This summer Pallerols have been visited by people from many countries

This chronicle was sent to us from Slovenia:

This was the third summer that a group of young people from Slovenia went to the Pyrenees Pass. In the first year there were four seminarians and a university student, accompanied by a priest. Two of the seminarians have repeated the experience: last year Matic (now a priest) came with three young people; this year Vito (who a month later would be ordained deacon) has gone with six boys, one university student and five who are studying high school; one of these is Jakob, who was already in the second year, a sign that he liked it very much.

On Monday, August 28, we arrived at Pallerols at sunset. Before, in Ponts, we picked up Ramon who would explain many details of the intimate history of the Crossing of the Pyrenees, which St. Josemaría made in 1937. On the trip, we stopped at the Peramola bridge for Ramon to begin the explanation of the 1937 adventure.

The next day we left for the first stage, which was a little longer because we got lost a little before arriving at the Ribalera. There we celebrated Holy Mass with a special emotion thinking of St. Josemaría and those who accompanied him. With the delay we changed our plans a little and after lunch we approached Fenollet’s house, where we were able to recover after this hard stage of the first day of walking. As the weather was good, we took a bath and soon returned to the Pallerols shelter to prepare for Wednesday’s stage.

After celebrating Holy Mass in the church of Pallerols and having breakfast, Ramón told us the story of the rose that St. Josemaría found in the church, as a sign that he should continue on to Andorra. Then he took us by car to the foot of the mountain of Ares. The path begins descending to the river of Cabó that we crossed and passing to the other bank everything is already a thousand meters uphill. With a constant rhythm and making small stops, we thought of the strong physiological crisis that the Founder of the Work went through. Before three o’clock, the first ones arrived upstairs and in a few minutes the eight of us were already in the village of Ares. To rest, to drink, to eat something and some “selfie”. The descent to Noves de Segre is long and someone suffered more (because we had not raised food). At night we visited Organyà, the church and all the excavations that show the three existing temples: Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque. At the end of the day we still had time to see the rectory of Pallerols and a video of Paso de los Pirineos.

Thursday was the day of the last stage with which we would arrive in Andorra. The ascent of Cabra Morta and Mas de Alins with the descent to Sant Julià de Lòria passing through the oratory of the Virgin of Canòlich and Fontaneda is always (we have done it the three years) the most special, because it starts in Catalonia and ends in Andorra! In Sant Julià de Lòria, Aleix was waiting for us, a young Andorran friend who accompanied us to a typical Andorran village built all of it with stone and wood and with gardens full of vegetation, flowers and the representation of many animals. Then there was Mass in the church of St. Julia, where there is a statue of St. Josemaría kneeling, who intercedes for all of us.

On Friday we had the final traca: to go to St. Raphael’s Cabin to pray and celebrate Mass, where St. Josemaría’s group spent five days waiting for their final departure for Andorra.

Finally, as a reward, we returned to Andorra to take a walk and rest for a while.