Pilgrim Blog: Day 9

Steven:
Today defined the “pilgrimage” part of this pilgrimage. It started “later” than usual. We woke at 0715 for breakfast, our last real meal before our journey. We savored every last bit of it and then prepared our stuff for the walk. We all met downstairs and departed for St. Patrick’s church for our mass with the rest of Boston, Cardinal Sean included. After the beautiful ceremony, we gathered in the courtyard with the rest of Boston for a photo opportunity with the Cardinal. After our quick photo-op, we departed. As we began walking back in the direction of our hotel, we caught glimpse of the other 938,924,374,298 people slowly filing across the bridge. We walked towards Darling harbor and joined the 938,924,374,298 pilgrims on the exciting tour. We took a quick break at the Darling Harbor Convention Center to make use of the facilities and were quickly on our way. There’s not much to continue writing about about the next three hours; walking is walking no matter which way you look at it. Our next real challenge came about a mile away from the end of our journey. We came up on heartbreak hill; rightfully named so because of a 1/10 mile, 40° inclined hill that greeted us. With minimum struggle, from us “young” people that is, we conquered the hill. We were finally met by smiling, ever-so-happy, volunteers that made everything seem better with their words of encouragement. As we continued to get closer and closer to the racetrack, morale began to rise quickly. Upon entering the racetrack, we were quickly greeted be more volunteers who handed us our green bags containing our food. As we journeyed deeper into the racetrack, we came upon our plot of land. It may have been one of the further plots, but it was perfect nonetheless. We claimed our spots of where we were to sleep for the night, surrounded by Germans, Philippines, Hawaiians, and even more Germans. We opened our food and began to eat. Some devoured the whole box of food while others ate sparingly. We later learned that this box was meant to feed us for the next three meals. After food, I decided to take a nap for 3 hours (what else is new??). I awake to the sound of my name being used in a conversation between Sean Longden and a couple of the Philippines. I don’t quite remember much immediately after that, but soon enough, the evening candle-lit vigil began. After the vigil concluded, various groups, including an AMAZING group from Washington D.C., performed on stage raising the morale and getting people dancing and moving. All this activity warmed not only the soul, but the body too for it was a mere 48° outside. After the groups all finished, things began to die down, and people started sleeping. However, the fire of the Holy Spirit (and the fire of all those candles) kept some of us awake. All but two, Bill and I were asleep on the ground when the Germans began to (as usual) mess everything up and speak unnecessarily loud all around us. Ms. Hebert awoke and, with much agitation, SHUSHED the silly Germans. As those who were woken by this nuisance, another arouse when a large crowd of people from all over the world began to chant and clap and pound and carry on with their jolly selves. Despite this disruption, our fatigue of our long hike was enough to put us all back into a deep sleep.
The walk was a true test of faith for all of us especially when it came to working as a well-oiled machine in even the toughest of times; whether it was distributing the gear of the “older” pilgrims amongst the younglings, or providing simple moral support when morale began to run low. All-in-all, today was definitely a journey-and-a-half.