Last day of the Festival

Today was the last day of the festival. Another great day. We spent much time in Adoration, Mass, Confession, and Theology of the Body talks (which were excellent, by the way). Nothing much new from the previous 2 days. However, since I have a minute, I'll talk about the comparison of previous World Youth Days.
Carry Your Cross: It seems that no matter who you bring, how well you discern, or what you prepare for, there will be crosses. This WYD is no different. Granted, this WYD experiance has been for the most part "problem free". However, there are daily crosses that we are all called to take up, and if any one decides not to, then it becomes a cross for the group (e.g. 'my legs are sore', 'I'm hungry', 'I don't want to go to that...', etc.). However, in our planning, we had talked about how you can't have the resurrection without the passion and death. This pilgrimage, even through we expected 'smooth sailing', there are undoubtedly challenges for all of us. Thank you for your prayers for helping us get through...
Food: I admit, I was skeptical about the food situation. However, it has impressed me. In past WYD's, you were all (and I mean all 1Million of ya) given the same WYD slop, and we all ate it. It was either eat it or starve. This year, however, Spain had set up an arrangement will almost ALL of the local resturants to accept vouchers for food. So, if you wanted Burger King, you could get Burger King, if you wanted a sandwich and a salad, you could get a sandwich and a salad, and so on. I assumed that the lines for resturants would be extremely long. I was wrong. They have actually been quite small. The unforseen challenge has been now, just the shear option of choice. 1 group of 25 people might all want 3, 4, or 5 different selections. Considering the seas of people, and the strict meeting times, this is a somewhat a new challenge.

That is all for now. Tomorrow is the vigil, so I won't have an update until Monday. Thanks for the prayers, and I hope to see you on TV!!! ;-)

~BW