Cynthia Kern is already home, but the excitement lingers. She struggles to find words to tell everything she lived. She searches for them while repeating that she is happy, fulfilled, grateful. And there is a phrase she expresses with clarity about what it meant for her to accompany the Pope’s visit: “I managed to live the day I dreamed of. On foot. Among the faithful, as I like it.”
The owner of Kosiuko had received different invitations and had the possibility of participating from other places. She chose to be among the people, carve out a space to pray and share that experience with those who had also gone to meet their faith.
“As I like going to Luján, as I like being with all the people,” she tells Para Ti. This time she carried a simple wish: “Being able to bear witness to love.”
A Personal Choice: Being Among the People and in Prayer
In Cynthia’s account, happiness appears linked to what she found during the day: closeness, the people around her and the possibility of living that moment in the way she had imagined.
“I enjoyed it a lot: the simplicity, the humility, the plainness, what I always need to receive from the Church. And I take that part,” she expresses.
She wanted to be in prayer and feels she could do it. She recalls an atmosphere of encounter, surrounded by people she describes with affection: “All wonderful beings.”
That way of participating is connected to how she has lived her spirituality for years. Walking, approaching, sharing with others. Being present with the body and with the attention focused on what happens around.
“It was wonderful. The truth is I didn’t expect so much. Very moving,” she sums up.
The Testimony That Reached Her Heart
Cynthia was already moved by the images she had seen of the visit to Uruguay. Among them, there was a story that touched her especially: Marta’s testimony during the Pope’s visit to Cotolengo.
“It was heartbreaking,” she recalls. And she adds: “It was something that touched all our hearts.”
Speaking of that scene, she returns to the emotion that accompanied her during these days. Listening to other stories and seeing the Pope close to different realities also formed part of her experience, even before leaving home to participate.
When she finally was there, she carried all that with her. And, above all, the gratitude for a faith that has sustained her for a long time.
“I Went Especially to Accompany Everyone’s Faith”
For Cynthia, this day fits into a long personal history. Her bond with faith is present in her daily life and in that need to give thanks she mentions again and again.
“My faith already has many, many years and I thank it every day. I went to thank that. I went especially to accompany everyone’s faith.”
There is something sensitive about that way of explaining why she wanted to be there: to give thanks for what is hers and, at the same time, to accompany what others were living. Sharing a prayer, an expectation, the emotion of having the Pope close.
Still at home, she remains touched by what happened. “I can’t fully grasp all that I lived, saw, and felt,” she acknowledges.
“Faith Is Nourished by Walking It”
After that day, Cynthia also looks forward with enthusiasm to the youth vigil. She says she has had the opportunity to participate in such gatherings in different contexts over the years and they always leave her with something special.
“That kind of programs fill my soul,” she says.
In those experiences she finds a way to continue cultivating her spirituality. She explains it with a phrase that also helps explain her choice to live this visit on foot, among the faithful: “Faith is renewed, faith is nourished by walking it.”
This time, that walk left her happy and deeply moved. She had imagined a day of prayer, closeness and gratitude. Upon her return, she felt that she had received even more than she expected.
And when she tries to name what made such an intense experience possible, she returns to simple words, spoken from her own faith: “Put your body into it and open your heart. That is all God asks of us.”
