We'll be busy indeed! I just spoke to some Dutch and Italian participants of the Forum here in Toledo. And we'll have another concert tomorrow night in Madrid Atenas, after our performance during the Opening Celebration.Īlso: Concert: 10pm - 12pm, parque de Atenas. On her feast day we'll have a concert in the very center of Madrid, Parque del Retiro, the "the Green Lung of Madrid". Our Lady of Lourdes prepared some surprises for us. Toledo (Spain), 15 August 2011 Breaking News! We are happy to have been able to witness of the joy of being Christian, being a priest and being priests together! Thanks be to God! WYD 2011 is over for us now, but it was worth the effort. After our other experiences onstage, we were relaxed and enjoyed the enthusiasm of the many young people coming from everywhere. The evening was great and the concert went very well. I heard for instance that a Dutch group was among them. We heard later on that a lot of people waited in vain outside to come in. After letting the central field be filled with people too, the security decided at the beginning of the evening to close the doors when 15.000 people were inside.
We sang 7 of our songs, starting with Rock and ending with ballads and prayer. In the Télefonica Madrid Arena, the Basketbal Stadium of Madrid, where a lot of Pop concerts take place, we were part of a larger program preparing Adoration and the time of personal meeting with the Lord.
The next day, yesterday, was the day of our highlight: the Noche de Alegria, the evening of the Emmanuel Community during WYD and the largest event after the big central events. We left as soon as possible to go to Parque de Atenas, where we had our next concert at 10 pm, the usual time. It was an opportunity to emphasize the message of the Priestband: be a witness of God’s mercy and infinite love. Unexpectedly, just before singing, I was asked some questions by the MCs of the day. In the burning sun, we sang our song with Father Francis as lead singer, because he always was in this song. We had to be there at 1pm and then we waited, had lunch, prayed and rehearsed our song “Ave Maria”, that we would sing a capella. We were scheduled between 7:06pm and 7:09pm at the Plaza de Cibeles. The next day was the day of the WYD Overture.
Parque del Ritiro is a beautiful park in the centre of Madrid, where a lot of people meet during the day and especially in the evening. a Vietnamese group in the public and we ended around 12pm with a Portuguese group. We did a double programme and started with. On Monday, we had a concert in Madrid at the Parque del Ritiro. It´s just a great experience of our worldwide Church!
The city is overcrowded but the atmosphere is peaceful and full of joy. Today the Pope arrived in Madrid! Not far from here at Plaza de Cibeles he met the crowd of excited young people from all over the world. Madrid (Spain), 18 August 2011 Noche de Alegria!