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“Tired but happy.” This is certainly the slogan that best defines what we lived three days in Madrid during the beatification of Don Alvaro del Portillo. They were days of effort and sacrifice, but also of joy and immense satisfaction.

Doing volunteer is not easy. This required attending to a pre-beatification, in which we receive the necessary instructions to be at the height of this event. For those days together, we stayed in a retreat house of Chueca, a village on the outskirts of Toledo, where we were looked after extremely well.

On Friday night we were shocked when we they announced us the time to awake the next day. 4:30. Quite a challenge. But despite such late hours, on time, they appeared in the dining room, all volunteers. Tired and sleepy, but we were there. After a quick breakfast of yawning, we headed to Valdebebas to prepare the act.

It was 6 am. The sun at dawn and reddish promised us a day full of thrills and small challenges that we should gradually overcome during the day. But it could also guess that it would be a splendid celebration of joy and prayer in honour of the figure of Don Alvaro del Portillo. The group of volunteers Pedralbes was assigned the task of guarding the approaches to the E1 area. The instructions were clear: “Nobody enters without accreditation. Be imposing but flexible. And above all, do not forget to work with a smile. ”

We saw all sorts of things. People did not act with rational reasons. They attacked, blinded by the devotion to Don Alvaro. Their goal was to get as far forward as possible and in that way, the volunteers were the obstacle that should safeguard the organization and security. It was a little game with no rules in which all was fair. Excuses? Of the most curious and diverse. That they had come with someone, that his back had had enough, that they had lost the accreditation and a multitude of other excuses each one more surreal.

Finally, with occasional anger and many, many smiles, we managed to contain the feverish crowd and the Mass was held in a festive atmosphere and interior recollection. The truth is that the experience was worth its weight in gold. On arrival we could not stop repeating: “Tired but happy.”