Facade of the Monastery Church
As you might know, the World Youth Day did not start yet. It will start officially on the 23rd, and pilgrims start to arrive on the weekend. So, why am I here already? I am here because I am a volunteer and the volunteers arrive a week earlier. I thought that they did that just because of the training schedule, but I am realizing that they want us to live like “cariocas” and get used to the city, and this is very wise. All the volunteers are having a great and challenging experience. It is not easy to live in a foreign metropolis as big and busy as Rio.
The ones who particularly challenged are the North Americans and Europeans. Rio is a completely new universe for them. The city is beautiful but at same time you can see poverty everywhere. There is a lot of nature, but it is so busy and almost chaotic: buses everywhere, crowds in the streets, cars honking all the time, streets surrounded by skyscrapers. Today I had lunch with two girls from Toronto. I do not have words to express how I admire them. They are 19-year-olds and are all by themselves here as volunteers. One of them is staying in a very poor parish in a “favela” (Brazilian word for slum). They are enjoying everything and acknowledge that they are learning a lot from this experience.
Today we had the first day of intense training. All around the city in schools and parishes, the volunteers were receiving training by languages. I had my training session with the English speakers. We had presentations about the organization and schedule of the WYD, logistics for the pilgrims, emergency situations, security, different tasks that we need to fulfill in order to provide a great experience for our fellow pilgrims. It was a lot of fun to see so many different nationalities together interacting with each other.
Interior of the Monastery Church
There was a British guy with the flag of Britain and a mask of Prince William; a fun Egyptian fellow who thought he was a clown at a party (in a positive way, the good man was really funny; the American guy who was best friend of a group of South Africans and made their presence noticeable; the young man from Botswana who is preparing to join the Jesuits; the two guys from Kenya who followed me in the street, thinking that I knew where I was going, although I did not have any clue where I was; the guy from Saskatchewan, who did not eat breakfast to be able to arrive on time to the training (Canadians are always punctual, right?).
They were all young and full of joy. There were a lot of jokes, laughs, questions, sharing of experiences and tips on how to survive in Rio (like how to find nice restaurants, or even more basic things like how to find wifi). At the end when the lady who is coordinator of English volunteers said “you are the face of Christ and the Church to the pilgrims”, everyone was deeply moved. We prayed together to get ready to this great mission.
Something very special about the training was the location: a school next to a Benedictine Monastery. This is one of the oldest Monasteries in the America; it was built in 1590. The Monastery was built in a cliff on the shore of the ocean. At that time they had pirates around, so they build the walls of the monastery like a costal fortress. They are massive, several feet thick. The main church of the Monastery was majestic. It is all baroque style, but so far it is the richest one I have seen. They just did a detailed refurbishing of the wood walls, so everything looks really impressive, specially the details of the woodwork. I had a moment of prayer in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel and was all by myself with Our Lord. I really love those moments in each one is alone with Jesus in the Eucharist. I feel he is all mine and I am all his. There at that Monastery I really felt I was home with Jesus. I prayed for the pilgrims that are coming, that they might find hope and mercy in the heart of Christ.
