love from spain!

we apologize for the lack of recent posts! since the official world youth day events started earlier this week, we have literally been running around – getting on the train, getting off the train and walking from session to session to mass to adoration, and also participating in “I love Jesus, yes I do, I love Jesus, how about you?” chants! in other words, getting up at 8am, leaving by 8:45am and not coming home until 11pm-1am. haha, we have been trying to make the most of everyday!

it is also pretty amazing to see so many of my friends here!
* i ran into one of my friends from MISO (maryknoll international service orientation) training that i attended a year ago – she is a salesian missionary in bolivia, and i learned that she is extending her time in bolivia – which is great!
* i was telling mary that i really want to see my friend chris, one of my friends who was in the franciscan volunteer ministry program the year that i was in new york…and i said, i feel like i have chris radar – he is around here somewhere! and that afternoon, i ran into him!

lastly, tomorrow is our vigil with the pope! that will certainly be an amazing time, and mass the next morning will be at 10am. we had stations of the cross today with the pope and it was absolutely beautiful. the cross was carried from station to station by different groups of young people, particular to the meditation/reflection on each station. for example, youth who are from iraq (victims of war), youth who have been freed from drugs, youth who are from japan and haiti (victims of place struck by natural disasters), youth who work directly with those affected by AIDS…just really beautiful. even though we were pretty far from the pope and from each station, i was able to get a pretty good view of the screen, and so, it was awesome!

hope to post pics soon! there will definitely be lots of pictures form the vigil. thank you for the prayers and know that you are in our prayers!

some pictures of the fun! :)

Ya es tiempo que, el amor no esté escondido :)

Saludos a todos!!! We made it! After passing through three countries on two flights, our one big ball of excitement (Mary, Migue, Cathy, Beanna, and me) arrived at Colegio Cabrini yesterday afternoon. It’s SOOOO great to finally be here!!!!

Highlights thus far:

-The school itself is SWEET. Kinda reminds me of the abbey in The Sound of Music. It’s got a gate and real bell that rings inside when you push the buzzer. I kept waiting for the Mother Superior to bust out of there, but then I remember I left her in NYC.

- Meeting all the Cabrini youth and MSCs from ALL over…we’ve got Russians, Nicaraguans, Brazilians, Filipinas, Argentinians, and Guatemalans all up in here…and just now I´m hearing that about 600 Italian and English youth are arriving to stay here for the week as well. Qué chévere!

- Using my Spanish has been WONDERFUL. They even made me an unofficial translator for the activities we did today. To be honest, the 5 in me (Enneagram..look it up) definitely wasn’t digging the idea at first, but my amigo Bryan (Argentinian organizer dude) made me feel more confident about doing it.

- Speaking of speaking, ha! There’s a Russian MSC named Sr. Oxana, who is totally more legit than I will ever be. Because none of the Russian youth speak any other languages, she has been translating like crazy. Pretty sure she’s at least quad-lingual (is that even a word?). I also give major props to the Russian girls who are here because there is a real language barrier that they just seem to ignore. They all speak up loud and clear with so much enthusiasm even though none of us know what they’re saying until we either get a translation from Sr. Oxana or play charades.

- I have loved getting to know more about the Cabrini missions through living at the school and talking with lots of the Spanish sisters. I had a really interesting conversation with Sr. Laura from Argentina this morning about the work they do there with kids at their elementary school. Most of them are immigrants from Paraguay or Bolivia who are at risk for getting into drugs and gangs when they’re older. The sisters used to have a high school as well, but unfortunately had to shut it down in 2009. Even though that has been a difficult loss for them, she really was hopeful that giving these kids a strong beginning would set them up to succeed in the future. Someone remind me why I’m not a CMC anymore…dang.

- One of the Filipina girls (Mary Grace) called me “ate” today. For those of you who don’t know, “ate,” pronounced “AHH TEY” is a title of respect that means “big sister” in Tagalog. My heart totally melted.

- Talking with Crystal (who, by the way, is even more awesome in person if you didn’t already know that) today about all this diversity of language and culture we’ve got going on here reminded us both of Pentecost. I totally already feel the graces the Spirit has given us in being able to connect with one another in such a short time. It’s only the second day, and I already can tell we’re totally going to be on fire going forward from this experience.

The title of this blog in English roughly means, “It’s time that love not be hidden.” The “ya” part gives it a connotation that we should have already come to this conclusion, like yesterday. It’s part of a song that we keep singing and I think it’s a theme that keeps repeating in my life–a constant reminder for me to bear the love of Christ so that others can feel it/Him too.

I think that’s pretty much it for now. Tomorrow is our last Cabrini day before WYD officially starts on Tuesday. Thanks for reading and for supporting us on our pilgrimage. We’re praying for you!

<3 Laura

Over the River (i.e. Atlantic Ocean) and Through the Woods (i.e. Belgium) to Mother Cabrini´s House We Go!

The gang´s all here! Greetings from Madrid, Spain. This is Cathy Matta, here to fill you all in on the travels of us Americans. Regardless of all the travel tribulations, we are all so happy to be here for such a momentous event!

I began my trip Friday morning around 11:00 a.m. East Cost Time on our way to Newark Airport from East Hartford, CT. Undaunted by noraml traffic getting onto the George Washington Bridge and by the average quarter of a mile back up on the New Jersey Turnpike, my family and I made it to the airport in plenty of time. Checking in went smoothely, as I was able to ensure the five of us traveling would be sitting together (well, as together as we could be in the average airplane). After a teary goodbye to my parents and boyfriend, we made our way smoothely through security to the gates to await our plane.

While I am most certainly an uneasy flier, the two flights (first, from Newark to Belgium, second from Belgium to Madrid) were pretty smooth flights. Taking off and landing are always a little bumpy, but I shouldn´t complain: we were safe! In fact the most andventourous part of our flights were our meals! Fancy that..

So, naturally being farther back in the plane, we were one of the last people to be fed. While normally that isn´t a problem, this time it meant that the choices for food were extremely limited. In fact, there were no choices at all! Apparently, the attendants had been steering people away from the Vegetarian choice, which was a traditional Indian rice dish (spicy!!). I´m assuming this since when Laura asked about the vegetarian option, the attendant suggested the chicken (saying he knew she wouldn´t like it!) So Mary, Breanna, and I were left with the vegetarian option which was…. interesting.  I can´t say I´ve ever eaten anything like it! I was really just eyeing the brownie that came with the chicken option. But for my not-that-happy stomach, a little rice and water was all I needed. After what seemed a super short nap, I had a lovely bran muffin and prepared to land! I couldn´t tell you much about the second flight…I was only partially-conscious!

We were met by some of the sisters at the airport and arrived safely at the school! What´s the catch? No luggage for us. When we boarded the plane on Friday in Newark, we were assured that our luggage would meet us in Madrid, and we didn´t have to worry about getting them during our 1 hr layover (which consisted of smelling the chocolate as we ran to plane). However, the baggage claim had none of our suitcases! After waiting what seemed like forever to make a baggage claim, we were told our bags should be available to us around 5:00 p.m. Madrid Time. Not all that interested in waiting around the airport for 5 hours, we decided we´d just come back for them.

Once at the school, we unpacked (our carry-ons that is..) and started getting to know all the wonderful people here. Y pronto, la comida was served! Which was such a pleasure after a day´s worth of plane food was sitting in our stomachs. I did my best to stay awake after eatting, in order to make my body adjust to the time difference, which unfortunately, it is still working on.

After calling the airport another three or four times, we were told that one bag was missing still: Mary´s. We decided it would be best to atleast get the other bags, and perhaps harass enough people on the airport to find Mary´s too. In fact, once we were back at the airport (around 8:00 p.m.) we were able to locate all the bags. Gracias, a Dios! We made it back just in time to have a light dinner, unpack (for real this time), and get ready for bed.

A big thank you to everyone praying for us while we traveled, and for all of you who continue to pray for us as we begin our pilgrimage here in Madrid. We appreciate all that has been done to make this posisble for us, and look forward to sharing our thoughts and reactions to the week ahead of us.

Hasta Luego!!

the travel is the beginning!

the entrance of the school

The excitement is starting to build as we quickly approach attending world youth day! We started our journey at 5pm on August 10^th, where we (Norlyn, Mary Grace, and I) met up at SOSCFI (Save Our School Children Foundation, Inc.) to gather all our belongings, do one last final check, and get all our ducks in a row before heading out for our pilgrimage to Spain! We had a sending-off ceremony, and members of the staff, family and friends, joined in this prayer service.

As soon as we began the prayer, I got so excited for World Youth Day! It was interesting because no longer was I in high school, attending World Youth Day, as I so vividly remember back in 2002, but this time, I am older (maybe not so much wiser!), and I am bringing two of our College Scholars with me, under my wing. I reflected on how nine years later, I am returning to this international celebration, amidst thousands of other people from around the world, and this time, I am a Cabrini Mission Corps missioner. I am at a completely different place than I was nine years ago when I attended WYD with Steve Angrisano, Tony Melendez, and the rest of the Orange County parishes. Such a blessing it is to be able to return back. No doubt it will be a different experience.

We departed for the bus at 8pm and arrived in Manila around 2am on August 11^th, with enough time to make it to our 6am flight to Hong Kong. As we were driving to the airport in a taxi, I realized, AH! I forgot my sleeping bag in the upper compartment! So, the taxi driver brought us back to the airport, and of course the bus we rode was already on its way back to Cubao…so, end of story – no sleeping bag for me! Completely bummed but also realizing, hey, there are worse things that can happen on this two week pilgrimage, we get to the airport, one of the first in line, and come to find out, our flight to Hong Kong is delayed five hours…which means, we miss our connection flight to France, and therefore, miss our connection from France to Madrid.

Trying to work out various schedules with the agent at the check-in counter, turns out the only available itinerary we can jump on, is to take that Hong Kong flight which instead of departing at 6am, was now departing at 11am, and then get to Hong Kong around 1pm…the catch is that, the next flight from Hong Kong to Paris, France, is at 11pm! Which meant…10 hours chillin’ in the airport. NOT FUN. Then from there, we were told we could get our boarding pass in Paris, to get on a plane to Madrid at 9:35am on the 12^th, to arrive in Madrid at around 11:40am on the 12^th. Originally, we were supposed to arrive on the 11^th at 9:45pm. So yes, 12 hours later – not too bad…but, quite the trip!

What ended up happening, is that as soon as we landed in Hong Kong, I saw my name on this large posterboard thing. Turns out Cathay Pacific got us a room at Panda Hotel in Hong Kong, so that we can use it for the day to rest and whatnot, and we were also provided with dinner. And so, we took up the offer! Checked out of immigration to enter Hong Kong, hopped on a bus to Panda Hotel and we were given an awesome room in the Executive Suite! Pretty cool. We were able to take showers, watch TV, rest, and then before dinner, I thought it would be a good idea to go over the Gospel of the Day and say some prayers for the remainder of our travel. It was beautiful and we were able to continue our reflections as we prepared for Spain. We laid out our candles that we used from our sending-off prayer service and brought out our rosaries too. It was nice.

Dinner was delicious! It was a buffet and I think I stuffed my face – I was so excited at the variety of seafood and fruits. We checked out of the hotel, hopped on the bus, got back to the airport and we were ready for our flight to Paris. Twelve hours later, we landed in Paris, France, and I am now sitting outside of our gate. So far, we have taken airplanes, buses, and underground trains…eat, sleep, ride. That so far, has become our theme on our pilgrimage! Eat, sleep, ride and pray. Sounds like a pilgrimage to me!

Now, waiting an hour until we can get on a bus to our gate, to board our plane for Madrid – praying that everything works out! If this post ever makes it onto the blog, that means all is well. Yes, praise the Lord! We are on our way!

…and with that – the flight from Paris to Madrid went smoothly, except for the agent having no record of our re-routing. But all worked out, and the rest of the Stella Maris Province will be arriving in a few hours! Looking forward to it all!

~ from Crystal Catalan, CMC Missioner

Bienvenidos!

Hello everyone!

Welcome to our blog – thank you for visiting! Here, you will find updates and photos from our experiences at World Youth Day, written by some of the WYD pilgrims representing the Stella Maris Province of the Cabrinian Family. Enjoy!

What is World Youth Day?*

World Youth Day (WYD) is a youth celebration that was inaugurated by Blessed Pope John Paul II as a way to inspire the young people of the world, and to encourage them in living the teachings of Christ. In 1984 and 1985, he invited the youth of the world to Rome for a Palm Sunday celebration in St. Peter’s Square.  The first official WYD was held in 1986. 1987 brought about a historical tradition when the second annual and first international WYD took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This year’s WYD will take place in Madrid from August 16-21st.

A Special Cabrinian Gathering*

Prior to the official WYD events, young Cabrinian representatives from across the world will be gathering at the Colegio Santa Francisca Cabrini school in Madrid on August 14 and 15 for a time of formation and fellowship. Missionary Sisters and Cabrinian young people from Argentina, Brazil, Central America, Italy, the Philippines, Russia, the US and Western Europe will be present and serving as Cabrinian representatives at WYD.

At the conclusion of the official WYD events, the Cabrinian participants will gather again at Colegio Santa Francisca Cabrini for a time of debriefing, evaluation and a celebratory sending forth to their home countries.

Stella Maris WYD Pilgrims*

• Mary Grace Bonaobra – student and member of Circles of Discernment in the Philippines
• Crystal Catalan – CMC missioner currently serving in Baguio City in the Philippines
• Laura Johnson – CMC missioner who completed her NYC mission in June 2011
• Cathy Matta – junior at Cabrini College, Radnor, PA
• Mary Meleski – candidate with the Missionary Sisters
• Norlyn Mercoles – student and member of Circles of Discernment in the Philippines
• Miguelina Parache – Cabrini Lay Missionary
• Breanna Tumelty – senior at Cabrini College, Radnor, PA
• Sr. Beatriz Santos, MSC – will be accompanying the Stella Maris Province WYD pilgrims

* taken from Special WYD Edition – Cabrini Update, 7.14.11