Before setting out for Quebec, we had months of preparation. We had a study group in which we learned about the saints and early history of Quebec and we had breakfast together on one of the days of Christmas.

Our leaders, Ralph Edlebrock, Jeanne Guillemette, Fr. Kieran Kilcommons, and Fr. Robert Johnson, did lots of planning and negotiating behind the scenes.

Before we left for Quebec, we were blessed by our directors general, who told us to celebrate, to have a joyous time, and to be free as the children of God. This is what I feel happened.

We drove off in two separate cars and stayed in the same car throughout. I think the car I was in was the more interactive group. Fr. Robert Johnson was the driver, David Thomas was the map reader, Irene Sullivan and I were the entertainers, and Jeanne Guillemette was the music planner.

Along the way, too, we prayed the rosary and kept the spirit of pilgrimage.

We stayed in a college dormitory—the men on one floor and the women on another. The women, not being big breakfast eaters, had their breakfast together in their dorms. The guys, on the other hand, took the opportunity to have a good breakfast in the cafeteria for the long day ahead.

There were over 12,000 people at the Pepsi Colisée, the stadium where morning sessions of the congress were held. We ran into many of our friends, associates, and what Catherine Doherty used to call "friends we hadn’t met yet"—all people who gave life and joy to the event.

For the most part, we had lunch together and supper separately.

It was easy for us to feel overwhelmed by the crowds, and sometimes we felt the need for space. We also wanted to do different things in the afternoons. This doing things on our own helped us to experience something of the freedom of the children of God.

However on Monday evening we all went to the old city to have supper together before leading a holy hour at a church nearby.

We couldn’t decide on a restaurant. Finally, someone suggested that each of us eat wherever we wanted and meet later on at the church. Of course, this didn’t happen. One person headed for a restaurant, and like chicks, we all followed.

There were two, three, five, then ten of us all together again.

At our table, there was good bread, lots of it, and it was in small pieces. We decided to use it to "share the love of St. John," which for us at Madonna House is an agapé custom for the feast of St. John the Beloved.

Our togetherness all week was for me an experience of the theme of the congress: the Eucharist: gift of God for the life of the world.