Yea Spain!!!

I have plenty to write about, so here it goes.
Rome: Rome was amazing. The gems of the city, in the Cathedral's and Basilica's, are just absolutely breath-taking. It's almost disappointing that just about all artwork and architecture that has been created in the last century or so, it seems like the artist/architect skimped to get the job done. You would think that as technology has increased and artwork has progressed, you would expect that 'Modern Churches' and modern art to be even more moving and more symbolic, but yet, after seeing the history of Rome, it seems that the past several 100 years has failed us, in the art world. I guess my point is, is that we have all been absolutely moved and inspired of all of the places that we've been. While the Sistine Chapel is very impressive, I think our group is in concurrence that it doesn't compare to the many, many, many other painting, statues, and Churches in the area. Personally, I was VERY moved by the Scavi tour, where we actually saw the bones of St. Peter, lying directly under the Altar of St. Peter's basilica. Not to be too direct, but I can't imagine ANY Non-Catholic taking that tour and not being convinced of the historical and theological truth ONLY found in the Catholic Church. As a HUGE Pope fan, (Successor of St. Peter) I was completely blown away.
I could list all of the 'things' that we saw, and how significant they were to us, however, each 'Religious Thing (relic, statue, painting, etc) all speaks to us differently. I can say though, that our group has been very impressive. EVERY SINGLE CHURCH that we enter into, our pilgrims seek out the Blessed Sacrament, and almost bee-line there, for time of meditation and prayer. I think it has been inspiring to Fr. Ben, and others. In fact, when we arrived in Spain, the tour company's film crew said that we (The Michigan Group) was THE group to follow. I'm getting a little ahead of myself... Anyway, on the last night in Rome, we traveled to Castel Gondolfo (The Pope's Summer Residence), where his gives his Angelicus address every Sunday. It was amazing. It was easily the closest we've ever come to the Pope, not including Pope-mobile drive-by's My guess is that we were about 75 ft. from him (1/2 of a basketball court???). It was very moving, and it was the first taste of the the World Youth Day experience. I think that set the excitement for WYD, which was to follow the following day (today).
So we arrived in Spain last night at about 1am (in bed around 3am, like the blog stated). I think that we are already to dive into the WYD experiance. However, today was an Rest and Relaxation day. I think it really came in handy. Traveling could certainly be stressful, not to mention basically living close quarters (hostels are definitely hotels, think "Annie". Ok, not THAT bad, but definitely not a hotel), and just not getting enough sleep. Fr. Ben gave an excellent homily today about preparing ourselves, and not getting distracted. By the way, we passed out the letter's today, and they seemed to be at the right time. :-)
We said goodbye to Cecelia today (was it was kinda yesterday too). She was only scheduled to be our guide in Rome, but since her responsibility is minimal in Spain, she'll probably be sneeking into our group over the next couple day, and believe me, she's MORE than welcome. We trying to talk her into coming to Detroit for some time. Fr. Ben already promised to cook for her, and she promised to babysit for Carrie and I for a 'date night' YEA!!! I actually get the feeling that she come visit soon, so you'll get to meet her too...hopefully. Anyway, our new tour guide's name is Lissette, and she is also full of energy and life. We haven't seen her a whole lot today, cause some of the travel arrangements with her other group kinda got messed up, I think. However, we'll be spending a lot of time with her tomorrow, and I'm look forward to what she has in store for us.
A couple side notes:
1) Nicole has been spending some time in the hotel, for not feeling well. Michael is taking great care of her. Just please pray for her comfort, so she can make the most of her pilgrim experience.
2) We did have a couple missing pilgrim experiences (no need for concern). Fr. Ben and Bryan (not me, the other one) we lost during the Scavi tour (in the morning), and didn't reconnect with until dinner time. So, Bryan got a private tour of Rome hosted by Fr. Ben. No complaints from him. Also, on the way to dinner a couple nights ago, Elyse and Katie L., weren't down the stairs before the group left for dinner (not their fault), so they were upset for 10-15 minutes, but Super-Cecelia ran back and grabbed them.
Honestly, this has been a wonderful pilgrimage. I couldn't ask for a better group. As I hinted at earlier, Some of our pilgrims were interview for TV (maybe internet tv; I'll give more details, once I get them). Thank you so much for your prayers. I can tell you we are praying like crazy over here.

If you have any specific questions, again feel free to e-mail or facebook me.

~Brian