On this morning, I met up with a friend of mine from the seminary – Carlos – so that we could go to the Seminary in Madrid to get our accreditation for the Mass for Seminarians on Saturday.
We made our way down and noticed guys with ID cards that said “Seminaristas” on them, and so asked them how we are to get to the seminary. We arrived there and did our check in. I was praying very much that the new letter from the Bishop would work.
I checked in and then went to see one of the guys to hand in my letter. The Bishop gave me a letter and a business card as well as his cell phone number in Madrid, all in the hopes that this would work. I gave it to the young man and he started processing it. Then he made a gesture for the Diocesan Seal, wondering where it was – he didn’t really speak any English. So I tried to explain to him that I lost the letter and that my Bishop wrote me a new letter. He finally made some sort of gesture about the business card, saying that was sufficient. So I get my pass.
Then, my friend and I were about to walk out. But I noticed he got a ticket, I just got an ID card. I didn’t understand and thought I was supposed to get a ticket as well. So we went back and it was explained to us that if you got an ID card, you would be in the Church proper with the Pope for Mass while if you got a ticket you would be in the plaza. Needless to say, I was pretty ecstatic with the fact that I got an ID card!
We then made our way to the English Pavilion. My group was already there, saving a seat for me and my eventual return. However, they were not letting anyone in because it was at capacity and despite Maria’s tireless efforts, I wasn’t allowed back in. Even when Mass was about the happen, it took a lot of convincing on Maria’s part to the Security Guard to let me in.
So while I waiting to get into Mass, I ran into a friend of mine from Vancouver who is with Opus Dei. So we chatted for a while and went in for Mass. Then we went and had some lunch together and went to see some of the talks that were being done in the English Pavilion. We walked around and came across a small group presentation with Fr. Robert Barron. That was really great and there was a great conversation going on there with it.
Afterwards we went to another panel discussion on Building a Civilization of Love which was excellent. Yet the speaker that stood out to me was Fr. Antonio Lopez, a priest who teaches at the JP II Institute for Marriage and the Family. His talk was AMAZING. I invite you to check it out. The entire panel is right here:
http://wydcentral.org/wydtv and look for the link for Building a Civilization of Love.
Afterwards our group regrouped and, actually, I must be honest: I don’t remember what we did after that! I think we just walked around, had dinner, and just enjoyed the evening, which was great.
I will later do my best to remember Friday and then will do a post on the weekend’s events and finish off with a post on Barcelona. I am also uploading photos online to share with you all as well.
in Christ
-Harrison
The Christian State of Life 