Just over 500 young people from Carmelite communities around the world were among the enormous crowd who attended the World Youth Day in Madrid. The special Carmelite Day on the 17th August was a wonderful occasion with about twenty countries represented.

The day, which was organized by members of the General Curia and the Spanish Provinces, saw the presence of the Prior General, Fr. Fernando Millan Romeral, O.Carm. He invited all our participants to read a special letter he had written for the occasion (see the Order’s website: www.ocarm.org/madrid2011). This Carmelite day consisted of moments of prayer, the presentation of the different groups, discussion groups, workshops on different themes, exhibitions on the work of young people in Iberia (JUCAR), Karit (NGO), vocations, a prayer trail and a place of adoration. The icon of Our Lady of Hope (from the Rome Pilgrimage of Hope in 2010) was enthroned in a special place throughout the day. The next morning it was brought to the Carmelite Monastery at Maravillas in Madrid for a Mass for the Carmelite groups attending the WYD. This was indeed a Carmelite event, presided over by the Prior General and ending with a personal vocation witness by a young enclosed Carmelite sister of the Maravillas monastery, Sr. Brunilda de la Santisima Trinidad.

The icon of Our Lady of Hope will now travel throughout the Iberian peninsula in the coming year as a follow-up to the great success of the Madrid event. All are now looking forward to the WYD in Rio de Janeiro in 2013.