SUNDAY 21st AUGUST

James: After a night under the stars on the airfield, we packed up our camping equipment in time for the Pope's re-arrival, which included a trip around the airfield in his Popemobile. I got over-excited and took eighty photos of the Pope, his police escort, the surrounding crowds, the stage, the sky and, by mistake, my feet; all of these turned out to be blurry to the point that I can't tell which photo is the stage and which is my feet. After mass, we evacuated the airfield and headed for the airport. After a hair-raising take-off, we had a safe journey home to the (freezing cold) UK.

Marcus: The long march and slow journey back to the airport. Sad to be leaving, but with joyfull hearts, enriched by the blessings received and resolved in committment to build up the kingdom of god here on earth.

Stephen Greenwood joined the millions for the Papal Mass:

Sunday morning, the climax of the week! Having left the hostel where I was staying at 5.30 in the morning we made our way to Cuatro Vientos on the metro praying the Divine Office on the way, although pausing to greet various pilgrims who boarded the metro at different stops. One of the great highlights of World Youth Day for me was the amount of young men and women pursuing vocations to religious life. It really is something to see large groups of nuns in full habits all below 30 years of age. Wouldn’t it be great to see this in our towns and cities; a very visible sign of witness from young people “firm in the faith.” Having finally arrived at the venue for the final Mass I was told that they were no longer letting people in. After a few prayers to various saints the police finally saw sense and let us in. I was even lucky enough to be right next to the popemobile as the Holy Father passed.

As he always does, the Holy Father spoke so well throughout his visit. He gave the young people a special challenge: ‘do not keep Christ to yourselves! Share with others the joy of your faith. The world needs the witness of your faith, it surely needs God. I think that the presence here of so many young people, coming from all over the world, is a wonderful proof of the fruitfulness of Christ’s command to the Church: “Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel to the whole creation” (Mk 16:15).’ The challenge of our generation is to stand firm in our faith, to overturn the culture of death and to be joyful followers of Christ in all of our thoughts, words and deeds.

One of the really great things about World Youth Day is that everyone can communicate. Even though we were from different sides of the world all two million young people spoke exactly the same language in Madrid; the language that is Jesus Christ, our companion and our Lord.