walk to Santiago which included many easy rolling hills, Many ups and downs. Much like the journey of our life, we have plenty of steep hills to climb, whether in marriage, education or work but without those inclines we wouldn¨¨t have the joyful moments in our life, such as graduation, children and love.

Santiago de Compstela is a beautiful town with a very special cathedral where lays the bones of Santiago that is, Saint James. St James was one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus.

In Matthew 4:21-22 Jesus says to James come follow me!

²¹And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. ²²Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Christ also offers that invitation to us. He wants us to share eternal happiness with him, yes it is hard! just like everybody else Im no saint when it comes to life, im actually very far from it, but i like to think that like you pilgrims back home, you try!

Its hard when your partying with friends and don´t wake up for mass the next day and shouts, gets annoyed with individuals etc. You must remember that God´s invitation is constant and a lasting one, he offers his hand when ever you need comfort.

Santiago has Cathedral that has a gigantic thurible which is swung by a medievil mechanism which is swung like a bell using a rope. The Thurible is used for burning incense which allows a sweet smelling smoke to rise. The thurible represents our thoughts, feelings and our prayers being raised to heaven.

Thousands of pilgrims travel the Camino or The Way of Saint James so they can come in pilgrimage to see the remains of Saint James in which he is interred in the Cathedral at Santiago.
Saint James preached the gospel in many places of the world spreading the good news and it is also known that theVirgin Mary also appeared to him in Iberia Spain. As we go on our own pilgrimage in life it may be worth while for us to spread the good news, whcih doesn´t have to be religous but rather in love and friendship

As Pontes and Friends!

Firstly I must say sorry for this message as It is late by a few days but I've had no Internet access in my time at As Pontes.

So where do we start? As pontes is an industrial town situated 90mins drive from Santiago de compestela.

As you can imagine it does have some gigantic chimneys especially the national grid power station, the largest in Spain. However, you only have to look at the bigger picture, the mountains are truly something out of this world and because we are just a short few miles from the coast we have the river Eume that joins as one with the Atlantic ocean and the Cantabrian sea, it reminded me of God being of two natures, being human but yet also Devine but yet as one. As pontes is not touristy in the slightest, I would be very surprised if there was any more british citizens in the town! So yes, language is a problem especially as Spanish here is spoken with a slight dialect (as many of these spaniards originate from Celtic ancestry and portuguese is also noticeable due to the migration of portuguese citizens.

We are all currently staying with Spanish families. I'm currently staying in the church presbytery, which covers 24 different parishes! Deacon Havier is very generously looking after me and Fr Martin for our stay in As pontes.  Deacon Havier helps to look after around 20,000 parishioners .

Thursday was generally settling in, meeting our families and catching up on rest.
Friday we travel along the coast and went to the second highest cliffs in Europe, Caboortegal which are an amazing experience, so much Beauty although it was very cloudy on top of the cliffs!
We then went to the beach to relax, boys being boys we had to go for a swim! A very cold one but soon as your body adjusted to the coldness it was very refreshing! Me and Rauri McKay swam to one of the floats even though the waters was quite choppy. I felt very proud of Rauri as I felt that he pushed himself very hard to swim such length so, I said that I would buy him a pint for doing so well!

As evening drawn closer we went back to As pontes where Fr Martin celebrated mass in the church of Santa Maria of As pontes after which we then rested and ate pizza!.

So Friday was a very enjoyable and there was a real sense of new friendships beginning a new sense of a journey beginning with our new found friends. It was nice that after all we done that day, we managed to find God for a few short moments, whether it was on the Cliffs, on the beach, in friendship, in laughter, or in the church of Santa Maria.
Sometimes even if just for a short while, it is good to notice that God is very much walking along side us on our journey in life, and even if it's for just for the shortest moment, it's good to give thanks for beauty of life, and the beauty of love. 

I'm hoping that I can write again tonight to tell you about our day in Santiago de Compestela. For now though we are a going to embrace the party atmosphere and then later we will be making a short walk to La Catedral de Santiago de Compestela or for you guys who are bad at Spanish like myself, The Cathedral of Saint James. For now though I'm leaving you on a cliff hanger, Buenas tardes!

Tomorrow We Start Our Pilgrim's Path

Yes, it is now 11:45 pm and here I am writing about WYD, another reflection on life and faith and I am still yet to pack for a journey that starts tomorrow at 7.30am!!!

Looking at todays news I seen many shocking and disturbing scenes of rioting and violence and I also seen a heavey police presence in Leicester today as I was getting my final bits for Madrid.

I've been thinking alot about the scene's and why people go to such desperate lows?
Most people blame parents of the youths, others blame the government cuts and some blame the economic crisis. They all seem plausible opinions. We must remember that yes there is rich and poor but that does not give justification for allowing such brutal looting and rioting especially when your fellow man is at risk of being seriously harmed.

We live in life as a journey and sadly at the moment this journey is on a roundabout with no exit, we must remember that people lives are at risk but also remember that these violent offenders may need help themselves, we must consider how they were brought up, how they feel now, and why they are doing such things? Were they loved as a child? Was their parents too addicted to drugs to find time to cook them a meal or ask santa to come visit them on Christmas eve? Have they just got with the wrong crowd and now react to peer pressure?

Part of being a pilgrim is to open up to the needs of others as we walk this path together, students, criminals, homosexuals, married couples, men, women, young and old. We are all walking on the same path, some may take detours and others may have no incline but we must remember that it isn't a perfect world, sometimes a broken one that we as pilgrims can piece back together that can make this world a happy and cohesive one.

Most people who go on a pilgrimage in life sometimes may expect the unatural to occur, a miracle from life but most people forget that they are the miracle! You the miracle who started life as an ovum in your mothers ovaries when your mother was just a foetus growing in her mothers womb!
You the miracle are now a miracle to others! So what are you waiting for? Feed the poor, help a an old lady walk, give to charity, put a plaster on a child's leg, voluteer, help care for the dying......... So go on and walk your pilgrims path and be the miracle you was born to be!

My Journey to Madrid Starts tomorrow, we start at St Patricks bright and early leaving at 8am!
We will then make our way to Stansted and Fly to Asturias Airport in northern Spain where hopefully I will be able to give you guys my first story of our Leicester groups jouney and hopefully leaving you pilgrims back home a reflection from our group chaplain Father Martin Hardy!

Reflections of St Rafael Arnaiz

As our pilgrimage comes that bit closer to celebrating World Youth Day, our Leicester group has been asked to reflect on the journey that lies ahead and to think about our group patron Saint for Madrid's WYD, St Rafael Arnaiz.

St Rafael was born 9th April 1911 in Burgos, Spain.
He was born into a wealthy family to Rafael Arnáiz Sanchez de la Campa and Mercedes Barón Torres,  Rafael being the eldest of four brothers with an outstanding love and faith in Christ.

Through his short life, he had several episodes of illness in which his education was disrupted at a Jesuit school but he made a recovery and soon after completing his schooling he enrolled on a course in architecture. However he soon realised that was being called to a relationship more closer to God and so in 1934 he answered God's calling by joining a Cistercian Trappist Monastery of St Isadore de Duenas.

When he was accepted into the monatsery he said that "What the [world] can give me I have. God in his infinite goodness has given me in life much more than I deserve." little did he know that a short time after joining the Monatery he would become ill with Diabetes Mellitus, in which the body does not produce enough insulin to breakdown sugars for cellular metabolism, sadly back in St Rafael's day this condition was life threatning.
Rafael felt his heart broken when on three occasions he had to leave the monastery for the sake of his poor health. He almost thought he was being betrayed by God but deep down he knew that God would never leave his side and knew that God would always help him.

He requested once more to be part of the Trappist monastery by being an Oblate as he could not follow the entire rule and finally was able to return with the Abbot's approval.
Although his health was dimishing rapidly due to the diabetes he never gave up his sense of vocation even when he realised his inability to make formal monastic vows, neither did he lose his sense of humour: "The cowl makes me very hot," he wrote, "When summer comes I'm going to melt little by little and one day they are going to look for Brother María Rafael and only find his habit."
 
At 27 years old Rafael was being called by the Lord one more time, this time God was offering Rafael to be with him in heaven and so on the 26th April 1938 breathed his last breath offering his words to God "take me, and give Yourself to the world.".

Blessed Pope John Paul II at the 1989 Santiago de Compostela World Youth Day offered Rafael as a model for the Young of today's world, an example to the young "of a loving and unconditional response to the divine call".

John Paul II beatified him on 27th September 1992 and Pope Benedict XVI canonized him Saint on 11th October 2009 saying Brother Rafael "continues with his example and works to offer us an attractive way, especially for young people who are not only satisfied with little, but who aspire to the full truth, to the most unspeakable joy, which is achieved through the love of God.".

I think that St Rafael shows an attractive way that helps us to be with God and that simplicity is much apart of it although St Rafael had many sufferings with his illness he never gave up on was key to his own happiness, God and his love for us.

In todays world we are brought up in a society of wealth, that money is key to a good education, key to a good job and a happy life. We live in a society that we 'must have', that we need the new Iphone or Ipod, we need the next new playstation or best selling playstation game, we need a mansion, we must keep up with fashion and the latest hair trend. Something that only money can buy, but does it give us unending happiness? I think that when we buy such things that we are really trying to buy love, we are buying things that we hope to impress people that they may think we are cool people and want us to be their friends . Although these desires are no bad thing they do limit us to what we do in life, after all everyone requires love. However, wealth can distract us from our friendships, our family, the joys of communicating with others and inevitably creates a competition of being cool making a social class hierarchy.

St Rafael gave up his wealth but not all of it, he kept in close contact with what was most important, his dearly loved Mother, Father and Brothers, his Aunts and Uncles, but also his companions. A wealth of love that was shared not because of fortune but because of the simple act of love from the heart. With St Rafael leading a simple life of love for God and Love for his fellow friends he was able to find the joys to last him his life time.

The Countdown Begins!

As we now come into our final stages of preparing for World Youth Day, it seems very strange that after lots of long meetings, fundraising and retreat days, we are now only 2 weeks before setting off on this pilgrimage.

I seem to be very behind at the moment with preparations but co-pilgrims from St Peters, Blessed Sacrament and St Mary's Oscott seem to ready and raring to go! The excitement is shared joyfully in our group and it seems all the worries with cost, travel, sightseeing etc is now suddenly being wiped away! Which asks the question what’s more important? A nice bed to sleep in? Luxury transfers to and from Madrid? Expensive days out?..........Or is it more to do with sharing time and sharing our happiness with our fellow friends and family with the little time we have?