Hai guys, it’s been long time since I’ve updated this place!
Obviously I have been away for a loooong while (3 weeks in Spain for MAGiS and World Youth Day) and coming back to school after term has started has left me swamped with many things to do, so blogging has taken a backseat. I know I owe many of you a complete recount and reflections of my experience in MAGiS (I have no idea why the “i” is in lowercase but for those of you wondering, ”magis” means “more” in latin), but I don’t have the time to do it all in one post. So I’ll just talk about my general thoughts and whatever comes to mind for now, and leave the intricacies for future ramblings!
Before MAGiS commenced there was a pre-MAGiS gathering in Loyola (where St. Ignatius was born!), where all the MAGiS participants had a cross cultural exchange consisting of concerts, mass and the sacraments, adoration and talks over a period of 3 days! MAGiS is basically a week of experience with Catholic youths from different countries, in places all around Spain. We got to choose activities from a list that included art & creativity, social action, pilgrimage, faith & culture, spirituality and ecology. For myself I picked social action, and was assigned to work with the immigrants in Roquetas De Mar (a seaside town south of Spain), together with other Singaporeans, Hungarians, Mexican Americans, Spaniards and a Cuban. This “experiment” (Jesuit terminology) lasted for a week before we covened with the rest of the youths in Madrid for the WYD proper. WYD on the other hand was like a week long festival with different activities to choose from, a little like the pre-MAGiS gathering but on a much larger scale. The grand finale for WYD was mass celebrated by the Pope for the 1.5 million youths gathered on an airfield, after they (and I) braved the scorching sun the day before and a cold night’s vigil due to the rain and wind.
I’ll put down my reflections for these individual events in due time, but I hope such a comprehensive description of these events will keep you entertained for now, haha. Back to my books and the many things to do! God bless all and have a good week (:
