Parting company

I knew all along it was going to happen, but that didn't make it any easier. This morning, at 6:55am, Sean, Selina and Nicole left on a train bound for the north of Germany to attend their days of encounter leading up to the World Youth Day events that begin next week. Every diocsese in Germany is participating and together will host thousands of pilgrim volunteers from literally all over the world. In addition to the catecheses and prayer together, these vibrant young people will participate in a nationwide day of community service. I heard they were trying to log a million hours of visiting the sick, helping the elderly, even riding tandem bikes with folks who are blind. Monday they will all travel to Cologne and join hundreds of thousands of other pilgrims for WYD 2005. These events begin on the 16th and culminate with an outdoor mass said by the Holy Father on the 21st.

The separation was abrupt. We hadn't worked out the details of the older kids travel until the last minute. As it was, the girls were out until midnight last night, as were we elsewhere in the city. We said good night at 12:30. Four hours later I woke them up, we rode the metro to the train station and said our goodbyes.

Theresa and I ran along next to the train like in the movie "Airplane" and I pretended to run into the poles. It helped them all to laugh and blow kisses after a tearful farewell.