Br Antônio and the Christ the Redeemer in the background
So, why am I a pilgrim and a volunteer? Two years ago when I decided to go to the WYD and my superiors gave me permission I started to think about how I would organize my trip. A friend of mine who was in the WYD of Madrid told me about the great help that the volunteers could provide, and since I was from Brazil and have been in USA in the past 5 years, I could give some help with English/Portuguese translation. So, here I am in Rio!
Today my adventure as a volunteer started early. I had an appointment very early in the morning. I left without doing my one-hour morning meditation and thought, “This is the most Catholic country in the world… I am sure I will find a Church anywhere to do my morning meditation. So, I arrived at my appointment, did what I was supposed to do and decided to look for a Church and pray my meditation. I started to walk in a random direction, and sure enough I spotted a Church 35 seconds later! I got in the Church and asked a pious woman praying there which Church was that, she told me “This is St Marguerite Marie Alacoque Church”. I said to myself “Another home run for the Holy Spirit…”
So, I prayed my whole meditation in that beautiful Church in front of the Tabernacle and a beautiful statue of the Sacred Heart and St Marguerite Marie.
When I was done with my meditation I went to the Cathedral, which is the very center of Rio. As I was arriving I could see WYD pilgrims everywhere (by the way, everyone thinks I am a priest, they always great me with a “Hi Padre”, one guy even asked me for confession today).
In the cathedral there were hundreds of volunteers from all the four corners of the world; everyone was there to pick up their volunteer kits. I met a guy from Portugal, a girl from Zambia and another girl from Quebec (I was able to show off my knowledge of Quebecker beers). At the door of the Cathedral, there was a huge group of pilgrims singing and dancing. How amazing is to see so many young people together sharing their faith with joy. It is really a blessing from God.
So I finally received the pilgrim kit, which consists of a backpack (you can choose between blue and green… I went green because it is more Brazilian), a hat with the WYD logo, a squeeze bottle (very useful, Rio is really hot and we need keep hydrating ourselves), 4 WYD t-shirts (volunteers are lucky and received two types of shirts, yellow and green, the first one we using during our volunteer service, and the green when we are participating of activities as normal pilgrims). We also received two cards, one for transportation (we can use it 8 times a day) and a different one for meals (we can use $40 a day).
After I got my ticket, I decided to have lunch with my brand new meal card. I went to the first MacDonalds I found and was a little upset because I do not like to have meals by myself. As I was thinking on it a group of volunteers arrived there and invited me to join them. That is one of the most special graces of the WYD, the special spiritual bond that all the pilgrims have between them. I never saw these people in my life, and it was as they were my best friends. They were from Peru, Mexico and Colombia. Soon, the MacDonalds was full of pilgrims talking all languages you can think of.
Tomorrow all the Volunteers will have Mass with the Archbishop at the Cathedral; it is going to be really wonderful. See you tomorrow. God bless.
