Ignatian pilgrimage and WYD - Hoàng Dung's Journal (5)

August 15, 2011
1:33am
Barcelona, Spain

Today was a day full of waiting.
This morning, I woke up at 7:45 am thinking I had 45 mins to get ready. But as I was not quite done yet, TS came in saying that mass was at 8:00 and it was already 8:02. Mass was with cac Cha Jesuits. So I came in late with a very unpeaceful heart. I hate being late and letting others down so I had a very unpeaceful heart starting mass. I kept wanting to place the blame on someone who told me wrongly that mass s at 8:30 instead of 8:00. I struggled with myself for a while until after hearing God's word, my heart filled with peace. Today was the feast of Assumption of Mary and I suddenly remembered how st. Iggy had a great devotion and love for mother Mary and so that inspired me to love mother Mary more and be more attentive. Thank you God. Attending mass with cac Cha was touching. I felt gods presence and awe listening to cac Cha sing together and harmonize. It sounded so peaceful like gregorian chants. I enjoyed it so much and was very touched by
God. Their chapel was beautiful too. The mural behind the alter was of the holy family with a woman whom st. Iggy imagined in his spiritual exercises was the handmaiden helping mother Mary give birth to baby Jesus. How funny and neat st. Iggy's imagination is.

After mass, father Alfredo took us to their kitchen to eat breakfast with them. The priests were so joyful and de thuong. I feel so much love radiating from their joyfulness and their happy smiles. They had a machine that squeezed Fresh oranges right there. Just put the oranges in and it'll do the rest. Amazing. And so delicious! Their coffee mugs were as big as a soup bowl. U don't just sip, u "hup" your coffee and it was really good coffee too.

After that, Father Emmanuel took us on a quick tour of the chapel in the Jesuits courier. It was bigger than a usual small chapel and the most neat thing about it was that there were 1st relics of 16 saints of the Jesuit order. Among them was Xavier and iggy right next to each other. Our boys. TD is Xavier and DT Ignatius. How neat that was to see. My heart smiled.

Our flight to Barcelona was smooth. No running bc we we late, no stress. It was relaxing and we had an hour bf boarding. I slept the whole hour and 10mins.

We waited a good 25-30 mins for a bus to take us to Sants Bart? Station but there was none so we decided to take the bus to the other terminal. And from there, we were able to take the bus to that bus/metro station. There, we stayed for a good hour to almost two deciding what to do. Our original plan was to leave our luggage there, Cha Tri do laundry while we had a good 2 hrs at Sagrada fAmilia but the train reservation Cha made the Night before for the 10pm chuyen didn't go through and they ran out of tickets. So, we decided to stay here for the night. Together with the help of everyone, we found a hotel from the Spain book, called and was able to luckily Book two rooms. An apartment of two bedrooms and a living room and kitchen for 120€ and a double for 80€. Not too bad. About 30€/person. After such a long day of waiting all day....we went to barceloneta part of town and enjoyed a celebratory dinner from 8:30pm-11:30pm. We enjoyed paella seafood with chicken, fried calamari, steamed mussels, cod salad, and flan not to mention 3 1L pitchers of Sangria in which Hong drank most. Hehe. She was very happy. Man nguyen. Tonight, we had a dinner of really filling food and most everyone drank more than they usually have ever in one sitting, but everyone was good. Conversation was fun, filled with lots of laughter and teasing. Minh accidentally said a very funny word when he meant to ask us if we wanted nutella but that will be kept btw us 8. =) we went around sharing what gifts we saw in each other, a wonderful way to confirm or recognize what gifts each of us were given. It was very consoling. The service was great. They were very charming and patient and even gave us a "special" at the end, a flute of (champaign). We laughed so much about our funnies that took place from the beginning of our pilgrimage. And we toasted to God for a great journey, safe and wonderful thus far. Tmw begins our WYD experience together. Im so excited.

We just called home to our boys and DT talks so much! Mom said this past wkd the boys missed us so much they hugged a picture of us to nap during the day. Awww! Sniff sniff. Makes me want to cry. They still miss us even after one week has passed. Makes me smile to know that we're missed and not forgotten. Hehe. We miss them so much and can't wait to see them. But , let's enjoy our last week and then some...

an unplanned journey here in Barcelona but very nice. Tmw, Sagrada familia and laundry then onto Madrid.
Our group being together for this long has produced naturally some xich mich, tension, but thank you god, after tonight, confirming each other's gifts, it helped us let go and refocus. Thank you lord for a great group of pple to share this journey with. We have some Drivers, some Analytical, some Amiable, some Unifiers. Well rounded group.
Gn world!

Tired traveler of God in Grace. But very happy and feel very loved by God.


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