August did not leave very well in my book. Fatigue and sickness crept back in that weekend but we were on a retreat the whole weekend for the Korean Legion of Mary group, and luckily it was only a small retreat, because I had to go to bed early the one night we were there – It was all catching up with me yet again!
Despite the rough month of August, I was determined to begin September on a good foot, although I’m afraid it just didn’t happen. It began with another Theology on Tap session (getting the schedule back on to the first Monday of the month), and with a few retreats scheduled, we worked hard on getting those together. We also had a WYD Thank You dinner put on by the Archdiocese for all the volunteers and long-term commitments people had made to the event – it was quite a lovely evening, actually, and I got to see quite a few people I hadn’t seen for a while. It was especially exciting because the Dominican Sisters from Nashville had returned to Sydney to set up their permanent convent here, and that night was the first chance I had to say hello to them.
The next day the team was given the day off, and I took the opportunity to get my hair trimmed at a cheap place in the city, and got to Mass at my favorite church, St. Benedict’s, on the campus of Notre Dame. Then I met with a friend on Sydney Uni’s campus to drive with her down to Goulburn – about 2 hours from Sydney – to attend a farewell dinner for a girl named Natalie Gordon. She has just recently made the trip across the “pond” to the US to join the Nashville Dominicans Order! She invited Monica and I to her home town to have dinner, and the Italian restaurant we ate at was excellent. It was a family owned and operated business, and in fact, the owner’s wife sat at the same table and Monica and I, and Sr. Mary Madeline and we had a lovely chat with her. All in all, it was a nice night, and I got to know Monica a bit better, as well as see yet another little corner of Oz! Goulburn doesn’t have much to see, so I don’t think I would go back – it’s sort of a one-horse lookin’ town. Quite interesting indeed.
The day after that, without much sleep, the team had to go to the Cathedral for a Mass and luncheon put on by Cardinal Pell for all the religious of Sydney. CYS was in charge of helping serve the food and drinks as well as helping set up and take down. Of course we were given lunch too, which was very nice. It was a good day of mingling anyway. I got called Sister a couple of times – I guess I looked like a nun that day?
But it was a rainy day, very wet and cold, and so afterwards I just curled up in bed and slept. I didn’t do much the next day either, except go to Mass and meet up with a few friends for dinner afterward. My weekends were really boring this whole term – I truly was just ‘livin’ on a prayer’…I just couldn’t wait for it all to be over! I think it was a combination of bad beginnings without adequate rest and terrible weather. I’m happy to say things have begun to look up quite a lot. We did finally get to meet our new director – he is very nice, and even though he’s pretty new, he will bring about some great changes to CYS…maybe some that the current team won’t ever see, but nonetheless, hope for a better future is here. He is very laid back as well, which is always a good thing!
I spent some time with the girls on team after that, which helped, and the next weekend had a girls day with the Dominican Sisters and a few friends at their convent – it’s always so nice to spend time with them (and their accent is easy on my ears, of course!). That weekend I caught up with a friend for Brunch after Mass, and we spent some time heavily discussing the city of Chicago – he knows the soft spot in my heart for that city, and so it was partly for that reason he decided that on his upcoming trip the States he would spend a few days there, checking out what all my hype is about! He left today - I hope it’s as good for him as I think it is!
The weeks lately have just been bringing about two retreats a piece…just cruising through them trying to get to the school holidays. A few nights I got to catch up with friends (a rare treat!), and one day the team was invited to come to Sydney for the launch of ChristWeek, a week long mission on campus, in which the chaplaincy comes alive and takes over certain places on campus, passing out materials and evangelizing students who will listen. There are talks every day as well, and the first one was given by Sr. Mary Madeline, so it was great to go and listen to her.
Just last weekend, I took a trip to the Blue Mountains to visit Jenelle, my pen pal, because it was her 21st birthday party! Of course it is always lovely to see her and I enjoy catching up with her family as well – they’re all just so nice! I stayed the night there and then came back down on the Sunday, and it was such a gorgeous day. It’s those days that I especially appreciate our location because the ocean water always looks so amazing.
The last week of team before the two-week school holidays was fairly quiet. We had a couple retreats, as per usual, but on Monday night, we had another mission team stay with us as they passed through Sydney. They were from a city about 5 hours inland called Orange, and I was convinced they would all be Australian, because I couldn’t conceive how any international missionary would choose to live in such a remote location, and YET, to my extreme surprise, they had not only a Canadian, but also an American from CHICAGO!!!! I couldn’t believe the coincidence – and of course, what do you think my first question to her was? “ARE YOU A CUBS FAN?!?!?!” Of course she is! We discussed how proud we were of the team this year – come on Cubbies!! I wish I could have talked to her more than just 15 minutes, because I think we would have had a lot in common, and could relate on a number of levels – that was apparent from just our brief exchange. It was a bit of excitement anyway.
I got to go to Sydney Uni again on Wednesday, this time to hear Bishop Anthony Fisher, OP, speak at ChristWeek (it’s always good to visit my old stomping ground!) and of course, the talk was excellent.
A team day on Friday, complete with the experience of Yum Cha (?!) and a trip to Manly Beach, and we were released to enjoy the next two weeks of a break. I am absolutely relishing this time off – time to relax, slow down, get things done (like this blog…) and have some Missy time. And the weather was incredible this weekend, so I got to hit the beach a bit, and spent the Sunday afternoon with the Dominican Sisters for another girl’s evening. They are having them every two weeks.
I don’t plan to do much for the next week or two but relax and enjoy life! Jovina gets back this week (HOORAY!!!!!) and this weekend a bunch of us girls are going out to a friend’s farm to relax and have a retreat. I know it sounds like I go on a lot of retreats, but it’s because I need them! I give so many retreats, I have to get a little something back in order to give more!
As I de-stress and wind down from a very turbulent term, I am preparing myself for the end of team and for my departure from Australia, which is now only 79 days away! So soon! Instead of wishing it away, I am trying to live it up – Lord only knows if I’ll ever be back in this beautiful, friendly place!
Hold out for a bit, I'll get some pictures up very shortly. That's next on my list of things to do this break. I'll post instructions on viewing them. It will be much easier than the last time I tried to post an album, I promise!
Hope all is well in the States - keep in touch when you all can!
Until I write again, may God bless you!
Monday, September 29, 2008
FAMILY?!
It would seem that God smiled on me at the end of the month of August as I was privileged to have visitors from my “neck of the woods” - more like my branch of the family tree. My Aunt and Uncle from Alaska came to Sydney to visit as the first destination of many around the country, and even though they had been to Sydney before, they liked it so much they wanted to visit again – and of course see their niece! The cool thing is I don’t ever get to see them normally, since Alaska is *quite* a distance from Indiana.
We had a lovely visit – I was given a day to go spend with them, and after meeting them at their city center hotel, we stopped by St. Mary’s Cathedral, where I gave them a tour complete with an imaginative painting of the WYD festivities surrounding it. From there we ventured to the Centre Point Tower where we had a look at the city from up high! Down we came and grabbed lunch on Darling Harbor (very American, we all ordered cheeseburgers!) and then spent the afternoon in the Aquarium, which was a treat for me – I had not gotten to see it yet! It’s quite good, actually, although I have to say one of their displays was a reconstruction of a section of the Great Barrier Reef, and the only thing it did for me was make me miss the many times I snorkeled up there for real. The Aquarium was just no match for the true thing.
As we left the aquarium, we were just in time for the evening Mass at the Cathedral, so I parted to attend Mass, and then re-joined Aunt Tara and Uncle John for dinner at a lovely Thai restaurant near their hotel (I LOVE Thai!). I left them that night with instructions for how to make their way to Clovelly, where the next night I was to cook them dinner.
They follow directions very well and just on time they came to the house, where I was so happy to be able to show somebody from home what I have been living this year! We had dinner, and Aunt Tara, ever thoughtful, had brought us some American chocolates, so we cracked those open – the boys weren’t going to waste any time!
I drove them back to their hotel (I know how much I enjoy NOT having to take public transportation in a foreign city) and as we left, I was unsure when I would see them again. God willing I will one day make a trip to Alaska to see where they live! But what a blessing to have that visit with them, and just me and them, half way around the world. Truly unique!
We had a lovely visit – I was given a day to go spend with them, and after meeting them at their city center hotel, we stopped by St. Mary’s Cathedral, where I gave them a tour complete with an imaginative painting of the WYD festivities surrounding it. From there we ventured to the Centre Point Tower where we had a look at the city from up high! Down we came and grabbed lunch on Darling Harbor (very American, we all ordered cheeseburgers!) and then spent the afternoon in the Aquarium, which was a treat for me – I had not gotten to see it yet! It’s quite good, actually, although I have to say one of their displays was a reconstruction of a section of the Great Barrier Reef, and the only thing it did for me was make me miss the many times I snorkeled up there for real. The Aquarium was just no match for the true thing.
As we left the aquarium, we were just in time for the evening Mass at the Cathedral, so I parted to attend Mass, and then re-joined Aunt Tara and Uncle John for dinner at a lovely Thai restaurant near their hotel (I LOVE Thai!). I left them that night with instructions for how to make their way to Clovelly, where the next night I was to cook them dinner.
They follow directions very well and just on time they came to the house, where I was so happy to be able to show somebody from home what I have been living this year! We had dinner, and Aunt Tara, ever thoughtful, had brought us some American chocolates, so we cracked those open – the boys weren’t going to waste any time!
I drove them back to their hotel (I know how much I enjoy NOT having to take public transportation in a foreign city) and as we left, I was unsure when I would see them again. God willing I will one day make a trip to Alaska to see where they live! But what a blessing to have that visit with them, and just me and them, half way around the world. Truly unique!
Keep pushing and…
With a new spirit and energy for life, we dove headfirst into the next two days of retreat preparation, ready for our first major retreat back from WYD, a 3-day overnight with year 10 girls. I quite enjoyed the retreat, but it was SO draining, I think only just now, a month and a half later, I am finally over its stress. I had quite a large role in the retreat, and with all of us still being a bit tired and out of it post-WYD, plus coming off a big trip the weekend before, it took its toll on all of us. I certainly got pretty burnt from it! And that’s where the troubles of the term began: at the beginning. Not a good place for issues to arise.
Just after that retreat was the wedding of Mary Issa, one of the beautiful women who works in the Sydney Uni Chapliancy (I have her to thank for much of my faith formation over the past year), and it was a beautiful wedding – her train was 18 feet long!
That Sunday ended up being a gorgeous day so a friend (Sarah…not the Sarah that stayed in Indy though) and I walked the Eastern Suburbs Coastal walk. It goes from Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach, passing a few other beaches along the way, one of them being Clovelly (where I live!). It’s a gorgeous walk, and the day was a marvelous one for it. It was good to get out and walk a bit of the stress off anyway.
The following week was complete with the Theology on Tap session given by Bishop Anthony Fisher, OP, the coordinator of WYD (he had a HEAVY job on his shoulders!), and a few retreats, along with some spiritual direction from the ever helpful Fr. Michael.
That Friday, I woke up feeling quite sick (there it is again, that WYD bug, popping up at “convenient” times!), but I had to fight the illness all day because that evening I was set to attend a Lebanese dinner dance (which appears nothing short of something like a formal high school prom for Catholic Maronites!). I had to go because a friend had bought me the ticket, and earlier in the year I hadn’t been able to go at another time when she had also had a few extra tickets. Not to mention a very good friend, Jason, was using this dinner dance as a farewell party – he has left for Lebanon to study in the Maronite seminary to be a priest! He will be there for 6 years…unless God provides me a trip to Lebanon, there is a real possibility I will never see him again! So sick or not, I was going to this dance. Besides, lots of water and some makeup always makes a girl feel better! Right?
Feel better…that was a relative term all night. I made it though, and I had quite a good time despite the fever and very sore throat. I learned how to dance the dabki, and witnessed the powerful Lebanese drums in action, as well as hear d lots of Arabic songs, saw a friend perform, and meet so many lovely Middle Eastern people! The food was wonderful, dancing was fun, and then, an absolute angel offered to give me a ride home at a time when I didn’t think I could actually hold off the illness anymore. He was so nice, because to take me home, he had to go something like 45 minutes out of the way! God bless him.
I collapsed into bed and stayed there pretty much until that Sunday, when I only got up long enough to go to Mass. I hoped that by allowing the virus or whatever it was to run its course it wouldn’t come back again later at another convenient time. So far so good!
Just after that retreat was the wedding of Mary Issa, one of the beautiful women who works in the Sydney Uni Chapliancy (I have her to thank for much of my faith formation over the past year), and it was a beautiful wedding – her train was 18 feet long!
That Sunday ended up being a gorgeous day so a friend (Sarah…not the Sarah that stayed in Indy though) and I walked the Eastern Suburbs Coastal walk. It goes from Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach, passing a few other beaches along the way, one of them being Clovelly (where I live!). It’s a gorgeous walk, and the day was a marvelous one for it. It was good to get out and walk a bit of the stress off anyway.
The following week was complete with the Theology on Tap session given by Bishop Anthony Fisher, OP, the coordinator of WYD (he had a HEAVY job on his shoulders!), and a few retreats, along with some spiritual direction from the ever helpful Fr. Michael.
That Friday, I woke up feeling quite sick (there it is again, that WYD bug, popping up at “convenient” times!), but I had to fight the illness all day because that evening I was set to attend a Lebanese dinner dance (which appears nothing short of something like a formal high school prom for Catholic Maronites!). I had to go because a friend had bought me the ticket, and earlier in the year I hadn’t been able to go at another time when she had also had a few extra tickets. Not to mention a very good friend, Jason, was using this dinner dance as a farewell party – he has left for Lebanon to study in the Maronite seminary to be a priest! He will be there for 6 years…unless God provides me a trip to Lebanon, there is a real possibility I will never see him again! So sick or not, I was going to this dance. Besides, lots of water and some makeup always makes a girl feel better! Right?
Feel better…that was a relative term all night. I made it though, and I had quite a good time despite the fever and very sore throat. I learned how to dance the dabki, and witnessed the powerful Lebanese drums in action, as well as hear d lots of Arabic songs, saw a friend perform, and meet so many lovely Middle Eastern people! The food was wonderful, dancing was fun, and then, an absolute angel offered to give me a ride home at a time when I didn’t think I could actually hold off the illness anymore. He was so nice, because to take me home, he had to go something like 45 minutes out of the way! God bless him.
I collapsed into bed and stayed there pretty much until that Sunday, when I only got up long enough to go to Mass. I hoped that by allowing the virus or whatever it was to run its course it wouldn’t come back again later at another convenient time. So far so good!
An Unknown Adventure
What did we do the day after Rachel left? We drove to Melbourne for the weekend. It’s about 600 miles away, so not your typical weekend destination. Yet, the four of us girls: Sharon, myself, Cecilia, and Anna did it anyway. The boys flew down - they’re pansies. The reason for this convergence on Melbourne (which is located in the southeast corner of Australia, for those of you following along at home on the map) was a first profession of vows Mass being held for 3 Capuchin brothers who had just spent a year of formation in the States and had now returned to Australia to continue their studies in their homeland. Since the boys on team will be joining the Capuchins and will very likely be doing the same thing in a few years, it was nice to see the ceremony, but also nice to take a roadtrip and to see a new city! I had very much been wanting to go to Melbourne, and I was not disappointed!
We drove through the Thursday night (beginning of August), and I was the lucky one who got the 3AM –Melbourne shift behind the wheel. It can be a very lonely hour to be driving, I discovered! However, I found ways to entertain myself. The road we were on (the stick-straight Hume Highway, paved from Sydney to Melbourne with almost no deviation) was lined with eucalyptus trees and every now and then signs appeared with koalas on them, saying they were in the area for the next 25 km, or whatever. I was so determined to see a koala: I turned on the bright lights and instead of peering at the road, peered intently at the trees whizzing by – but to no avail. I still have not caught a glimpse of a wild koala, which I find unfortunate!
When we left Sydney, everyone was convinced we were leaving late, because we were in for a 12-hour drive and we needed to get to Melbourne at a decent time in the morning so we could take naps, etc. so a 9PM departure from the CYS house was just pushing it. I don’t know who took 12-hours to drive that road, but 9 hours later, at the early time of 6AM, these four girls pulled into Melbourne before the sun, and…weren’t really sure what to do. Anna’s cousins live there and were expecting us at 11AM to stay with them for the weekend. Seeing as they were being such hospitable hosts, putting up 3 girls they didn’t know and a distant cousin, we didn’t think waking them up to tell them we had arrived 5 hours ahead of schedule would be the best “Hi there and hello” we could offer. And yet, that is what Anna did – and her being the relative, we just went with it. However, her cousins were extremely nice and had reserved us a hotel room because they felt it was too cold for us to be sleeping on the floor of their spare bedroom. Of course we protested, but she was adamant about the arrangement, and so gratefully, we checked into the motel just down the street and slept for the better part of that day.
That night we finally roused from our slumber and headed into the city to meet up with the boys (who were sleeping for some reason as well! I know for a fact they didn’t drive through the night, so I don’t know why *they* were tired!) for dinner and a wander around the cosmopolitan city of Melbourne, checking out the riverside walk and even the Casino. It’s really very artsy, with some different-looking architecture and a definite sense of culture. Sassy but classy, I think I might quite like to live in Melbourne! Although maybe not - that’s creeping a little too close to Antarctica for me. It was cold there!
And there are some interesting characters roaming the streets: a man in a full space suit, complete with space shoes and a helmet, was standing on a box with heaps of little sound gadgets connected to him and the box he was standing on playing a “space tune” and ‘singing’ or something…it was very weird. But funny! My favorite part of watching him though was when an ambulance drove by with the siren on and this space man had a siren sound that he started playing as well! We were just laughing hysterically at that.
The next day we went to the Capuchin’s profession, which was really lovely, and around 1PM, without any real plans for the rest of the day, I began scheming. The one attraction I just couldn’t stand to leave Melbourne without seeing was the Great Ocean Road, a long highway along the southern coast of Australia which is supposed to be beautiful! Along that highway, there are some natural sights worth stopping at, and as far as I know, the most famous ones are the 12 Apostles – you’ve probably seen pictures of these formations without knowing what you were looking at! They are the result of erosion: they stand just a few hundred meters from the coast, and their tops are level with the cliffs they presumably were separated from ages ago. At one time, I hear there were 12 of them but since their discovery, it would seem they themselves have eroded and collapsed, so now there only stand 11, or fewer even.
I was determined to see them, because it is unforeseeable that I will ever get to that part of the world again, and so I got a few loose directions from one of the Capuchin priests, rounded up the girls and jumped in the car, headed on a 2 hour journey (according the GPS) down the Great Ocean Road. By the time we really got going it was about 2PM, and even though a few people had mentioned the length of this expedition, I stubbornly didn’t believe them. They said it would take 4 hours, naaaa…surely it wasn’t THAT far to see these rocks.
After an hour of driving towards the coast, we hit the Great Ocean Road and it was BEAUTIFUL! A gorgeous day for the drive – it had been raining off and on throughout the morning but the sun was shining and so guess what was popping up everywhere? Rainbows! They were over the water and so fabulous to see. Some of them were just sitting on the horizon, others were off in a field next to the highway, but all were spectacular! And the scenery is just gorgeous on this drive – I really enjoyed just winding around the coast line, driving the speed limit which afforded a gaze or two towards the sea every now and then. We passed through lots of little tourist towns along the way, and I was just so happy to be alive that day – it was truly magnificent!
But it would seem that even in all my stubbornness, the GPS was wrong and the others were right. When, at some random point in the road, TomTom said “You have reached your destination.” There were no Apostles in sight. Cecilia, who had been napping in the back, called a friend who confirmed the inconvenient truth of the matter: It *WAS* a 4-hour drive from Melbourne to the 12 Apostles!
I pause here to simply interject the fact that I don’t know many occasions when I have actually jumped in a car driving in a general direction headed for something that I just assume is a certain distance away and that signs will point me there. It was so exhilarating to live such a free and whirlwind sort of day! No plans, no real direction, no sense of time…or distance…Just enjoying the ride, eventually hoping to get to a destination.
And so, two hours into the drive, we stopped and had a decision to make. Do we keep driving, pushing on towards the 12 Apostles, or do we turn around because it’s getting late? I desperately wanted to keep going, fighting time and sunlight until we reached those rocks, but I did have two other people along with me and I had to consider them. So I was quite surprised when they both said, “Just keep going! We’re already half way there, and what else are we going to do? It would be disappointing to have driven so far only to turn around.” I was just in such a state of bliss – I felt a bit bad, because I was ignorant of the true distance to these rocks, but in some ways, I wondered if I had known, if we would have gone at all? Probably not, and so I was grateful we had all been happily in the dark, not really caring!
So on we drove, and as the sun sank, along with our spirits (just a bit), we hit a drizzly, dark rainforest with windy roads – the kind where you can’t see around the bend and the speed limit, for that reason, is only 20mph. Because it was dark and slick, I was not taking any chances going faster than the recommended speed – not that I really could anyway! The curves were really tight. However, at one point along the journey, there were a few cars behind me, one of which was so impatient – I couldn’t even see his headlights he was riding my tail so closely! I suppose he finally decided he had enough, because on one of the curves he overtook us, but was quickly rebuked for this because his tires lost grip and he smashed into the guardrail – thank God there was a guardrail! It was a couple teenage boys…who knows what they were in such a hurry for, on such a dangerous road! We pulled up along side them, asking if they needed anything, and we got a very cold no, so praying for them, we drove on. I hope they learned their lesson not to be such idiots – at least no one was hurt.
A bit shaken, we pressed on further, and finally emerging from the rainforest to most darkness, we drove and drove till we reached the 12 Apostles. So it was dark, but the rain ceased long enough we could get out and walk down towards the lookout. The tourist center was closed and deserted, and only one other car was in the parking lot. We were actually a bit scared to walk through the dark to get out to the lookout, but luckily once we got past a certain patch of darkness there was a lit pathway (how nice of those people to install those!) and so down we trekked to see…the silhouettes of the 12 Apostles. At the time I was very positive, and actually very happy about the whole situation, saying how nice it was to see them in the dark, because almost nobody would ever get to do that, and how it was like a pilgrimage and we had really accomplished something in driving all that way, and that even though we couldn’t *really* see the natural wonder, everything had played out just how God had intended it and we were very blessed. I still believe all of that, but I can’t help wish we could have seen them in the daytime. If that was the case, I would still be able to see them in my memory! Because of the nature of the situation, for some time after our little trip down the Great Ocean Road, I had to remind myself that it actually happened – it felt something like a dream!
It was all very exciting though, despite the lack of visibility. It’s ok, I kept saying, we can look at pictures of them in the light – you can’t ever see them but in person in the dark! And so, that’s how our unknown adventure came about. And yes, we did then have a 4-hour drive back to Melbourne. In the dark completely.
The next morning, we got up, went to Mass at the Cathedral, grabbed some lunch, and headed back home – to Sydney. All in all, we decided we were a little bit crazy for driving over 2000km (1300 miles) in 3 days, but it was so worth it. I was so excited to be able to do it! An adventure I will remember for the rest of my life.
We drove through the Thursday night (beginning of August), and I was the lucky one who got the 3AM –Melbourne shift behind the wheel. It can be a very lonely hour to be driving, I discovered! However, I found ways to entertain myself. The road we were on (the stick-straight Hume Highway, paved from Sydney to Melbourne with almost no deviation) was lined with eucalyptus trees and every now and then signs appeared with koalas on them, saying they were in the area for the next 25 km, or whatever. I was so determined to see a koala: I turned on the bright lights and instead of peering at the road, peered intently at the trees whizzing by – but to no avail. I still have not caught a glimpse of a wild koala, which I find unfortunate!
When we left Sydney, everyone was convinced we were leaving late, because we were in for a 12-hour drive and we needed to get to Melbourne at a decent time in the morning so we could take naps, etc. so a 9PM departure from the CYS house was just pushing it. I don’t know who took 12-hours to drive that road, but 9 hours later, at the early time of 6AM, these four girls pulled into Melbourne before the sun, and…weren’t really sure what to do. Anna’s cousins live there and were expecting us at 11AM to stay with them for the weekend. Seeing as they were being such hospitable hosts, putting up 3 girls they didn’t know and a distant cousin, we didn’t think waking them up to tell them we had arrived 5 hours ahead of schedule would be the best “Hi there and hello” we could offer. And yet, that is what Anna did – and her being the relative, we just went with it. However, her cousins were extremely nice and had reserved us a hotel room because they felt it was too cold for us to be sleeping on the floor of their spare bedroom. Of course we protested, but she was adamant about the arrangement, and so gratefully, we checked into the motel just down the street and slept for the better part of that day.
That night we finally roused from our slumber and headed into the city to meet up with the boys (who were sleeping for some reason as well! I know for a fact they didn’t drive through the night, so I don’t know why *they* were tired!) for dinner and a wander around the cosmopolitan city of Melbourne, checking out the riverside walk and even the Casino. It’s really very artsy, with some different-looking architecture and a definite sense of culture. Sassy but classy, I think I might quite like to live in Melbourne! Although maybe not - that’s creeping a little too close to Antarctica for me. It was cold there!
And there are some interesting characters roaming the streets: a man in a full space suit, complete with space shoes and a helmet, was standing on a box with heaps of little sound gadgets connected to him and the box he was standing on playing a “space tune” and ‘singing’ or something…it was very weird. But funny! My favorite part of watching him though was when an ambulance drove by with the siren on and this space man had a siren sound that he started playing as well! We were just laughing hysterically at that.
The next day we went to the Capuchin’s profession, which was really lovely, and around 1PM, without any real plans for the rest of the day, I began scheming. The one attraction I just couldn’t stand to leave Melbourne without seeing was the Great Ocean Road, a long highway along the southern coast of Australia which is supposed to be beautiful! Along that highway, there are some natural sights worth stopping at, and as far as I know, the most famous ones are the 12 Apostles – you’ve probably seen pictures of these formations without knowing what you were looking at! They are the result of erosion: they stand just a few hundred meters from the coast, and their tops are level with the cliffs they presumably were separated from ages ago. At one time, I hear there were 12 of them but since their discovery, it would seem they themselves have eroded and collapsed, so now there only stand 11, or fewer even.
I was determined to see them, because it is unforeseeable that I will ever get to that part of the world again, and so I got a few loose directions from one of the Capuchin priests, rounded up the girls and jumped in the car, headed on a 2 hour journey (according the GPS) down the Great Ocean Road. By the time we really got going it was about 2PM, and even though a few people had mentioned the length of this expedition, I stubbornly didn’t believe them. They said it would take 4 hours, naaaa…surely it wasn’t THAT far to see these rocks.
After an hour of driving towards the coast, we hit the Great Ocean Road and it was BEAUTIFUL! A gorgeous day for the drive – it had been raining off and on throughout the morning but the sun was shining and so guess what was popping up everywhere? Rainbows! They were over the water and so fabulous to see. Some of them were just sitting on the horizon, others were off in a field next to the highway, but all were spectacular! And the scenery is just gorgeous on this drive – I really enjoyed just winding around the coast line, driving the speed limit which afforded a gaze or two towards the sea every now and then. We passed through lots of little tourist towns along the way, and I was just so happy to be alive that day – it was truly magnificent!
But it would seem that even in all my stubbornness, the GPS was wrong and the others were right. When, at some random point in the road, TomTom said “You have reached your destination.” There were no Apostles in sight. Cecilia, who had been napping in the back, called a friend who confirmed the inconvenient truth of the matter: It *WAS* a 4-hour drive from Melbourne to the 12 Apostles!
I pause here to simply interject the fact that I don’t know many occasions when I have actually jumped in a car driving in a general direction headed for something that I just assume is a certain distance away and that signs will point me there. It was so exhilarating to live such a free and whirlwind sort of day! No plans, no real direction, no sense of time…or distance…Just enjoying the ride, eventually hoping to get to a destination.
And so, two hours into the drive, we stopped and had a decision to make. Do we keep driving, pushing on towards the 12 Apostles, or do we turn around because it’s getting late? I desperately wanted to keep going, fighting time and sunlight until we reached those rocks, but I did have two other people along with me and I had to consider them. So I was quite surprised when they both said, “Just keep going! We’re already half way there, and what else are we going to do? It would be disappointing to have driven so far only to turn around.” I was just in such a state of bliss – I felt a bit bad, because I was ignorant of the true distance to these rocks, but in some ways, I wondered if I had known, if we would have gone at all? Probably not, and so I was grateful we had all been happily in the dark, not really caring!
So on we drove, and as the sun sank, along with our spirits (just a bit), we hit a drizzly, dark rainforest with windy roads – the kind where you can’t see around the bend and the speed limit, for that reason, is only 20mph. Because it was dark and slick, I was not taking any chances going faster than the recommended speed – not that I really could anyway! The curves were really tight. However, at one point along the journey, there were a few cars behind me, one of which was so impatient – I couldn’t even see his headlights he was riding my tail so closely! I suppose he finally decided he had enough, because on one of the curves he overtook us, but was quickly rebuked for this because his tires lost grip and he smashed into the guardrail – thank God there was a guardrail! It was a couple teenage boys…who knows what they were in such a hurry for, on such a dangerous road! We pulled up along side them, asking if they needed anything, and we got a very cold no, so praying for them, we drove on. I hope they learned their lesson not to be such idiots – at least no one was hurt.
A bit shaken, we pressed on further, and finally emerging from the rainforest to most darkness, we drove and drove till we reached the 12 Apostles. So it was dark, but the rain ceased long enough we could get out and walk down towards the lookout. The tourist center was closed and deserted, and only one other car was in the parking lot. We were actually a bit scared to walk through the dark to get out to the lookout, but luckily once we got past a certain patch of darkness there was a lit pathway (how nice of those people to install those!) and so down we trekked to see…the silhouettes of the 12 Apostles. At the time I was very positive, and actually very happy about the whole situation, saying how nice it was to see them in the dark, because almost nobody would ever get to do that, and how it was like a pilgrimage and we had really accomplished something in driving all that way, and that even though we couldn’t *really* see the natural wonder, everything had played out just how God had intended it and we were very blessed. I still believe all of that, but I can’t help wish we could have seen them in the daytime. If that was the case, I would still be able to see them in my memory! Because of the nature of the situation, for some time after our little trip down the Great Ocean Road, I had to remind myself that it actually happened – it felt something like a dream!
It was all very exciting though, despite the lack of visibility. It’s ok, I kept saying, we can look at pictures of them in the light – you can’t ever see them but in person in the dark! And so, that’s how our unknown adventure came about. And yes, we did then have a 4-hour drive back to Melbourne. In the dark completely.
The next morning, we got up, went to Mass at the Cathedral, grabbed some lunch, and headed back home – to Sydney. All in all, we decided we were a little bit crazy for driving over 2000km (1300 miles) in 3 days, but it was so worth it. I was so excited to be able to do it! An adventure I will remember for the rest of my life.
The More that was In Store.
You may, of course, wonder how it was I woke up feeling so sick on the morning of WYD, but still managed not to get completely sick the next week. I wondered the same thing myself. However, in hindsight it would seem that my body was holding out for a more “convenient” time – like team debrief. For 5 days and 4 nights, the team ‘retreated’ to a lakehouse on the central coast of NSW, to place called Avoca (I’d been there twice before during out last holidays – once for the reptile park and another for a retreat with the Dominicans). It was a lovely house – comfortable, relaxing, beautifully located – but it was cold. And I felt ill most of the time. And it was stressful, quite honestly. This was a time for the team to air out any “concerns” from the past 6 months, and to state opinions on how to move forward. As you can imagine, both very good and very bad things came out of this time away.
One nice thing was a day trip to Hunter Valley, New South Wales’ prime spot for wineries. I had never been in a winery, no less 6 in one day, so it was quite the experience – it was all so rich! However, this was the day I was feeling the most sick of all, and since I have made a personal commitment not to drink this year, even though I figured it would probably help the pain, I didn’t take a sip of alcohol. Which made my tagging along a bit silly. However, I actually did enjoy just wandering around the wineries, looking at all the different things they had to sell other than bottles of wine, and even studying their method of displaying those prized wine bottles. My efforts were not in vain though because our last stop was a very delicious chocolate store! That was more up my alley.
After this day away from a few days away, we closed the debrief on a fairly positive note and made our way back to Sydney to prepare for Rachel’s farewell party – she was leaving the next Wednesday! However, I was quite sad because at the same time, I also had to say farewell to my dear friend Jovina – she was setting off for Spain on a once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela – the place of the body of St. James. She was flying to London to see her sister, then along with another friend, traveling to Lourdes in France to begin an 850km walk across the top of Spain, following which she would go to Fatima and then back to London before coming home to Sydney. Length of trip: 2 months. AH! Jovina, who I spoke with or messaged nearly every day, who I saw at least once a week if not more, who I just love so much: GONE for two months!? As I write this, those two months are finally drawing to a close, and I am so thankful – they were definitely the hardest two months of the year thus far! (not *just* because Jovi was gone but I think it had an effect!) It’s ok though because we stayed united in prayer.
So we had Cecilia’s 25th birthday party (/my staying party….riiiight.) and then on Rachel’s last night in Sydney, we drove around the Olympic Park (she hadn’t gotten to see it her whole time in the city!) and took crazy pictures…I guess that’s the best you can offer when you’re on a mission team! The next night, we made it a girl’s event to take Rachel to the airport and spent the time until she boarded with her, just sharing some last laughs and a cup of Starbucks tea. And then she left.
And we left the airport, and carried on with life. Strange, really.
One nice thing was a day trip to Hunter Valley, New South Wales’ prime spot for wineries. I had never been in a winery, no less 6 in one day, so it was quite the experience – it was all so rich! However, this was the day I was feeling the most sick of all, and since I have made a personal commitment not to drink this year, even though I figured it would probably help the pain, I didn’t take a sip of alcohol. Which made my tagging along a bit silly. However, I actually did enjoy just wandering around the wineries, looking at all the different things they had to sell other than bottles of wine, and even studying their method of displaying those prized wine bottles. My efforts were not in vain though because our last stop was a very delicious chocolate store! That was more up my alley.
After this day away from a few days away, we closed the debrief on a fairly positive note and made our way back to Sydney to prepare for Rachel’s farewell party – she was leaving the next Wednesday! However, I was quite sad because at the same time, I also had to say farewell to my dear friend Jovina – she was setting off for Spain on a once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela – the place of the body of St. James. She was flying to London to see her sister, then along with another friend, traveling to Lourdes in France to begin an 850km walk across the top of Spain, following which she would go to Fatima and then back to London before coming home to Sydney. Length of trip: 2 months. AH! Jovina, who I spoke with or messaged nearly every day, who I saw at least once a week if not more, who I just love so much: GONE for two months!? As I write this, those two months are finally drawing to a close, and I am so thankful – they were definitely the hardest two months of the year thus far! (not *just* because Jovi was gone but I think it had an effect!) It’s ok though because we stayed united in prayer.
So we had Cecilia’s 25th birthday party (/my staying party….riiiight.) and then on Rachel’s last night in Sydney, we drove around the Olympic Park (she hadn’t gotten to see it her whole time in the city!) and took crazy pictures…I guess that’s the best you can offer when you’re on a mission team! The next night, we made it a girl’s event to take Rachel to the airport and spent the time until she boarded with her, just sharing some last laughs and a cup of Starbucks tea. And then she left.
And we left the airport, and carried on with life. Strange, really.
Now what?
So WYD was over. And I had a week off, but what to do? I felt like it all came to a screeching halt, and the pilgrims scattered and so did the team, and suddenly the world, which had been spinning faster than I could keep up stopped. And there was time to calm down, chill out, catch up – with friends and on sleep – and it was all just a bit sad. The big event, one that many in Sydney had been preparing for for 3 years, had come and gone, and for the better part of a year I had been swept along as well, and it was so surreal to think that suddenly: that was all.
I had a shred of hope when I woke up Monday morning because we were making our way into the city one last time for an audience with the Pope. Sounds pretty exciting, but it actually disappointed me a bit. We got there a bit later than we should have, and after some security complications, we finally got into the area where about 3 or 4 thousand WYD volunteers had also gathered for the same audience. I was towards the back of the group, so I couldn’t see the stage too well, but that’s ok! The Pope drove around the back on his way up to the stage, so his Popemobile passed pretty close to where I was standing – but you know what happened? When I looked up to catch a glimpse of our Holy Father, all I caught was the sun in my eye! I was blinded and couldn’t see anything! However, my thought is that one day I will be able to see the Holy Father, minus blinding sunlight. Maybe I’ll get to go to the Vatican someday!
That Monday, the task of sorting out my visa once again came to the forefront as I realized I only had two and a half weeks until a plane was set to depart with me on it (unless, of course, I changed my ticket), and so that didn’t give us much time to figure things out! In fact, our director came over that day and explained that things were not looking promising, and it was very likely I would have to go home prematurely. In a frenzy, I spent the next week preparing for departure, as it was looking all too imminent! I was so upset. However, during that time I had off, I came to be ok with the concept, and in fact, at one point, was even looking forward to going home so soon, but obviously God had other plans.
In the meantime, I tried to enjoy my much earned “break”. I would call it more of a recovery period. I saw “The Dark Knight” Batman movie with friends, attended a farewell dinner for two Dominican brothers who had been in Sydney for some time, spoke with friends and family from home, attended a post-WYD French “catechesis” session with a friend, and caught up with a few more friends for Mass and a hot chocolate. In between all this I just tried to relax at home, catching extra sleep and watching a movie or two. On the Friday after WYD they had an “Adios” party at one of the houses where WYD long-term volunteers from overseas and interstate had lived – most of them left shortly after that, so it was one of the last nights the whole group was together. The next day I spent some time with Alana, the girl from Texas, and funny enough, as we were romping through the city we ran into several friends at different points! I don’t think anyone knew what to do with themselves. “You mean we have free time?!” We went through the WYD merchandise store (lots of sales!), had some lunch/dinner, went to Mass and then went on a drive to pick up Rachel from the airport – she had been in Melbourne.
And with that, everyone started making their way back to normal life. The team came back together and come Monday, we had another retreat. It was a bit random, just one week after WYD ended. However, Rachel and I thought it was our last retreat (still no word on the visa at this point!) so there was a big to-do about that at the end of the whole thing…I couldn’t really care less! At that point I was so tired and over it, I just needed even more of a break! Recovery didn’t come soon enough.
However, we got after the retreat that progress had been made with immigration and if I would just fill out a few forms, I could be assured an extension would be granted and no departure would have to be made after all. Of course by this stage, that wasn’t quite the news I was hoping for – it’s funny how quickly my attitude had turned around! A meeting later, the forms were in and a few days after that a bridging visa was granted. It was cause for celebration, but I had (just in case) already organized a farewell party! I changed the date and title so it morphed into a “staying party”, which I had in conjunction with Cecilia’s 25th birthday party – I felt a bit silly that all these messages had been sent out for a farewell, but all are friends and so understanding. I told them not to worry though, we would reschedule the farewell for sometime in December!
It would seem that more was still in store this side of the equator…
I had a shred of hope when I woke up Monday morning because we were making our way into the city one last time for an audience with the Pope. Sounds pretty exciting, but it actually disappointed me a bit. We got there a bit later than we should have, and after some security complications, we finally got into the area where about 3 or 4 thousand WYD volunteers had also gathered for the same audience. I was towards the back of the group, so I couldn’t see the stage too well, but that’s ok! The Pope drove around the back on his way up to the stage, so his Popemobile passed pretty close to where I was standing – but you know what happened? When I looked up to catch a glimpse of our Holy Father, all I caught was the sun in my eye! I was blinded and couldn’t see anything! However, my thought is that one day I will be able to see the Holy Father, minus blinding sunlight. Maybe I’ll get to go to the Vatican someday!
That Monday, the task of sorting out my visa once again came to the forefront as I realized I only had two and a half weeks until a plane was set to depart with me on it (unless, of course, I changed my ticket), and so that didn’t give us much time to figure things out! In fact, our director came over that day and explained that things were not looking promising, and it was very likely I would have to go home prematurely. In a frenzy, I spent the next week preparing for departure, as it was looking all too imminent! I was so upset. However, during that time I had off, I came to be ok with the concept, and in fact, at one point, was even looking forward to going home so soon, but obviously God had other plans.
In the meantime, I tried to enjoy my much earned “break”. I would call it more of a recovery period. I saw “The Dark Knight” Batman movie with friends, attended a farewell dinner for two Dominican brothers who had been in Sydney for some time, spoke with friends and family from home, attended a post-WYD French “catechesis” session with a friend, and caught up with a few more friends for Mass and a hot chocolate. In between all this I just tried to relax at home, catching extra sleep and watching a movie or two. On the Friday after WYD they had an “Adios” party at one of the houses where WYD long-term volunteers from overseas and interstate had lived – most of them left shortly after that, so it was one of the last nights the whole group was together. The next day I spent some time with Alana, the girl from Texas, and funny enough, as we were romping through the city we ran into several friends at different points! I don’t think anyone knew what to do with themselves. “You mean we have free time?!” We went through the WYD merchandise store (lots of sales!), had some lunch/dinner, went to Mass and then went on a drive to pick up Rachel from the airport – she had been in Melbourne.
And with that, everyone started making their way back to normal life. The team came back together and come Monday, we had another retreat. It was a bit random, just one week after WYD ended. However, Rachel and I thought it was our last retreat (still no word on the visa at this point!) so there was a big to-do about that at the end of the whole thing…I couldn’t really care less! At that point I was so tired and over it, I just needed even more of a break! Recovery didn’t come soon enough.
However, we got after the retreat that progress had been made with immigration and if I would just fill out a few forms, I could be assured an extension would be granted and no departure would have to be made after all. Of course by this stage, that wasn’t quite the news I was hoping for – it’s funny how quickly my attitude had turned around! A meeting later, the forms were in and a few days after that a bridging visa was granted. It was cause for celebration, but I had (just in case) already organized a farewell party! I changed the date and title so it morphed into a “staying party”, which I had in conjunction with Cecilia’s 25th birthday party – I felt a bit silly that all these messages had been sent out for a farewell, but all are friends and so understanding. I told them not to worry though, we would reschedule the farewell for sometime in December!
It would seem that more was still in store this side of the equator…
WORLD YOUTH DAY: SUNDAY, JULY 20, 2008
In the cold crazy air of Sydney that holy night of WYD, I got more sleep than I had gotten the rest of the week combined. Amazing! Yet, somehow, I woke up feeling like I would never be warm again and like I would never be well again - I felt awful! Funny: as I opened my eyes at around 6AM, happy to see that it was the light of day and not the light of the screen blinding me, I focused on that screen reading, “If you feel ill, please find a FIRST AID tent.” As I laid there, feeling feverish and achy, I thought it was a sign from God. However, I hardly had the strength to get up, let alone try to find some tent in the endless maze of Randwick Racecourse! Instead, I ate an orange, knowing Vitamin C couldn’t hurt!
After a while I finally got up, packed up, and made my way over to the VIP section one last time for the Final Mass. Cecilia came with me this time, and we once again braved the toilets and then ate some more breakfast with enough time for the one-hour fast before Mass. Now after I had disgraced myself falling asleep throughout most of the Vigil, I was very intent on staying awake and fully alert during the Mass, but would you like to know what actually happened? I missed most of it. I could not keep my sick weary eyes open! Right after Pope Benedict’s homily, I got up with Cecilia to walk around a bit (I think she may have been falling asleep too) and just as I took one step I tripped and fell! Not a good sign…
I was just so disappointed that I was there but missing WYD! However, my thoughts were that maybe God had already spoken to me throughout the rest of the week and my body couldn’t take anymore! I don’t know…
After the Mass Cecilia and I went to lunch with many of the Dominican Sisters from Nashville, and then made our way home.
I took a shower, and tried to eat some real food, and a little later I went into the city and met up with Jovi - we were going to have dinner with lots of friends, but it ended up just being us two and her boyfriend! We did have some good ice cream, but I think the general feeling was that of a deflated balloon - they look great at the party, but once the air goes out, what do you do with it? Fatigue was fast taking over, so we called it a night, and once more, I laid down, asleep before my head hit the pillow.
And that was it. WYD was over.
After a while I finally got up, packed up, and made my way over to the VIP section one last time for the Final Mass. Cecilia came with me this time, and we once again braved the toilets and then ate some more breakfast with enough time for the one-hour fast before Mass. Now after I had disgraced myself falling asleep throughout most of the Vigil, I was very intent on staying awake and fully alert during the Mass, but would you like to know what actually happened? I missed most of it. I could not keep my sick weary eyes open! Right after Pope Benedict’s homily, I got up with Cecilia to walk around a bit (I think she may have been falling asleep too) and just as I took one step I tripped and fell! Not a good sign…
I was just so disappointed that I was there but missing WYD! However, my thoughts were that maybe God had already spoken to me throughout the rest of the week and my body couldn’t take anymore! I don’t know…
After the Mass Cecilia and I went to lunch with many of the Dominican Sisters from Nashville, and then made our way home.
I took a shower, and tried to eat some real food, and a little later I went into the city and met up with Jovi - we were going to have dinner with lots of friends, but it ended up just being us two and her boyfriend! We did have some good ice cream, but I think the general feeling was that of a deflated balloon - they look great at the party, but once the air goes out, what do you do with it? Fatigue was fast taking over, so we called it a night, and once more, I laid down, asleep before my head hit the pillow.
And that was it. WYD was over.
SATURDAY, JULY 19, 2008
Rising at the late hour of 7AM, I was one of the first people up! I don’t blame any of those people for sleeping in - we had already had an exhausting week. I dragged myself through my morning routine, wanting to just join those others in another hour of sleep, but NO! This morning, I was on my way to a gathering of the US pilgrims! Most nations (I assume) have a gathering at some point during WYD, and the American National Gathering was held Saturday morning before the pilgrim walk. Starting at 8AM, there was a concert in the Domain, a section of the Botanical Gardens which are located on the beautiful Sydney Harbor, and then there was a Mass, said by Francis Cardinal George, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. *Matt Maher*, Steven Angrisano, and others were the cantors for the Mass, and I’m guessing there were probably about 8,000 people there - 8,000 Americans! In Sydney! Ahhh…it was like home. It made me miss the States!
The wonderful thing was, I had someone to share the experience with! But not an American…Mark, one of the guys who helps CYS with some of our retreats (just coming along for the day), had joined our pilgrim group for WYD and was staying at our house for the week, and a day or two earlier, he had told me he was interested in going to the American National Gathering with me, just to see what it was like - to see what the crazy Americans were all about! I wasn’t sure if he would get up to come, but when I knocked on his door, he assured me he would be ready in time to leave. I have to say I am SO thankful he came, because it would have been very sad to fly solo yet again. And I further have to say that the day spent with Mark ended up being one of my favorite and most prayerful experiences during the entire week! I think he really enjoyed it as well - he liked meeting so many Americans!
We sat with the Sisters of Life at the Mass - although there weren’t too many of them. Most of the young religious and seminarians were at the Cathedral Saturday morning for a Mass celebrated by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. I definitely would have chosen that over the Americans any day! So I only knew one of the Sisters there, but we sat by them for the Mass, and afterwards, I went to find the group from Indy, which wasn’t too hard, surprisingly! I introduced them to Mark, and he hit it off with Fr. Meyer especially. The reason? Mark is quite possibly going to entire the seminary next year, and Fr. Meyer, who loves vocations, was trying to convince him to come to the seminary in Indianapolis. As if that was even a possibility for an Australian! I suppose it is possible, but why?
So Mark and I tagged along with the ArchIndy group as they began their pilgrim walk. So now you may be wondering what the pilgrim walk is? Well every year, incorporated into the last two days of WYD is a pilgrimage to the final destination of the week: the place where they will have the Closing Mass on World Youth Day itself (yes, it’s a week long event, but one of the days IS actually designated *the* World Youth Day!). The last WYD in Germany included a pilgrimage of 25 km or something! In miles….something like 15. This WYD in Sydney had a pilgrimage walk of about 12km, so 7.5ish miles?
Let me tell you a bit about the layout of the city and the pilgrimage. I live in Clovelly, in the Eastern Suburbs - which are right on the coast. Just west of Clovelly, the next suburb over is Randwick, and this is where the final Mass, etc. was taking place - in Randwick Racecourse. This is normally a place of horse races, but it was shut down for a few months to prepare for the 500,000 people would stuff themselves in it to sleep and pray. So from our house, the Racecourse was a 20 minute walk. However, the official pilgrimage began in North Sydney, which is through the city and over the Harbor Bridge. The plan of the CYS group was the walk to Randwick, drop their bags, walk to Central Station (not a small trek) and then take a train to North Sydney, walk over the Harbor Bridge (an enticing feature of the walk!) and all the way back to Randwick. A big loop! However, because Mark and I went to the Mass, we were planning to walk from there to Central or North Sydney, wherever the group happened to be, and meet up with them in order to do the walk as a whole bunch!
However.
When Mark and I got finished with the Mass, we gave the group a call to find out where they were. Now, mind you, they were scheduled to start the pilgrim walk and walk over the bridge at 1pm. At 12noon, they were still at Randwick!! It would take at least an hour or two to walk to Central, and then get to North Sydney. Mark and I decided we would just go ahead without them and make it a pilgrimage of two because to wait for them would have taken forever.
So we walked with the Indianapolis group to Central and then split off from them - they continued walking towards Randwick (forget about crossing the bridge, they said!) and we caught a train to North Sydney to join the thousands of other pilgrims in crossing the Harbor on foot.
It was SO exciting to walk across the bridge. For only the second time in the history of the Sydney Harbor Bridge (opened in 1932) it was completely closed to traffic either direction so that the pilgrims of the world who had come to Sydney could walk across it, with their colors and flags and backpacks! I especially wanted to complete the walk because I still get a thrill every time I cross the Harbor Bridge (it’s just such a beautiful piece of architecture with a gorgeous view!), and to be able to walk across it - right down the middle where the cars normally drive - would be a once in a lifetime experience! And with thousands of other people at that! And, the weather was beautiful. God really was looking out for all of us with the sunshine and nice temperature!
So Mark and I walked across the bridge, and the reason I said that it was a very prayerful experience is that we made a decision before we began that we wouldn’t complain the whole walk. At this point, we were tired both physically and mentally, and walking such a long distance after such a crazy week was not exactly the easiest thing, but in just being positive, the experience was positive. Complaining the whole way would have only put a damper on it! So we struck a deal that if either of us complained, the other needed to call it out and we would both say a decade of the rosary. We got to Randwick with one decade of the 5 to go…so only 4 complaints! Before we entered the racecourse we went ahead and finished it off.
While we were still walking, I think we were very blessed in that we passed this construction site - a building in progress - and one of the workers must have been on his break because he was standing out on one of the platforms of the building waving at all the pilgrims walking past: and he was holding up a huge wooden cross. My guess is that he made it out of some scrap wood laying around the building site, but WOW. What a blessed site - it really touched me! I took quite a few pictures - those along with all the pictures from the week will be posted soon! (slowly but surely I’m getting this all caught up).
Mark and I stopped in Darling Harbor to eat some lunch, which consisted of the lot of junk I had stuffed in my backpack but not eaten throughout the week. Lots of chocolate and some chips, basically. Yummmmm.
It was actually quite warm, so I had taken off most of my layers until I was wearing only some colorful boxer shorts over tights, no socks with my tennis shoes, and a WYD baseball tee. O and an American flag cape and WYD bandana around my head. I looked like a superhero. At this point, I decided the only thing I needed to complete the outfit were some sunglasses - preferably aviators. For weeks I had been wanting to go buy some at Paddy’s Market, a huge market with cheap everything-under-the-sun, open every weekend in Chinatown. Well it just so happened that this day was Saturday, and the pilgrim walk took us right by Paddy’s! So with Mark’s permission (haha) we stopped in to search for some aviators. The only condition was they had to be under $7 because that was all the money I had on me, and he only had about 5 cents. True pilgrims!
We didn’t want to take up too much time from our pilgrimage, so I wanted to find these sunglasses quick and get back on the road. The first “sunnies” stall we found had some sunglasses that I really liked, and that were very good quality, and that were the right look, but they were $10! However, in the spirit of WYD, I decided to ask the man if he wouldn’t mind selling them to me for $7. He was very jovial, and before he gave me an answer, he said, “Where are you from?” I said Indiana, and he said, “Well, if I come to Indiana, I expect a deal from you!” I laughed and assured him he would get one (like he’s ever gonna come there and find me…but if he did, done!) He took pity on this poor American!
So with my new sunglasses and a surge of energy, Mark and I pressed on, traversing the city of Sydney surrounded by many others on the same route. When we finally made it to Randwick, we had to wait in a line at our gate to get our bag of food. Instead of packing 6 people’s dinner into one bag, they packed a bag of assorted food items for one person. Each person, on their way into the racecourse, picked up a bag and that was the food they got until they left after the Final Mass. They also had little soup stands throughout the place, but the lines were long and the prices were high. I’ll stick with my cold can of cuss-cuss and brownie bites, thanks. (it wasn’t gourmet, that’s for sure!)
Once inside the racecourse, Mark and I stood just inside the gate staring at the mass of humanity before us - it was chaos in that racecourse! All these little sections of sleeping bags and tents and bags and people, and little aisles to walk around the whole place - to get from one side to the other could have taken an hour! Winding through the paths was insane. I actually was feeling a bit claustrophobic!
It took Mark and I quite some time to figure out where our group was, and only after calling someone did we finally figure out which letter and number section we were in. I can’t tell you how many letters or numbers they used, but we were in J, and we weren’t even in the back, so it’s possible they used over half the alphabet, plus then # 1 - 6 at least! And within each section like that there were many little sections that weren’t labeled at all! With everything strewn everywhere, it was all so confusing. We arrived around 4pm, so most of the pilgrims were already there, but because of the delay the rest of our group had getting OUT of Randwick to actually do the walk, they didn’t arrive until around 5pm, and let me tell you, they didn’t get there a moment too soon. Just as Mark and I began to settle into the section that was “bagged out” and guarded by a few trusty group members, “WYD staff” were telling us we had to take over our section or we would lose it to a huge group of Filipinos who needed somewhere to go…which means we needed to lay out everyone’s sleeping bags and take up as much room as we thought we would need for our whole group to sleep, because any space we didn’t need would be claimed. AH! It was so stressful. We got out as many sleeping bags as we could find and laid out as much stuff as we could, and when we were done, it was like a swarm of bees descending as the other groups took every inch they could get!
I will say that the only nice thing about this period of the day was that Matt Maher was on stage playing - so good to hear him again! And lucky us, we were right underneath a big screen, so we could see pretty well…on that at least. Too bad we were SO far from the stage!
Once we finally had a minute to breath, I just plopped down - I was SO exhausted. After eating some of the food they had provided, I began to get ready to head over to the VIP section (still had more VIP tickets!) to get a seat for the Evening Vigil. This Evening Vigil was a time of prayer and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament with the Holy Father, and I think there were some performances and things. Jovina was one of the emcees! She looked SO pretty, standing there in front of hundreds of thousands of people! I took a picture of her from where I was standing, but the thing was, even in the VIP section I was so far away she turned out as a faceless figure on my camera!
Picking a few chairs and sitting there shivering, waiting for the Vigil to begin and end so I could go back and go to sleep, I don’t remember much of the rest of the night. I was so incredibly tired that I didn’t actually hear much of what was being said or see much of what was going on during the Vigil. Desperately fighting to stay awake, I only vaguely even remember adoration! It was freezing outside as well, and we were holding candles - mine was dripping wax everywhere, so I was holding it so the wax wouldn’t drip on my clothes. However, even holding a candle I dozed off a bit and dropped it! I freaked out a bit and was so glad the grass didn’t catch on fire - can you imagine the headlines? “Fatigued American drops candle, Randwick alight” AH!
I felt so sad that I couldn’t stay awake and alert for one of the most special and important parts of the week! I heard it was a beautiful evening, but I couldn’t tell you from experience. After the Vigil was over, we made our way back to our pod, and I decided I might have better luck with a toilet in the VIP section than in the normal section, so I waited in line for quite a while, and just before reaching the front, the message was being passed back that the trailer with 6 toilets in it was flooded, and only 1 was working anymore. Can I honestly say that I have never seen bathrooms in such a state as I did at WYD! The conditions are less than sanitary - so much that I was tempted to hold it the whole time! It was a true adventure to use a restroom along with 400,000 other people. A massive operation indeed.
After that shenanigans I headed straight back to our section and I crawled right into my sleeping bag and went to sleep. Well tried anyway. That was how I tried to fight the cold - we were SO cold! It took a long time but I think I finally drifted to sleep - although the light from the screen was on all night, and there were even performances for some time after the vigil as well. One band from Washington DC was playing and everyone had gotten up and was dancing, but I just couldn’t move! I was too cold and tired and I was beginning to feel very ill. I only remembered this later when someone else mentioned it, by around 2AM some crazy pilgrims were running through the racecourse beating drums and screaming “WAKE UP PILGRIMS!!” Why? We may never know…It didn't really work on me!
The wonderful thing was, I had someone to share the experience with! But not an American…Mark, one of the guys who helps CYS with some of our retreats (just coming along for the day), had joined our pilgrim group for WYD and was staying at our house for the week, and a day or two earlier, he had told me he was interested in going to the American National Gathering with me, just to see what it was like - to see what the crazy Americans were all about! I wasn’t sure if he would get up to come, but when I knocked on his door, he assured me he would be ready in time to leave. I have to say I am SO thankful he came, because it would have been very sad to fly solo yet again. And I further have to say that the day spent with Mark ended up being one of my favorite and most prayerful experiences during the entire week! I think he really enjoyed it as well - he liked meeting so many Americans!
We sat with the Sisters of Life at the Mass - although there weren’t too many of them. Most of the young religious and seminarians were at the Cathedral Saturday morning for a Mass celebrated by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. I definitely would have chosen that over the Americans any day! So I only knew one of the Sisters there, but we sat by them for the Mass, and afterwards, I went to find the group from Indy, which wasn’t too hard, surprisingly! I introduced them to Mark, and he hit it off with Fr. Meyer especially. The reason? Mark is quite possibly going to entire the seminary next year, and Fr. Meyer, who loves vocations, was trying to convince him to come to the seminary in Indianapolis. As if that was even a possibility for an Australian! I suppose it is possible, but why?
So Mark and I tagged along with the ArchIndy group as they began their pilgrim walk. So now you may be wondering what the pilgrim walk is? Well every year, incorporated into the last two days of WYD is a pilgrimage to the final destination of the week: the place where they will have the Closing Mass on World Youth Day itself (yes, it’s a week long event, but one of the days IS actually designated *the* World Youth Day!). The last WYD in Germany included a pilgrimage of 25 km or something! In miles….something like 15. This WYD in Sydney had a pilgrimage walk of about 12km, so 7.5ish miles?
Let me tell you a bit about the layout of the city and the pilgrimage. I live in Clovelly, in the Eastern Suburbs - which are right on the coast. Just west of Clovelly, the next suburb over is Randwick, and this is where the final Mass, etc. was taking place - in Randwick Racecourse. This is normally a place of horse races, but it was shut down for a few months to prepare for the 500,000 people would stuff themselves in it to sleep and pray. So from our house, the Racecourse was a 20 minute walk. However, the official pilgrimage began in North Sydney, which is through the city and over the Harbor Bridge. The plan of the CYS group was the walk to Randwick, drop their bags, walk to Central Station (not a small trek) and then take a train to North Sydney, walk over the Harbor Bridge (an enticing feature of the walk!) and all the way back to Randwick. A big loop! However, because Mark and I went to the Mass, we were planning to walk from there to Central or North Sydney, wherever the group happened to be, and meet up with them in order to do the walk as a whole bunch!
However.
When Mark and I got finished with the Mass, we gave the group a call to find out where they were. Now, mind you, they were scheduled to start the pilgrim walk and walk over the bridge at 1pm. At 12noon, they were still at Randwick!! It would take at least an hour or two to walk to Central, and then get to North Sydney. Mark and I decided we would just go ahead without them and make it a pilgrimage of two because to wait for them would have taken forever.
So we walked with the Indianapolis group to Central and then split off from them - they continued walking towards Randwick (forget about crossing the bridge, they said!) and we caught a train to North Sydney to join the thousands of other pilgrims in crossing the Harbor on foot.
It was SO exciting to walk across the bridge. For only the second time in the history of the Sydney Harbor Bridge (opened in 1932) it was completely closed to traffic either direction so that the pilgrims of the world who had come to Sydney could walk across it, with their colors and flags and backpacks! I especially wanted to complete the walk because I still get a thrill every time I cross the Harbor Bridge (it’s just such a beautiful piece of architecture with a gorgeous view!), and to be able to walk across it - right down the middle where the cars normally drive - would be a once in a lifetime experience! And with thousands of other people at that! And, the weather was beautiful. God really was looking out for all of us with the sunshine and nice temperature!
So Mark and I walked across the bridge, and the reason I said that it was a very prayerful experience is that we made a decision before we began that we wouldn’t complain the whole walk. At this point, we were tired both physically and mentally, and walking such a long distance after such a crazy week was not exactly the easiest thing, but in just being positive, the experience was positive. Complaining the whole way would have only put a damper on it! So we struck a deal that if either of us complained, the other needed to call it out and we would both say a decade of the rosary. We got to Randwick with one decade of the 5 to go…so only 4 complaints! Before we entered the racecourse we went ahead and finished it off.
While we were still walking, I think we were very blessed in that we passed this construction site - a building in progress - and one of the workers must have been on his break because he was standing out on one of the platforms of the building waving at all the pilgrims walking past: and he was holding up a huge wooden cross. My guess is that he made it out of some scrap wood laying around the building site, but WOW. What a blessed site - it really touched me! I took quite a few pictures - those along with all the pictures from the week will be posted soon! (slowly but surely I’m getting this all caught up).
Mark and I stopped in Darling Harbor to eat some lunch, which consisted of the lot of junk I had stuffed in my backpack but not eaten throughout the week. Lots of chocolate and some chips, basically. Yummmmm.
It was actually quite warm, so I had taken off most of my layers until I was wearing only some colorful boxer shorts over tights, no socks with my tennis shoes, and a WYD baseball tee. O and an American flag cape and WYD bandana around my head. I looked like a superhero. At this point, I decided the only thing I needed to complete the outfit were some sunglasses - preferably aviators. For weeks I had been wanting to go buy some at Paddy’s Market, a huge market with cheap everything-under-the-sun, open every weekend in Chinatown. Well it just so happened that this day was Saturday, and the pilgrim walk took us right by Paddy’s! So with Mark’s permission (haha) we stopped in to search for some aviators. The only condition was they had to be under $7 because that was all the money I had on me, and he only had about 5 cents. True pilgrims!
We didn’t want to take up too much time from our pilgrimage, so I wanted to find these sunglasses quick and get back on the road. The first “sunnies” stall we found had some sunglasses that I really liked, and that were very good quality, and that were the right look, but they were $10! However, in the spirit of WYD, I decided to ask the man if he wouldn’t mind selling them to me for $7. He was very jovial, and before he gave me an answer, he said, “Where are you from?” I said Indiana, and he said, “Well, if I come to Indiana, I expect a deal from you!” I laughed and assured him he would get one (like he’s ever gonna come there and find me…but if he did, done!) He took pity on this poor American!
So with my new sunglasses and a surge of energy, Mark and I pressed on, traversing the city of Sydney surrounded by many others on the same route. When we finally made it to Randwick, we had to wait in a line at our gate to get our bag of food. Instead of packing 6 people’s dinner into one bag, they packed a bag of assorted food items for one person. Each person, on their way into the racecourse, picked up a bag and that was the food they got until they left after the Final Mass. They also had little soup stands throughout the place, but the lines were long and the prices were high. I’ll stick with my cold can of cuss-cuss and brownie bites, thanks. (it wasn’t gourmet, that’s for sure!)
Once inside the racecourse, Mark and I stood just inside the gate staring at the mass of humanity before us - it was chaos in that racecourse! All these little sections of sleeping bags and tents and bags and people, and little aisles to walk around the whole place - to get from one side to the other could have taken an hour! Winding through the paths was insane. I actually was feeling a bit claustrophobic!
It took Mark and I quite some time to figure out where our group was, and only after calling someone did we finally figure out which letter and number section we were in. I can’t tell you how many letters or numbers they used, but we were in J, and we weren’t even in the back, so it’s possible they used over half the alphabet, plus then # 1 - 6 at least! And within each section like that there were many little sections that weren’t labeled at all! With everything strewn everywhere, it was all so confusing. We arrived around 4pm, so most of the pilgrims were already there, but because of the delay the rest of our group had getting OUT of Randwick to actually do the walk, they didn’t arrive until around 5pm, and let me tell you, they didn’t get there a moment too soon. Just as Mark and I began to settle into the section that was “bagged out” and guarded by a few trusty group members, “WYD staff” were telling us we had to take over our section or we would lose it to a huge group of Filipinos who needed somewhere to go…which means we needed to lay out everyone’s sleeping bags and take up as much room as we thought we would need for our whole group to sleep, because any space we didn’t need would be claimed. AH! It was so stressful. We got out as many sleeping bags as we could find and laid out as much stuff as we could, and when we were done, it was like a swarm of bees descending as the other groups took every inch they could get!
I will say that the only nice thing about this period of the day was that Matt Maher was on stage playing - so good to hear him again! And lucky us, we were right underneath a big screen, so we could see pretty well…on that at least. Too bad we were SO far from the stage!
Once we finally had a minute to breath, I just plopped down - I was SO exhausted. After eating some of the food they had provided, I began to get ready to head over to the VIP section (still had more VIP tickets!) to get a seat for the Evening Vigil. This Evening Vigil was a time of prayer and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament with the Holy Father, and I think there were some performances and things. Jovina was one of the emcees! She looked SO pretty, standing there in front of hundreds of thousands of people! I took a picture of her from where I was standing, but the thing was, even in the VIP section I was so far away she turned out as a faceless figure on my camera!
Picking a few chairs and sitting there shivering, waiting for the Vigil to begin and end so I could go back and go to sleep, I don’t remember much of the rest of the night. I was so incredibly tired that I didn’t actually hear much of what was being said or see much of what was going on during the Vigil. Desperately fighting to stay awake, I only vaguely even remember adoration! It was freezing outside as well, and we were holding candles - mine was dripping wax everywhere, so I was holding it so the wax wouldn’t drip on my clothes. However, even holding a candle I dozed off a bit and dropped it! I freaked out a bit and was so glad the grass didn’t catch on fire - can you imagine the headlines? “Fatigued American drops candle, Randwick alight” AH!
I felt so sad that I couldn’t stay awake and alert for one of the most special and important parts of the week! I heard it was a beautiful evening, but I couldn’t tell you from experience. After the Vigil was over, we made our way back to our pod, and I decided I might have better luck with a toilet in the VIP section than in the normal section, so I waited in line for quite a while, and just before reaching the front, the message was being passed back that the trailer with 6 toilets in it was flooded, and only 1 was working anymore. Can I honestly say that I have never seen bathrooms in such a state as I did at WYD! The conditions are less than sanitary - so much that I was tempted to hold it the whole time! It was a true adventure to use a restroom along with 400,000 other people. A massive operation indeed.
After that shenanigans I headed straight back to our section and I crawled right into my sleeping bag and went to sleep. Well tried anyway. That was how I tried to fight the cold - we were SO cold! It took a long time but I think I finally drifted to sleep - although the light from the screen was on all night, and there were even performances for some time after the vigil as well. One band from Washington DC was playing and everyone had gotten up and was dancing, but I just couldn’t move! I was too cold and tired and I was beginning to feel very ill. I only remembered this later when someone else mentioned it, by around 2AM some crazy pilgrims were running through the racecourse beating drums and screaming “WAKE UP PILGRIMS!!” Why? We may never know…It didn't really work on me!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
FRIDAY, JULY 18, 2008
Thank the Good Lord above catechesis was only for three days and that it had finally come to an end. I had a bit of the responsibility taken off my hands when Penitito (one of the guys working for WYD and now CYS) offered to lead the praise and worship section of the morning, a group of Kiwis (New Zealanders) offered to sing the recessional hymn, and a very kind Chinese guy from Melbourne offered to play the organ for the Mass parts. In the end, nothing went as we rehearsed, but c’est la vie!
A German man did come up after the session ended and informed me he had lived in Indianapolis! He was really very nice, and said he had greatly enjoyed his time in the Midwest - I hear that quite often! I guess I come from a very likeable part of the world.
Once more, and for the final time, we boarded the train from our catechesis venue, setting into the city. We made our way into Darling Harbor where we were to help evangelize during the dramatic re-enactment of Stations of the Cross, cast with actors from around Sydney. The prayer took place throughout the city, stopping at such famous locations as St. Mary’s Cathedral, the Sydney Opera House, the Botanic Gardens, Darling Harbor, and Barangaroo, which is where the last stations were staged. At every location, and maybe even throughout the streets, the play was broadcast on large jumbo screens, as well as shown on TV to over a billion people.
They say it was beautiful, breath-taking, stunning, emotional, excellent…I can’t confirm or deny these praises though, because I unfortunately barely saw a minute of the performance. Our job was to walk around handing out booklets about the Catholic faith to people who looked like they weren’t in the area for the Stations of the Cross, but actually had just wondered there by accident or out of curiosity at all the people who had invaded their city. With these books, we made friends, and attempted to give them what could very well be their first taste of what the Catholic faith is, as well as provide a friendly face (SMILE!) for them to associate with the religion.
It was a bit of a tough job - not only because it’s tough to evangelize as it is, but most of the people there didn’t need evangelization! However, in spite of the fact that some of my “victims” were just being polite, I was able to have several conversations throughout the 3 or so hours we were “on duty” with people who maybe could have used a little God in their lives. I spent a lot of time talking with some high-school aged boys (you can imagine some of the questions they were asking once I got them talking) and I also spoke with some Polynesian girls.
We were in pairs, I suppose mostly for safety and support, but my lovely partner decided he wouldn’t mind wondering off without me. When I couldn’t find him, I set off to find some other familiar faces…or at least some familiar accents. I spent a good deal of time conversing with three Americans from Connecticut - they were very nice, and obliging, if nothing else - I suppose it probably struck them as odd that a crazy American girl running around seemingly by herself with a bag full of Catholic booklets spent so much time talking to them, but it was just nice to have some friendly company. It was not all banter though, because while I was meant to be doing some teaching during this time, I was actually taught a very good lesson while I was speaking with them. Of course a conversation I have often is an explanation of my place in Sydney, and being tired, homesick, and a bit out of sorts, especially during WYD week, I told them I was “stuck in Sydney” doing work for a ministry team and WYD, and would probably be here until the end of the year, but I was ready to go home. Their jaws hit the floor, and stayed there, until one of the guys gasped,
“stuck in Sydney?!?! There are worse places to get ‘stuck’ I can tell you that!”
Oh. Right. Oops.
I forgot that this is an incredible place, one that many people choose as a top vacation destination, one that some only dream of glimpsing, one that is world-renowned for it’s dramatic architecture, excellent waterside location, and overall class and multi-cultural flavors. I also forgot that I happen to live in one of the most prime locations of this fabulous city: 15 minutes walk from the beach with a sweeping ocean view in an upscale and secure suburb. Maybe I even forgot that despite all the “problems” of team: the hard work, the emotional difficulties, the messes and mistakes we all make, the uncertain, yet demanding services we are expected to provide, and the frustrations that come from living with a group of strangers for several months, that in fact I am not hungry, thirsty, dirty, homeless, cold, naked, imprisoned, abused, persecuted, ill, lonely, desperate, or stuck. I am actually one of the most blessed people in the world - and I can’t even see that. An ordinary yet providential conversation in the midst of an extraordinary event, one sponsored in full by the Holy Spirit, is not bound to produce an ordinary result. On the contrary, in this case, it brought about enlightenment and a necessary shift in perspective - God speaks to us always, if we only stop to listen. What a gift!
After it seemed ‘safe’ to stop evangelizing (even though it’s actually a never-ending job), I grabbed a bit of dinner with some friends who I ran into and then headed into the Vocations Expo again. I decided I needed to give it another go and within that decision I also moved to avoid the spot I had spent almost all of my time in the night before. This time I wondered most of the other aisles, collecting a whole bag full of pamphlets, information and prayer cards, rubber bracelets, and other publicity materials from all the different orders. I stopped by the booth the Sisters of Life had occupied and Sr. Mary Gabriel, their vocations director (who I had met upon their arrival to Sydney) said hello, and I was actually quite surprised that she remembered me! She must have met thousands of people in her time in Sydney. Well thank goodness I saw her because she reminded me there was a Eucharistic Healing procession on at the Love ‘n’ Life site (located on the campus of Notre Dame, this was the large operation the Sisters of Life and Knights of Columbus ran throughout the whole week). The Love ‘n’ Life site was Jovina’s baby - the project she had been assigned during the preparations for the week. She had helped coordinate the Sisters as well as the site itself, liaising with them while they were still in NYC and then hosting them one they arrived down under. I hadn’t had the opportunity to see it for myself at that point, so with about half an hour (or less?), I scurried around the rest of the Vocations Expo and then high-tailed it across the city (first on foot, then succumbing to bus) to Notre Dame. However just before I exited the hustle and bustle of the convention centre, I almost literally bumped into 2 of the 5 people I knew from Indianapolis! O, the providence of WYD! It’s just too bad that I only had 15 minutes to make my trek…
On my way to the bus stop, I got stopped by an American who, instead of greeting me with a “Hello, how are you? I see that you are American as well!” (I proudly wore my flag as a cape most of the week), immediately asked “Where are you from?”
Excuse me?
What happened to beginning with, “Hello, my name is”….“Hey fellow American”….
I found that often throughout the week Americans didn’t ask anything else but where I was from, and not being so stupid as Americans abroad usually are (not WYD pilgrims of course, but others who travel here for school or work), I always answered “Indianapolis, Indiana” to avoid the questions that would come if I answered simple, “I’m from the States” or “I’m from Indiana” - let’s just give them as much information as possible so they don’t pester me with pointless queries. What an attitude I had developed!
Anyway, I asked an impolite question right back, because this guy who had stopped me was wearing a Roman collar and since he was young, I just assumed he was a seminarian and asked him what seminary he went to. This is impolite because WHAT if he was fully ordained! How rude to ask a priest what seminary he goes to! Luckily, though, I got it right, and when he said Mount Saint Mary’s (a seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland), I smiled, thinking of a friend from high school who attends the same seminary. “It’s a long shot,” I said, “But you don’t know Scott Lutgring do you?” Sure enough, this guy lives on the same floor as Scott! Is it a small world or not, because I’m getting claustrophobic, to tell you the truth! I couldn’t believe it.
Just before I was about to walk off, he stopped me again, this time with another somewhat abrupt question. “Where’s your group?”
Uhhh….
“I fly solo.” HAHA
O dear. Actually, I do.
It was interesting, because until he asked me that, I thought it was normal to romp around Sydney on your own during WYD. I thought that sticking with a group (not that I really had one to stick with, exactly) would have been a pain, because we all would have wanted to go in opposite directions, and ended up splitting up anyway. Why bother in the first place? Then I remembered how “normal pilgrims” experience the week, and that is with a group - one that has ridden the same airplane/bus/train as you, eaten the same food as you, been lead by the same leaders as you, slept on the same hard gym floor as you, shared a toilet and shower with you and 200 other people…It’s all POPE: Part Of the Pilgrim Experience! Yet it would seem that I was not a normal pilgrim. As I pondered this reality, I quite easily came to terms with it, aware that it doesn’t matter in what capacity a person experiences WYD. God works through everything, and His plan is tailor made for each one of us - I was just where He wanted me to be, and the company I kept (or didn’t) was according to His will as well. Without that faith, the week doesn’t make sense.
I waltzed into the Love ‘n’ Life Site in plenty of time to make the Eucharistic healing procession - in fact, I even caught the tail end of the concert put on by Celtic Springs, a multi-talented show family from California. WOW! Talk about entertaining! They can sing, play the fiddle or some sort of Irish instrument, and dance (think Riverdance, clogging?) - usually all at the same time! I say family because it was an entire family - Mom, Dad, Big sister, big brother, middle sister, middle brother, little sister, and little brother. SO CUTE!
I saw Sr. Mary Karen, Jovi’s main contact, and talked with her for a while, only to be disappointed in hearing from her that Jovi wasn’t there! She was off rehearsing for some TV appearance or other. She was quite a star the whole week - she appeared on a few different shows that were being filmed around the city, both American and Australian! Her view of WYD was quite a different one than most of us, that’s for sure! I had hoped to see her at the site, since that’s where she spent her time when she wasn’t being famous, but like I said, there is a providence about WYD, and if that did not permit our meeting, I would have to settle for it!
I did run into Sr. Mary Gabriel again, and at this point her memory astounded me even more. Not only did she remember me, she even remembered that on her first day in Sydney, when we met, she had explained the Sisters crazy method of feeding the masses: they packed thousands of cookies from the States to distribute at the site, and among those were lots and lots of OREOS! O how I have missed Oreos. Of course I shared that with her, and naturally, she said I would have to come to the site and get some, but early in the week because surely those would go fast!
Well that was July 6, and by July 18 that conversation had long been pushed to the corners of my brain, but not for her. On this Friday, amidst the chaos of WYD, she said to me, “Did you get an Oreo yet? I can’t believe it but there are still some inside!”
I was in such shock! (well, after the fact anyway) Do you see how amazing WYD is? And how incredible the people of this faith are? To remember such a minute detail! Astounding.
And that wasn’t all - on my way to claiming my Oreo, I discovered that Sr. Mary Karen had been mistaken: there was Jovi, sitting on a bench! As if she was waiting for me…Of course we both freaked out, “O MY GOSH IT’S WORLD YOUTH DAY!!! O MY GOSH, HOW ARE YOU? IT’S SO GOOD TO SEE YOU!!!” You would have thought we hadn’t seen each other in years…It really was exciting though, for me because I thought I wasn’t going to see her, and for her (I’m guessing) because I don’t think she expected me to walk by at that point. You could barely separate us the rest of the night - the companionship of a true friend is irreplaceable.
The concert wound down, and I spoke with a few of the other sisters (all such extraordinary women!) before we headed into the church for the Eucharistic healing procession (which either started late or time stood still for a while). Afterward, Jovi and I both agreed that it was an extremely necessary part of the week for both of us. This might surprise you, but on the 4th official day of WYD, I finally stopped and was quiet with God. I finally prayed. Surrounded by the excitement and energy the Catholic faith contains, I had hardly slowed to sleep, eat, or shower, and quiet and personal prayer had not made it into the essential daily tasks. Praying with thousands has somewhat of a different quality to it, and we all need that individual and quiet time with the Lord, and that is exactly what that Friday evening afforded.
A Eucharistic healing procession is a time of intimacy with Jesus: the Blessed Sacrament is exposed in a monstrance, which is held by a priest in front of any and every individual who chooses to come forward and closely worship and adore Christ. There is the opportunity to touch the veil the priest uses to hold the monstrance, or to touch the monstrance itself, receiving the beautiful peace that comes from gazing face to face with our Lord Jesus. The Sisters of Life and the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal coordinated the guided prayer session, providing soft reflective music and worship, which in comparison with the ear-blasting concerts of the week, was completely soothing. It was a really special night.
Jovi and I helped clean up a bit afterward, eventually making our way towards the train station to head off home. After we parted ways, I was surprised to find a few of the CYS guys and a few others who were staying in our house waiting at the same bus stop! It was nice to have company on the way home. See, I don’t always fly solo…God provides!
It ended up being a late night because of a miscalculation in transportation, but it didn’t even matter. When we finally got home I flopped into bed at peace, knowing the next morning’s alarm clock would not lead me to a stressful catechesis session, but instead to the final adventures of WYD, in which I had absolutely no responsibility.
A German man did come up after the session ended and informed me he had lived in Indianapolis! He was really very nice, and said he had greatly enjoyed his time in the Midwest - I hear that quite often! I guess I come from a very likeable part of the world.
Once more, and for the final time, we boarded the train from our catechesis venue, setting into the city. We made our way into Darling Harbor where we were to help evangelize during the dramatic re-enactment of Stations of the Cross, cast with actors from around Sydney. The prayer took place throughout the city, stopping at such famous locations as St. Mary’s Cathedral, the Sydney Opera House, the Botanic Gardens, Darling Harbor, and Barangaroo, which is where the last stations were staged. At every location, and maybe even throughout the streets, the play was broadcast on large jumbo screens, as well as shown on TV to over a billion people.
They say it was beautiful, breath-taking, stunning, emotional, excellent…I can’t confirm or deny these praises though, because I unfortunately barely saw a minute of the performance. Our job was to walk around handing out booklets about the Catholic faith to people who looked like they weren’t in the area for the Stations of the Cross, but actually had just wondered there by accident or out of curiosity at all the people who had invaded their city. With these books, we made friends, and attempted to give them what could very well be their first taste of what the Catholic faith is, as well as provide a friendly face (SMILE!) for them to associate with the religion.
It was a bit of a tough job - not only because it’s tough to evangelize as it is, but most of the people there didn’t need evangelization! However, in spite of the fact that some of my “victims” were just being polite, I was able to have several conversations throughout the 3 or so hours we were “on duty” with people who maybe could have used a little God in their lives. I spent a lot of time talking with some high-school aged boys (you can imagine some of the questions they were asking once I got them talking) and I also spoke with some Polynesian girls.
We were in pairs, I suppose mostly for safety and support, but my lovely partner decided he wouldn’t mind wondering off without me. When I couldn’t find him, I set off to find some other familiar faces…or at least some familiar accents. I spent a good deal of time conversing with three Americans from Connecticut - they were very nice, and obliging, if nothing else - I suppose it probably struck them as odd that a crazy American girl running around seemingly by herself with a bag full of Catholic booklets spent so much time talking to them, but it was just nice to have some friendly company. It was not all banter though, because while I was meant to be doing some teaching during this time, I was actually taught a very good lesson while I was speaking with them. Of course a conversation I have often is an explanation of my place in Sydney, and being tired, homesick, and a bit out of sorts, especially during WYD week, I told them I was “stuck in Sydney” doing work for a ministry team and WYD, and would probably be here until the end of the year, but I was ready to go home. Their jaws hit the floor, and stayed there, until one of the guys gasped,
“stuck in Sydney?!?! There are worse places to get ‘stuck’ I can tell you that!”
Oh. Right. Oops.
I forgot that this is an incredible place, one that many people choose as a top vacation destination, one that some only dream of glimpsing, one that is world-renowned for it’s dramatic architecture, excellent waterside location, and overall class and multi-cultural flavors. I also forgot that I happen to live in one of the most prime locations of this fabulous city: 15 minutes walk from the beach with a sweeping ocean view in an upscale and secure suburb. Maybe I even forgot that despite all the “problems” of team: the hard work, the emotional difficulties, the messes and mistakes we all make, the uncertain, yet demanding services we are expected to provide, and the frustrations that come from living with a group of strangers for several months, that in fact I am not hungry, thirsty, dirty, homeless, cold, naked, imprisoned, abused, persecuted, ill, lonely, desperate, or stuck. I am actually one of the most blessed people in the world - and I can’t even see that. An ordinary yet providential conversation in the midst of an extraordinary event, one sponsored in full by the Holy Spirit, is not bound to produce an ordinary result. On the contrary, in this case, it brought about enlightenment and a necessary shift in perspective - God speaks to us always, if we only stop to listen. What a gift!
After it seemed ‘safe’ to stop evangelizing (even though it’s actually a never-ending job), I grabbed a bit of dinner with some friends who I ran into and then headed into the Vocations Expo again. I decided I needed to give it another go and within that decision I also moved to avoid the spot I had spent almost all of my time in the night before. This time I wondered most of the other aisles, collecting a whole bag full of pamphlets, information and prayer cards, rubber bracelets, and other publicity materials from all the different orders. I stopped by the booth the Sisters of Life had occupied and Sr. Mary Gabriel, their vocations director (who I had met upon their arrival to Sydney) said hello, and I was actually quite surprised that she remembered me! She must have met thousands of people in her time in Sydney. Well thank goodness I saw her because she reminded me there was a Eucharistic Healing procession on at the Love ‘n’ Life site (located on the campus of Notre Dame, this was the large operation the Sisters of Life and Knights of Columbus ran throughout the whole week). The Love ‘n’ Life site was Jovina’s baby - the project she had been assigned during the preparations for the week. She had helped coordinate the Sisters as well as the site itself, liaising with them while they were still in NYC and then hosting them one they arrived down under. I hadn’t had the opportunity to see it for myself at that point, so with about half an hour (or less?), I scurried around the rest of the Vocations Expo and then high-tailed it across the city (first on foot, then succumbing to bus) to Notre Dame. However just before I exited the hustle and bustle of the convention centre, I almost literally bumped into 2 of the 5 people I knew from Indianapolis! O, the providence of WYD! It’s just too bad that I only had 15 minutes to make my trek…
On my way to the bus stop, I got stopped by an American who, instead of greeting me with a “Hello, how are you? I see that you are American as well!” (I proudly wore my flag as a cape most of the week), immediately asked “Where are you from?”
Excuse me?
What happened to beginning with, “Hello, my name is”….“Hey fellow American”….
I found that often throughout the week Americans didn’t ask anything else but where I was from, and not being so stupid as Americans abroad usually are (not WYD pilgrims of course, but others who travel here for school or work), I always answered “Indianapolis, Indiana” to avoid the questions that would come if I answered simple, “I’m from the States” or “I’m from Indiana” - let’s just give them as much information as possible so they don’t pester me with pointless queries. What an attitude I had developed!
Anyway, I asked an impolite question right back, because this guy who had stopped me was wearing a Roman collar and since he was young, I just assumed he was a seminarian and asked him what seminary he went to. This is impolite because WHAT if he was fully ordained! How rude to ask a priest what seminary he goes to! Luckily, though, I got it right, and when he said Mount Saint Mary’s (a seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland), I smiled, thinking of a friend from high school who attends the same seminary. “It’s a long shot,” I said, “But you don’t know Scott Lutgring do you?” Sure enough, this guy lives on the same floor as Scott! Is it a small world or not, because I’m getting claustrophobic, to tell you the truth! I couldn’t believe it.
Just before I was about to walk off, he stopped me again, this time with another somewhat abrupt question. “Where’s your group?”
Uhhh….
“I fly solo.” HAHA
O dear. Actually, I do.
It was interesting, because until he asked me that, I thought it was normal to romp around Sydney on your own during WYD. I thought that sticking with a group (not that I really had one to stick with, exactly) would have been a pain, because we all would have wanted to go in opposite directions, and ended up splitting up anyway. Why bother in the first place? Then I remembered how “normal pilgrims” experience the week, and that is with a group - one that has ridden the same airplane/bus/train as you, eaten the same food as you, been lead by the same leaders as you, slept on the same hard gym floor as you, shared a toilet and shower with you and 200 other people…It’s all POPE: Part Of the Pilgrim Experience! Yet it would seem that I was not a normal pilgrim. As I pondered this reality, I quite easily came to terms with it, aware that it doesn’t matter in what capacity a person experiences WYD. God works through everything, and His plan is tailor made for each one of us - I was just where He wanted me to be, and the company I kept (or didn’t) was according to His will as well. Without that faith, the week doesn’t make sense.
I waltzed into the Love ‘n’ Life Site in plenty of time to make the Eucharistic healing procession - in fact, I even caught the tail end of the concert put on by Celtic Springs, a multi-talented show family from California. WOW! Talk about entertaining! They can sing, play the fiddle or some sort of Irish instrument, and dance (think Riverdance, clogging?) - usually all at the same time! I say family because it was an entire family - Mom, Dad, Big sister, big brother, middle sister, middle brother, little sister, and little brother. SO CUTE!
I saw Sr. Mary Karen, Jovi’s main contact, and talked with her for a while, only to be disappointed in hearing from her that Jovi wasn’t there! She was off rehearsing for some TV appearance or other. She was quite a star the whole week - she appeared on a few different shows that were being filmed around the city, both American and Australian! Her view of WYD was quite a different one than most of us, that’s for sure! I had hoped to see her at the site, since that’s where she spent her time when she wasn’t being famous, but like I said, there is a providence about WYD, and if that did not permit our meeting, I would have to settle for it!
I did run into Sr. Mary Gabriel again, and at this point her memory astounded me even more. Not only did she remember me, she even remembered that on her first day in Sydney, when we met, she had explained the Sisters crazy method of feeding the masses: they packed thousands of cookies from the States to distribute at the site, and among those were lots and lots of OREOS! O how I have missed Oreos. Of course I shared that with her, and naturally, she said I would have to come to the site and get some, but early in the week because surely those would go fast!
Well that was July 6, and by July 18 that conversation had long been pushed to the corners of my brain, but not for her. On this Friday, amidst the chaos of WYD, she said to me, “Did you get an Oreo yet? I can’t believe it but there are still some inside!”
I was in such shock! (well, after the fact anyway) Do you see how amazing WYD is? And how incredible the people of this faith are? To remember such a minute detail! Astounding.
And that wasn’t all - on my way to claiming my Oreo, I discovered that Sr. Mary Karen had been mistaken: there was Jovi, sitting on a bench! As if she was waiting for me…Of course we both freaked out, “O MY GOSH IT’S WORLD YOUTH DAY!!! O MY GOSH, HOW ARE YOU? IT’S SO GOOD TO SEE YOU!!!” You would have thought we hadn’t seen each other in years…It really was exciting though, for me because I thought I wasn’t going to see her, and for her (I’m guessing) because I don’t think she expected me to walk by at that point. You could barely separate us the rest of the night - the companionship of a true friend is irreplaceable.
The concert wound down, and I spoke with a few of the other sisters (all such extraordinary women!) before we headed into the church for the Eucharistic healing procession (which either started late or time stood still for a while). Afterward, Jovi and I both agreed that it was an extremely necessary part of the week for both of us. This might surprise you, but on the 4th official day of WYD, I finally stopped and was quiet with God. I finally prayed. Surrounded by the excitement and energy the Catholic faith contains, I had hardly slowed to sleep, eat, or shower, and quiet and personal prayer had not made it into the essential daily tasks. Praying with thousands has somewhat of a different quality to it, and we all need that individual and quiet time with the Lord, and that is exactly what that Friday evening afforded.
A Eucharistic healing procession is a time of intimacy with Jesus: the Blessed Sacrament is exposed in a monstrance, which is held by a priest in front of any and every individual who chooses to come forward and closely worship and adore Christ. There is the opportunity to touch the veil the priest uses to hold the monstrance, or to touch the monstrance itself, receiving the beautiful peace that comes from gazing face to face with our Lord Jesus. The Sisters of Life and the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal coordinated the guided prayer session, providing soft reflective music and worship, which in comparison with the ear-blasting concerts of the week, was completely soothing. It was a really special night.
Jovi and I helped clean up a bit afterward, eventually making our way towards the train station to head off home. After we parted ways, I was surprised to find a few of the CYS guys and a few others who were staying in our house waiting at the same bus stop! It was nice to have company on the way home. See, I don’t always fly solo…God provides!
It ended up being a late night because of a miscalculation in transportation, but it didn’t even matter. When we finally got home I flopped into bed at peace, knowing the next morning’s alarm clock would not lead me to a stressful catechesis session, but instead to the final adventures of WYD, in which I had absolutely no responsibility.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
THURSDAY, JULY 17, 2008
My parent’s 26th wedding anniversary.
The 2nd of the important dates I was “missing” due to WYD. I had emailed them just before things go really busy to wish them a happy day and to assure them I would be praying for them, which was special because it would be in the presence of the Holy Father. And maybe a few hundred thousand other people from around the world.
This was the day Pope Benedict XVI was to arrive in Sydney, officially welcomed by the many pilgrims from every land and nation who had also, not long before, flown Down Under. The truth is that our dear Pontiff had arrived 4 days earlier but had taken that time to go on a personal retreat, preparing himself for what was to come. After all, the poor man is 81 and should be long retired! Instead he is leading the one of the world’s largest organizations and is regarded by over 1 billion people as the most important man on Earth. He’s got quite a heavy job for a man of 81 years!
After a chaotic catechesis session, one that ended with a river of tears, we made our way into the city on the train, a ride which I slept almost the entire way through. I just absolutely conked out! But I had to wake up quick because as we pulled into our stop just off Sydney Harbor, we were engulfed with pilgrims who completely filled the streets - all making their way to Barangaroo to welcome our leader, the Vicar of Christ. It took us quite some time to make our way over to the gates of the site, and since Cecilia, Rachel and I had been given VIP tickets, we had to make our way to the opposite side of Barangaroo to go through that gate. That was not an easy task.
Now just briefly, I’ll explain that having VIP tickets meant little more than receiving a chair to sit in (one of the thousands of white plastic chairs) and on the chair, at every single major event, there was always a green bag with the WYD logo on it containing a muesli (granola) bar, a bottle of water, and a clear plastic poncho. Every time. It wasn’t quite so exciting by the end of it.
So, back to the inconvenient feat of getting to “Gate 20”, the VIP gate. For this particular event it was in our advantage to be in that section because it was right on the water, and the Pope arrives by boat. So in and out of the other gates we went, hoping to find some sort of short cut, only to be turned around by a volunteer and pointed in some other direction. It took us FOREVER to get around to the right place, and by the time we did that, they were already unloading the boat….God watched out for us though, because late as we were, we arrived, perfectly positioned and timed to see the Pope get off the boat, and with my dinky little digital camera, I actually got some very good pictures of Pope Benedict! He gave us a wonderful greeting and we prayed with our dear Papa before he was whisked into the Pope-mobile through the streets of Sydney. I think at one point he was traveling at 60mph! It looked quite speedy on the screen.
We filed out of the venue on our way to Darling Harbor, hoping to grab a bit of the pilgrim food they had prepared for us, and maybe see a few things like the Vocations Expo. Just after we began moving towards the exit, a few Sisters of Life came walking past, and would you believe that one of them was the very Sister I had met at the March for Life in Washington DC in January! The only difference, a slight one, was that she had changed her name and the clothes she was wearing - just a month before WYD her postulant class took their habits! I was so delighted to see her, Sister Mary Theotokos, and in such a new light, in a new place. And of all God’s providence, to run into her randomly just after the Holy Father had arrived! Much to my astonishment, she remembered me as well as I remembered her, and I knew that it was our prayers that had kept each other united - she had told me with great sincerity she would pray for me, and I certainly meant it when I said I would pray for her as well on that cold January day. It was so exciting! She’s a beautiful nun - I can’t wait to see what God does through her gift of self to Him!
Now, I should mention a few things. One is that I was pleasantly surprised to find that part of the pilgrim lunch (every day) was a little package of Tim Tam fingers. Tim Tams are absolutely wonderful chocolate biscuits (cookies) which are not found anywhere else in the world, and my family knows how delicious they are because I brought a few packages home last year. Yes, they’re so good I sacrificed precious room and weight in my suitcases to export them to the US. Also part of the pilgrim lunch, but not quite as tasty (a close second, I’d say) were packages of Lamington’s, which are delightful squares of moist white cake, usually two layers with chocolate or vanilla icing in between, and coated with a chocolate, sort of thin coating and then covered in coconut. They’re really nice, actually, and there was a famous picture later in the paper of a nun just sinking her teeth into one - divine. At least they weren’t trying to force Vegemite on anyone. People would never return!
Also, to explain the process (because you may be wondering how it is one goes about feeding such a large number of people), pilgrims were to gather themselves in groups of six, and collect from each member of the group the meal ticket for the particular day and time at which they were eating, so lunch or dinner. The reason for this is that when the one person with six tickets got to the front of the line for food, he or she was given two bags, each containing six of the contents of the meal in them - It was actually quite efficient, really! I never had to wait very long for a meal at all.
As we made our way through Darling Harbor in quest of this pilgrim meal, we came across a few familiar faces, one of them being Sr. Mary Rachel. She is one of the three Dominican Sisters from Nashville who was working for WYD all year, and especially in my times of homesickness and confusion, she had been a very good friend. Always a bundle of joy and energy, and usually with a few funny phrases up her sleeve, it was wonderful to come upon her that day! We were even graced with her presence for our evening meal, and she then accompanied us into the Vocations Expo, where we were separated - it was quite busy in there!
And so you are probably wondering WHAT the Vocations Expo is. Well, at this particular WYD and at only one other before (in Toronto) they held a large exhibit in the convention center consisting of rows and rows of booths, set up by quite a few of the religious orders from all over the world, each one passing out materials on their congregation and displaying much of the information any curious discerner could ask for. Essentially, it was a place for all those young adults searching for life’s calling - could it be the Augustinians, or maybe the Missionaries of God’s Love? What about the Dominicans or the Sisters of Life? Maybe the Missionaries of Charity, or the Little Sisters of the Poor? If I’m called to marriage, what is Theology of the Body? How does Natural Family Planning work? If I’m remembering the numbers correctly, each hour 5,000 people came in and out of the Vocations Expo, said the Vocations director of the Archdiocese of Sydney, who obviously helped coordinate and run the site. It was a huge success and was one of my highlights of WYD! And that wasn’t just because each booth loaded up passers-by with nothing short of a small bag of goodies to take home. One booth had a cappuccino machine! Pretty good way to advertise ;)
On that Thursday night I actually spent a few hours in there, and that was only in one spot. I talked with a few seminarians from the US for quite a while, just about life in general, and their take on everything from WYD so far, to Sydney, to being in the seminary, to what it means to answer God’s call. We even prayed together (imagine that!). Conveniently across from the US Diocesan priests booth was the Dominican’s from Nashville, and since a few of them have been her just as long as I have, with many more coming in for WYD, I knew a few of the ladies there, so I spoke with them for a while, just chatting about the week so far, really. And then I kept running into people I knew who were walking through that area, so it wasn’t very easy to get away!
I did manage to sneak down to the one end of the expo though, because there was set up a “Coffee House” and throughout the week there were performances and interviews that took place on the stage. The time I managed to make my way there was during an interview with Sr. Bethany Madonna, a Sister of Life who, like my friend Sr. Mary Theotokos had just been given her habit and new name. It was really beautiful hearing her story, and then meeting her afterwards (she was good friends with the seminarian I have been talking to). So many interesting people I met in the span of a few hours, and all American! The place was teeming with the good people of the USA, and I was quite happy about that! I tried to soak it up because I knew that within a week they would all be gone, snuggled back into their corner of the Land of the Free, at which time I would have to resign once more to the Aussie traditions. It was glorious because for one week, I could shout that I was American from the rooftops without anyone thinking that was strange, or a novelty, or being annoyed with my patriotism. There were thousands of others just like me!!
Once more we made our way home, and to tell you the truth, this the part of the day I remembered least, probably because I was so tired by that point. Arriving at home and settling into bed, I prayed for the strength to get through one more catechesis session, quite happy that the next day would bring an end to all that stress.
The 2nd of the important dates I was “missing” due to WYD. I had emailed them just before things go really busy to wish them a happy day and to assure them I would be praying for them, which was special because it would be in the presence of the Holy Father. And maybe a few hundred thousand other people from around the world.
This was the day Pope Benedict XVI was to arrive in Sydney, officially welcomed by the many pilgrims from every land and nation who had also, not long before, flown Down Under. The truth is that our dear Pontiff had arrived 4 days earlier but had taken that time to go on a personal retreat, preparing himself for what was to come. After all, the poor man is 81 and should be long retired! Instead he is leading the one of the world’s largest organizations and is regarded by over 1 billion people as the most important man on Earth. He’s got quite a heavy job for a man of 81 years!
After a chaotic catechesis session, one that ended with a river of tears, we made our way into the city on the train, a ride which I slept almost the entire way through. I just absolutely conked out! But I had to wake up quick because as we pulled into our stop just off Sydney Harbor, we were engulfed with pilgrims who completely filled the streets - all making their way to Barangaroo to welcome our leader, the Vicar of Christ. It took us quite some time to make our way over to the gates of the site, and since Cecilia, Rachel and I had been given VIP tickets, we had to make our way to the opposite side of Barangaroo to go through that gate. That was not an easy task.
Now just briefly, I’ll explain that having VIP tickets meant little more than receiving a chair to sit in (one of the thousands of white plastic chairs) and on the chair, at every single major event, there was always a green bag with the WYD logo on it containing a muesli (granola) bar, a bottle of water, and a clear plastic poncho. Every time. It wasn’t quite so exciting by the end of it.
So, back to the inconvenient feat of getting to “Gate 20”, the VIP gate. For this particular event it was in our advantage to be in that section because it was right on the water, and the Pope arrives by boat. So in and out of the other gates we went, hoping to find some sort of short cut, only to be turned around by a volunteer and pointed in some other direction. It took us FOREVER to get around to the right place, and by the time we did that, they were already unloading the boat….God watched out for us though, because late as we were, we arrived, perfectly positioned and timed to see the Pope get off the boat, and with my dinky little digital camera, I actually got some very good pictures of Pope Benedict! He gave us a wonderful greeting and we prayed with our dear Papa before he was whisked into the Pope-mobile through the streets of Sydney. I think at one point he was traveling at 60mph! It looked quite speedy on the screen.
We filed out of the venue on our way to Darling Harbor, hoping to grab a bit of the pilgrim food they had prepared for us, and maybe see a few things like the Vocations Expo. Just after we began moving towards the exit, a few Sisters of Life came walking past, and would you believe that one of them was the very Sister I had met at the March for Life in Washington DC in January! The only difference, a slight one, was that she had changed her name and the clothes she was wearing - just a month before WYD her postulant class took their habits! I was so delighted to see her, Sister Mary Theotokos, and in such a new light, in a new place. And of all God’s providence, to run into her randomly just after the Holy Father had arrived! Much to my astonishment, she remembered me as well as I remembered her, and I knew that it was our prayers that had kept each other united - she had told me with great sincerity she would pray for me, and I certainly meant it when I said I would pray for her as well on that cold January day. It was so exciting! She’s a beautiful nun - I can’t wait to see what God does through her gift of self to Him!
Now, I should mention a few things. One is that I was pleasantly surprised to find that part of the pilgrim lunch (every day) was a little package of Tim Tam fingers. Tim Tams are absolutely wonderful chocolate biscuits (cookies) which are not found anywhere else in the world, and my family knows how delicious they are because I brought a few packages home last year. Yes, they’re so good I sacrificed precious room and weight in my suitcases to export them to the US. Also part of the pilgrim lunch, but not quite as tasty (a close second, I’d say) were packages of Lamington’s, which are delightful squares of moist white cake, usually two layers with chocolate or vanilla icing in between, and coated with a chocolate, sort of thin coating and then covered in coconut. They’re really nice, actually, and there was a famous picture later in the paper of a nun just sinking her teeth into one - divine. At least they weren’t trying to force Vegemite on anyone. People would never return!
Also, to explain the process (because you may be wondering how it is one goes about feeding such a large number of people), pilgrims were to gather themselves in groups of six, and collect from each member of the group the meal ticket for the particular day and time at which they were eating, so lunch or dinner. The reason for this is that when the one person with six tickets got to the front of the line for food, he or she was given two bags, each containing six of the contents of the meal in them - It was actually quite efficient, really! I never had to wait very long for a meal at all.
As we made our way through Darling Harbor in quest of this pilgrim meal, we came across a few familiar faces, one of them being Sr. Mary Rachel. She is one of the three Dominican Sisters from Nashville who was working for WYD all year, and especially in my times of homesickness and confusion, she had been a very good friend. Always a bundle of joy and energy, and usually with a few funny phrases up her sleeve, it was wonderful to come upon her that day! We were even graced with her presence for our evening meal, and she then accompanied us into the Vocations Expo, where we were separated - it was quite busy in there!
And so you are probably wondering WHAT the Vocations Expo is. Well, at this particular WYD and at only one other before (in Toronto) they held a large exhibit in the convention center consisting of rows and rows of booths, set up by quite a few of the religious orders from all over the world, each one passing out materials on their congregation and displaying much of the information any curious discerner could ask for. Essentially, it was a place for all those young adults searching for life’s calling - could it be the Augustinians, or maybe the Missionaries of God’s Love? What about the Dominicans or the Sisters of Life? Maybe the Missionaries of Charity, or the Little Sisters of the Poor? If I’m called to marriage, what is Theology of the Body? How does Natural Family Planning work? If I’m remembering the numbers correctly, each hour 5,000 people came in and out of the Vocations Expo, said the Vocations director of the Archdiocese of Sydney, who obviously helped coordinate and run the site. It was a huge success and was one of my highlights of WYD! And that wasn’t just because each booth loaded up passers-by with nothing short of a small bag of goodies to take home. One booth had a cappuccino machine! Pretty good way to advertise ;)
On that Thursday night I actually spent a few hours in there, and that was only in one spot. I talked with a few seminarians from the US for quite a while, just about life in general, and their take on everything from WYD so far, to Sydney, to being in the seminary, to what it means to answer God’s call. We even prayed together (imagine that!). Conveniently across from the US Diocesan priests booth was the Dominican’s from Nashville, and since a few of them have been her just as long as I have, with many more coming in for WYD, I knew a few of the ladies there, so I spoke with them for a while, just chatting about the week so far, really. And then I kept running into people I knew who were walking through that area, so it wasn’t very easy to get away!
I did manage to sneak down to the one end of the expo though, because there was set up a “Coffee House” and throughout the week there were performances and interviews that took place on the stage. The time I managed to make my way there was during an interview with Sr. Bethany Madonna, a Sister of Life who, like my friend Sr. Mary Theotokos had just been given her habit and new name. It was really beautiful hearing her story, and then meeting her afterwards (she was good friends with the seminarian I have been talking to). So many interesting people I met in the span of a few hours, and all American! The place was teeming with the good people of the USA, and I was quite happy about that! I tried to soak it up because I knew that within a week they would all be gone, snuggled back into their corner of the Land of the Free, at which time I would have to resign once more to the Aussie traditions. It was glorious because for one week, I could shout that I was American from the rooftops without anyone thinking that was strange, or a novelty, or being annoyed with my patriotism. There were thousands of others just like me!!
Once more we made our way home, and to tell you the truth, this the part of the day I remembered least, probably because I was so tired by that point. Arriving at home and settling into bed, I prayed for the strength to get through one more catechesis session, quite happy that the next day would bring an end to all that stress.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 16, 2008
Checking my planner the week before WYD, I noticed that I would miss a few important occasions amidst the chaos of Catholicism. This day, July 16th, brought the 21st birthday of a very good, long-time friend. So on opposite sides of the world - in very different manners, I’m sure - the two of us celebrated.
However, my day did not begin with celebration. Arising at 5:15am to catch a 6am bus is certainly not cause for a party. In the cold darkness, before the sun’s rays warmed the land, we trudged through our routines, usually dashing out of the house with sleep still in our eyes, trying not to believe we were awake at such an hour. Using public transport, the team had to make it into the city in time to catch a train, which would take us out to the Western Suburbs (we live in the East) by 7:30am in order to be ready for an 8:30am start to catechesis. This, we did for three mornings. It felt like we did it for a month.
Upon arriving at our venue, we had to set up our sound equipment, check the mics, speakers, video clips, go through some of the music, rehearse the dramas, hear a briefing on the morning, and finally pray before the pilgrims began flowing in.
More like trickle, actually. They could begin arriving at 8:30am, but never was anyone there earlier than 8:45am on any given morning. More often than not, that was a blessing, because we weren’t always ready to go at 8:30!
Once the pilgrims began coming in, we began singing songs to keep them entertained until the official catechesis started. I may or may not have mentioned that I was the music coordinator for our site, and I have to tell you, it was the most stressful thing I have ever done! And I’ve done some pretty stressful things…
It was my job to make sure the musicians had all the music they needed, decide which songs to play when, based on a number of factors including audience response, timing, tone of the song, tone of the day, theme of the day, the bishop’s request, and what I could actually sing, since I was also the main singer. Talk about stretching my abilities!
Overall, I am told the music went well, under the circumstances, and as one pilgrim in our group put it: “They will remember the music from catechesis.” However, in my opinion, it was arguably the worst part of the 3 hour sessions we put together, and there may be a number of reasons for that. The story was that that music team had put quite a lot of work in, some more than others, but our preparation didn’t come together, and we performed on different levels. One day our organ player, a guitar player, and two of our singers left or weren’t there to begin with, and another day it became apparent that some of the songs had been pushed around the musicians, so that each one thought the other was prepared to play it. On the last day, we had two separate groups come up and ask if we needed help. Gratefully, yet not without embarrassment, we accepted their offers. I felt like the hours and hours I had spent trying so hard to make this a success all came to nothing, but at the end of the day, I just offered it all up in prayer, and knew that if I was doing that, giving my all for the greater glory of God, I couldn’t go too wrong. Even though by earthen standards it felt like nothing went right.
The set up of catechesis for all three days was like this: we sang some songs as the pilgrims entered, and around 9am, whether they were all there or not, we began by introducing ourselves and the theme of the day (which was set by WYD). We had morning prayer including praise and worship, and then we performed a short skit followed by a short talk and a brief testimony. One day we showed a video we had made. Then we introduced the Bishop for the day (specific to our site…there were almost 300 sites and about 700 Bishops rotating between them over the 3 days!). He gave a talk, allowed time for question and answer, and then while the church and clergy were prepared for Mass, we sang a few more songs or taught the Mass parts that we were using. An hour later, at the conclusion of Mass, the pilgrims were sent on their way to collect lunch and head into the city for the whatever events were on the agenda for the day.
That was usually the point where I broke down in tears of relief and humiliation - relief that the hardest part of the day was over and humiliation that it had gone so terribly. Or so I thought. I guess that was partly because we didn’t get much sleep during the week, and partly because it was such an exhausting task in the first place, magnified 10 times in conjunction with the rest of the event. I’m sure some good came out of it for someone. When people ask me how my WYD was, I usually say that it was full of extreme highs and extreme lows. For me the catechesis sessions were extreme lows, but because that was the case, I knew the rest of the day had to be better!
Better they always were. Following day 1 of catechesis, the team together made our way to the suburb the Capuchin friars live in to perform our infamous JESUS chant at their forum. Among the other performers was Gary Pinto, who co-wrote the WYD theme song, “Receive the Power.” I’ve met Gary a few times, and not only is he a very talented singer/song writer, he is also a humble and strongly devout Catholic. It was great to see him again during WYD, and just after he performed we were invited up to do our thing.
Straight after we were finished, we had to again make a move, this time for the coast. Traveling out to Bondi, Sydney’s most famous beach, we were to again perform the JESUS chant, but this time along side a very famous rapping priest from the Bronx - Fr. Stan Fortuna! He is part of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and has made lots of recordings and music videos, building up quite a reputation! I’d heard of Fr. Stan, but never dreamed I would get to meet the man, or perform with him! Me, rapping? Haha Not quite.
It was fun being backstage of this big concert, fittingly called “Come to the Water”, and the weather was absolutely perfect for such an event. The sunset was once again beautiful, casting a pink glow on the eastern horizon. That’s the cool thing about living on the east coast. We never see the sun itself set, but we see the effects in the way the sky changes color. It’s like it seeps around from the west to the east, so we get a little peek at what the western sky must be ablaze with!
Meeting Fr. Stan was an interesting experience. The poor man was coming to this, his third concert of the day, and I’m sure all he really wanted to do was plop down somewhere to rest his head. After our meeting/preview with him (no one had told him he was to share 5 minutes of his performance with us - uhoh!) we said a few prayers for him, because I can’t imagine what it must be like to have to give of yourself so fully so many times throughout such a crazy week! I spoke with him a little, mostly just small talk, hoping my American accent and warm smile would bring some sort of peace to his heart, even if just for a few seconds. He was a very kind man, I could see that instantly. I wish I had been able to speak with him more - I’m sure he has a most beautiful story!
Now, before I get the part where I was “rapping” in front of a few thousand people, I must tell you about the most exciting part of my entire WYD week. Believe it or not, it was not the 5 minutes I was on stage. We had to wait for about an hour and a half before Fr. Stan’s performance began, and as I was peering at the schedule for the evening, I noticed that just after Fr. Stan performed a certain MATT MAHER would be performing!!!!!!! This means a few things: a. I would most certainly get to see him in concert, b. he would potentially be backstage at some point before that which would mean that c. there was a slight chance I would catch a personal glimpse of him. Or possibly get close enough to even meet him. O. my.
O….who is Matt Maher, you’re wondering? Well if you haven’t heard of him or heard me talk about him, he is a CATHOLIC singer/songwriter and let me tell you, I have never been more proud to be a Catholic and never felt more alive in my faith than when I am listening to this man’s songs. His music is contemporary with good tunes, and the lyrics are completely and 100% Catholic - he sings about transubstantiation, for Pete’s sake! And Mary! He set contemporary music to the Magnifcat. WOW. He’s just absolutely brilliant.
Now my attraction to this man is purely because of his music - I certainly am not reverting to my teeny-bopper days of wishfully imagining I would meet him and we’d fall in love and get married. I was just excited because who doesn’t want to meet someone (who isn’t the Pope) who inspires them to live their faith more fully?
So imagine my star-struck surprise when TWO hours before he was set to perform, (I didn’t expect him to show up quite so early!) voices in hushed tones began saying that Matt Maher was there. Our backstage area was not actually that big (I don’t know what you’re imagining) and it was outside, which means anyone could see in or out, or get in or out for that matter (distract the security and you’re set!), so if Matt Maher was in the backstage area, he would definitely be passing within 10 feet of me. But instead, he passed within 1 foot of me and shook my hand, as with a cotton-mouth that forgot how to work I sloppily said “Hi, I’m Mithy” and attempted a smile, which was probably crooked, and would have gone well with my dazed eyes. I can’t BELIEVE I was so star-struck - he’s just a human being!!! Kicking myself for looking and sounding so stupid, I murmured to Rachel that I wondered if he would take a picture with me, and wow, what timing, but he was walking back through the area just after I said that, and Rachel, shameless Rachel, stopped him and asked for a picture! “Sure!” he said with a smile, wrapping his arm around her (even though she was holding the camera) and because she didn’t really care who he was or what he did (oh, just ask her how she felt after seeing his concert!), shrugged his arm off and said, “Not with me! With her!” Still freaking out and maybe a little weak in the knees (why, I still don’t know), I gimped over and positioned myself next to him, hoping for normalcy in my smile. “Thank you so much!” I stammered as he nodded and headed off to take care of his next order of business. I couldn’t believe that had just happened, and it was all I could do to keep myself from jumping up and down for joy! I was like the Cheshire cat for about the next hour because I couldn’t stop smiling! I was floating on cloud 9, and if WYD had ended right then and there, I’m not sure I would have cared too much. The picture turned out GREAT. I informed the CYS team that I would be sending it out as my Christmas card photo. Haha just kidding…
It was all a bit of a blur after that: just after Fr. Stan went up to perform, we were ushered to the side of the stage, and when he finished his first song, he called us up, and we were hurtled into spotlights in front of screaming (fans?) and after doing the JESUS chant 2 or 3 times (I can’t even remember how many!) we then waved our way back off, and while most of the team was just in such a state of excitement, I was in a bit of another daze, this one of confusion, wondering what I had just done and also feeling a bit silly - we were doing a rap, and I’m a white girl from Indiana. I doubt I fit the part. O well, time to relax and enjoy the rest of the evening!
Fr. Stan’s concert was great - you may have heard of him. He’s the one who sings, “Ain’t no party like a Catholic party!” It was fun watching him - and it was even more fun watching a few other Franciscans who had organized the concert, get on stage and dance like you never saw St. Francis dance! My dinky digital camera doesn’t record sound, but I took a video anyway, so if I can figure out how to upload that to the internet to share, I will post the link. Also, be watching for a link for my WYD photo album. Yes, it will have my picture with Matt Maher as the cover.
Speaking of Matt Maher, he followed Fr. Stan in the lineup of acts, and WOWZA, it was one of the highlights of my WYD. He is such an incredible performer, and that, I had no idea about. He knows how to get the crowd involved in his songs, and the best part is, he gets us all involved so we can pray while we sing along with him. He had us pointing at the sky, giving all praise to God, he had us singing in a universal language of “Lai. Lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai HEY!” That was the whole song! He led us in prayer, and we even sang a song that is usually only hear in Mass. How cool is that?! I was moved to tears, because it was so touching and so beautiful. Who knew a concert could do that? And all of it was for Jesus. For our faith. For the sacrafice He made and for what we believe. It really brought home what this WYD was all about, and embodied the experience that many had said they had in the past: in a crowd of thousands, God spoke to me, individually. He spoke directly to my heart. I guess when He does that, there are few emotions or responses that can justify our feelings, so tears usually have to do. It was just amazing.
At the end of his concert, I had a few friends coming up saying they understood why I loved Matt Maher so much, and I was glad to hear it because it’s more than likely God spoke to their hearts too during his show! Thankful for such a blessed time, a couple English girls and I (Rachel being one of them) went off to grab dinner at McDonald’s before making our way home.
Exhausted but o so happy, I floated off to a short sleep, trying to retain the joys of the day in my dreams.
However, my day did not begin with celebration. Arising at 5:15am to catch a 6am bus is certainly not cause for a party. In the cold darkness, before the sun’s rays warmed the land, we trudged through our routines, usually dashing out of the house with sleep still in our eyes, trying not to believe we were awake at such an hour. Using public transport, the team had to make it into the city in time to catch a train, which would take us out to the Western Suburbs (we live in the East) by 7:30am in order to be ready for an 8:30am start to catechesis. This, we did for three mornings. It felt like we did it for a month.
Upon arriving at our venue, we had to set up our sound equipment, check the mics, speakers, video clips, go through some of the music, rehearse the dramas, hear a briefing on the morning, and finally pray before the pilgrims began flowing in.
More like trickle, actually. They could begin arriving at 8:30am, but never was anyone there earlier than 8:45am on any given morning. More often than not, that was a blessing, because we weren’t always ready to go at 8:30!
Once the pilgrims began coming in, we began singing songs to keep them entertained until the official catechesis started. I may or may not have mentioned that I was the music coordinator for our site, and I have to tell you, it was the most stressful thing I have ever done! And I’ve done some pretty stressful things…
It was my job to make sure the musicians had all the music they needed, decide which songs to play when, based on a number of factors including audience response, timing, tone of the song, tone of the day, theme of the day, the bishop’s request, and what I could actually sing, since I was also the main singer. Talk about stretching my abilities!
Overall, I am told the music went well, under the circumstances, and as one pilgrim in our group put it: “They will remember the music from catechesis.” However, in my opinion, it was arguably the worst part of the 3 hour sessions we put together, and there may be a number of reasons for that. The story was that that music team had put quite a lot of work in, some more than others, but our preparation didn’t come together, and we performed on different levels. One day our organ player, a guitar player, and two of our singers left or weren’t there to begin with, and another day it became apparent that some of the songs had been pushed around the musicians, so that each one thought the other was prepared to play it. On the last day, we had two separate groups come up and ask if we needed help. Gratefully, yet not without embarrassment, we accepted their offers. I felt like the hours and hours I had spent trying so hard to make this a success all came to nothing, but at the end of the day, I just offered it all up in prayer, and knew that if I was doing that, giving my all for the greater glory of God, I couldn’t go too wrong. Even though by earthen standards it felt like nothing went right.
The set up of catechesis for all three days was like this: we sang some songs as the pilgrims entered, and around 9am, whether they were all there or not, we began by introducing ourselves and the theme of the day (which was set by WYD). We had morning prayer including praise and worship, and then we performed a short skit followed by a short talk and a brief testimony. One day we showed a video we had made. Then we introduced the Bishop for the day (specific to our site…there were almost 300 sites and about 700 Bishops rotating between them over the 3 days!). He gave a talk, allowed time for question and answer, and then while the church and clergy were prepared for Mass, we sang a few more songs or taught the Mass parts that we were using. An hour later, at the conclusion of Mass, the pilgrims were sent on their way to collect lunch and head into the city for the whatever events were on the agenda for the day.
That was usually the point where I broke down in tears of relief and humiliation - relief that the hardest part of the day was over and humiliation that it had gone so terribly. Or so I thought. I guess that was partly because we didn’t get much sleep during the week, and partly because it was such an exhausting task in the first place, magnified 10 times in conjunction with the rest of the event. I’m sure some good came out of it for someone. When people ask me how my WYD was, I usually say that it was full of extreme highs and extreme lows. For me the catechesis sessions were extreme lows, but because that was the case, I knew the rest of the day had to be better!
Better they always were. Following day 1 of catechesis, the team together made our way to the suburb the Capuchin friars live in to perform our infamous JESUS chant at their forum. Among the other performers was Gary Pinto, who co-wrote the WYD theme song, “Receive the Power.” I’ve met Gary a few times, and not only is he a very talented singer/song writer, he is also a humble and strongly devout Catholic. It was great to see him again during WYD, and just after he performed we were invited up to do our thing.
Straight after we were finished, we had to again make a move, this time for the coast. Traveling out to Bondi, Sydney’s most famous beach, we were to again perform the JESUS chant, but this time along side a very famous rapping priest from the Bronx - Fr. Stan Fortuna! He is part of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and has made lots of recordings and music videos, building up quite a reputation! I’d heard of Fr. Stan, but never dreamed I would get to meet the man, or perform with him! Me, rapping? Haha Not quite.
It was fun being backstage of this big concert, fittingly called “Come to the Water”, and the weather was absolutely perfect for such an event. The sunset was once again beautiful, casting a pink glow on the eastern horizon. That’s the cool thing about living on the east coast. We never see the sun itself set, but we see the effects in the way the sky changes color. It’s like it seeps around from the west to the east, so we get a little peek at what the western sky must be ablaze with!
Meeting Fr. Stan was an interesting experience. The poor man was coming to this, his third concert of the day, and I’m sure all he really wanted to do was plop down somewhere to rest his head. After our meeting/preview with him (no one had told him he was to share 5 minutes of his performance with us - uhoh!) we said a few prayers for him, because I can’t imagine what it must be like to have to give of yourself so fully so many times throughout such a crazy week! I spoke with him a little, mostly just small talk, hoping my American accent and warm smile would bring some sort of peace to his heart, even if just for a few seconds. He was a very kind man, I could see that instantly. I wish I had been able to speak with him more - I’m sure he has a most beautiful story!
Now, before I get the part where I was “rapping” in front of a few thousand people, I must tell you about the most exciting part of my entire WYD week. Believe it or not, it was not the 5 minutes I was on stage. We had to wait for about an hour and a half before Fr. Stan’s performance began, and as I was peering at the schedule for the evening, I noticed that just after Fr. Stan performed a certain MATT MAHER would be performing!!!!!!! This means a few things: a. I would most certainly get to see him in concert, b. he would potentially be backstage at some point before that which would mean that c. there was a slight chance I would catch a personal glimpse of him. Or possibly get close enough to even meet him. O. my.
O….who is Matt Maher, you’re wondering? Well if you haven’t heard of him or heard me talk about him, he is a CATHOLIC singer/songwriter and let me tell you, I have never been more proud to be a Catholic and never felt more alive in my faith than when I am listening to this man’s songs. His music is contemporary with good tunes, and the lyrics are completely and 100% Catholic - he sings about transubstantiation, for Pete’s sake! And Mary! He set contemporary music to the Magnifcat. WOW. He’s just absolutely brilliant.
Now my attraction to this man is purely because of his music - I certainly am not reverting to my teeny-bopper days of wishfully imagining I would meet him and we’d fall in love and get married. I was just excited because who doesn’t want to meet someone (who isn’t the Pope) who inspires them to live their faith more fully?
So imagine my star-struck surprise when TWO hours before he was set to perform, (I didn’t expect him to show up quite so early!) voices in hushed tones began saying that Matt Maher was there. Our backstage area was not actually that big (I don’t know what you’re imagining) and it was outside, which means anyone could see in or out, or get in or out for that matter (distract the security and you’re set!), so if Matt Maher was in the backstage area, he would definitely be passing within 10 feet of me. But instead, he passed within 1 foot of me and shook my hand, as with a cotton-mouth that forgot how to work I sloppily said “Hi, I’m Mithy” and attempted a smile, which was probably crooked, and would have gone well with my dazed eyes. I can’t BELIEVE I was so star-struck - he’s just a human being!!! Kicking myself for looking and sounding so stupid, I murmured to Rachel that I wondered if he would take a picture with me, and wow, what timing, but he was walking back through the area just after I said that, and Rachel, shameless Rachel, stopped him and asked for a picture! “Sure!” he said with a smile, wrapping his arm around her (even though she was holding the camera) and because she didn’t really care who he was or what he did (oh, just ask her how she felt after seeing his concert!), shrugged his arm off and said, “Not with me! With her!” Still freaking out and maybe a little weak in the knees (why, I still don’t know), I gimped over and positioned myself next to him, hoping for normalcy in my smile. “Thank you so much!” I stammered as he nodded and headed off to take care of his next order of business. I couldn’t believe that had just happened, and it was all I could do to keep myself from jumping up and down for joy! I was like the Cheshire cat for about the next hour because I couldn’t stop smiling! I was floating on cloud 9, and if WYD had ended right then and there, I’m not sure I would have cared too much. The picture turned out GREAT. I informed the CYS team that I would be sending it out as my Christmas card photo. Haha just kidding…
It was all a bit of a blur after that: just after Fr. Stan went up to perform, we were ushered to the side of the stage, and when he finished his first song, he called us up, and we were hurtled into spotlights in front of screaming (fans?) and after doing the JESUS chant 2 or 3 times (I can’t even remember how many!) we then waved our way back off, and while most of the team was just in such a state of excitement, I was in a bit of another daze, this one of confusion, wondering what I had just done and also feeling a bit silly - we were doing a rap, and I’m a white girl from Indiana. I doubt I fit the part. O well, time to relax and enjoy the rest of the evening!
Fr. Stan’s concert was great - you may have heard of him. He’s the one who sings, “Ain’t no party like a Catholic party!” It was fun watching him - and it was even more fun watching a few other Franciscans who had organized the concert, get on stage and dance like you never saw St. Francis dance! My dinky digital camera doesn’t record sound, but I took a video anyway, so if I can figure out how to upload that to the internet to share, I will post the link. Also, be watching for a link for my WYD photo album. Yes, it will have my picture with Matt Maher as the cover.
Speaking of Matt Maher, he followed Fr. Stan in the lineup of acts, and WOWZA, it was one of the highlights of my WYD. He is such an incredible performer, and that, I had no idea about. He knows how to get the crowd involved in his songs, and the best part is, he gets us all involved so we can pray while we sing along with him. He had us pointing at the sky, giving all praise to God, he had us singing in a universal language of “Lai. Lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai HEY!” That was the whole song! He led us in prayer, and we even sang a song that is usually only hear in Mass. How cool is that?! I was moved to tears, because it was so touching and so beautiful. Who knew a concert could do that? And all of it was for Jesus. For our faith. For the sacrafice He made and for what we believe. It really brought home what this WYD was all about, and embodied the experience that many had said they had in the past: in a crowd of thousands, God spoke to me, individually. He spoke directly to my heart. I guess when He does that, there are few emotions or responses that can justify our feelings, so tears usually have to do. It was just amazing.
At the end of his concert, I had a few friends coming up saying they understood why I loved Matt Maher so much, and I was glad to hear it because it’s more than likely God spoke to their hearts too during his show! Thankful for such a blessed time, a couple English girls and I (Rachel being one of them) went off to grab dinner at McDonald’s before making our way home.
Exhausted but o so happy, I floated off to a short sleep, trying to retain the joys of the day in my dreams.
TUESDAY, JULY 15, 2008
World Youth Day was upon us!
Early that morning we rose to dress, pack, and leave, half of us traveling to our catechesis site to drop off our equipment, the rest of us heading to the city to get our accreditation and sit in on a few briefings for our various volunteer activities for the week. As we made our way to Darling Harbor through the city streets, and then walked along the water, I couldn’t help being overwhelmed by the amount of people that had suddenly descended upon Sydney. Where had they all come from? The answer to that question is not simple, because every group we passed was from a different corner of the world, and with over 150 countries represented at the event, I feel we probably covered every corner!
I knew that among the crowds would be a large group of 90 pilgrims from Indianapolis, and I desperately wanted to find this gathering of familiar faces. Fr. Jonathon Meyer, leader of the group, had passed on his Australian mobile number to me before leaving the States, but as I tried it a few times after I knew he would be in the country, I was disappointed with no answer - the phone wasn’t working! It was a blessing, really, because it forced me to rely on the Divine Providence of God to come across the group, but I certainly was doing everything in my power to search for them. I was constantly scanning the crowds of people looking for an American flag, a tall, skinny priest…anything to give hope of Hoosiers!
As we made our way through the convention center, the four of us girls who had agreed to pick up the accreditation ran into several people we knew along the way. I continuously found it amazing throughout the week how many friends I saw! I guess it’s because I live here and we’ve been working on this event for quite some time so we’ve met lots of the organizers, which means I know more than the average pilgrim, but still, it was so interesting!
We had a bit of time to kill so we just plopped down near the door of the auditorium we would soon need to enter for our briefing. I just sat there staring off into space, thinking about nothing and everything, and would you guess who walked right by me?
Fr. Meyer!
I couldn’t believe the incredible Providence of it - God had answered my prayers, and much sooner and easier than I thought! I was so ecstatic. It turned out the group from Indy was also animating a catechesis site (this just in) and Fr. Meyer was waiting for the briefing as well, which was lovely because it gave us a little chance to catch up. He explained the problem with the mobile phone, and wasn’t sure when it would be working. He outlined the group’s plan for the day, though, so when I had the chance I was hoping to head the same places they would possibly be to providentially bump into them again! It just so happens that was unnecessary though, because after parting with Fr. Meyer and then leaving the convention center an hour or two later after another briefing, I saw I had a missed call and voicemail from his mobile number! Guess he got it working…
Listening to the message, it wasn’t Fr. Meyer, though. It was Ben Syberg, an old friend from high school!
The story of Ben is that after bumping into him in January while I was home and explaining the new path my life was taking, he decided he was going to do everything he could to get to WYD himself! I hadn’t heard, though, whether he was able to make it or not, so one of the reasons I wanted to find the Indy group was to answer that question. No need! Ben’s message confirmed he was indeed in Sydney and calling him back I found out their exact location, which I promptly made my way to. I almost tackled him when I saw him! It was so exciting to see an old friend after such a long time, and in a foreign country at WYD! It was amazing to hear how hard he had worked to get there. Ben is in the seminary, so he employed some good letter writing skills (asking for donations) and the power of prayer to help him on his journey. I haven’t spoken to him since he returned, but it was pretty clear God wanted him to be there for a reason. I wonder if he was able to realize what that reason was!
There were a few others I knew among the group as well: Chrissy Beiriger, one of Jenny’s good friends and classmates, Peter Jansen, another old friend’s brother, and Katie Berger, a youth minister I was around a lot in high school. I met a few new people as well.
I hung around with them for a little while - by this time we were in Barangaroo, which is where the Opening Mass was being held. In fact, Barangaroo was a place (that looked very much like it used to be a parking lot?) on the Northeast side of Darling Harbor, created specifically for some of the large events of WYD. Among those events were the opening Mass, the Papal arrival, and the Stations of the Cross followed by a concert. I’d like to know how many people it was estimated this place could hold, because it ended up being completely packed and then some for the Opening Mass. As you can imagine, it was a HUGE amount of space. Just that morning in one of our briefings, one of the WYD staff had told us it took her 17 minutes to walk across it empty…I had no idea how long it was going to take walking across it packed with people.
This is something I was thinking about though, and the reason for that is this: I needed to sit in the VIP area for the Opening Mass because I was given a very special privilege. I was among 40 people who received the Eucharist from His Eminence George Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney and the main celebrant of the opening mass of WYD 2008. There were well over 200,000 people there and I went up on stage in front of all of them to receive the Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ! O, it was exhilarating! However, the exhilaration began long before the Mass even started. I had NO idea how to even get to this VIP area! Luckily I crossed paths with the director of the Sydney Uni chaplaincy, who also was looking for this allusive entrance. Together we found the general area, but got split up a bit on the way through the gate - there were quite a few people, and it just so happens the International Liturgy Team (ILT) was also walking through at that same time! A bit of chaos, really! However, it turned out lovely because I got to have a quick chat with the American representative on the ILT, and see a few friends I had made the night before at the countdown (also part of the ILT). Once I got through to the VIP seating area, even though I showed the lady at the entrance my ticket saying that I was to be receiving Communion from the Cardinal, she told me to just sit anywhere. Anywhere being on one of the maybe 2,000 white chairs set up for all VIPs. As I walked in just behind was another girl in the same situation - she too was receiving Communion from Cardinal Pell and as we sat down, quite far from the stage, we wondered how he would know we were among the 40 people if we were sitting in the middle of a bunch of other people? It was puzzling, but we began chatting anyway, assuming somehow it would all work out.
She told me her name was Jacquii and it was really loving talking with her - she was very agreeable and as it turns out, she was on her way to the States shortly after WYD to do her last year of uni there! She flew out on August 7, and is studying at Univ. of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. On an exciting side note, she emailed me a bit after WYD and was asking about sororities - she said she’d really like to be part of one while she is in the States! And guess which one she is looking at? TriDelta! I’m still anxiously awaiting the results of her recruitment week. More on that later.
Anyway: I only knew of one other person who would be among those chosen for this special honor, and just 10 minutes after Jacquii and I sat down, Yvette found us. Yvey, as we affectionately call her, works at Mary MacKillop Place - a beautiful lady with a jolly disposition and a strong faith. It was really nice to have a conversation with her while we were waiting for the Mass to begin. Jacquii, Yvey and I quite enjoyed ourselves, making the most of a confusing situation.
As the three of us sat amidst the thousands of white chairs, Penitito, who was volunteering for WYD and lives at the CYS house, came walking by and stopped suddenly upon seeing us. “Aren’t you receiving Communion from the Cardinal?” he asked me. Well, yes. “You’re supposed to be sitting up there!“ he said, pointing towards the front…
right…..
“Follow me.”
Before we knew what was going on, we were whisked away from the white plastic chairs and sailed past the rows and rows of them, until leaving that area, we sailed still farther up towards the stage until we were finally plopped in the back row of a small section just at the base of the massive stage. As we attempted to resettle, now with less than 5 minutes to the beginning of Mass, we three looked at each other in astonishment, wondering how it had happened that we had ended up in such a wrong place, and thankful that in the nick of time, someone had noticed the error and corrected it. I began to imagine what would have happened if Penni hadn’t come by when he did, and as my thoughts turned to the sad possibilities, they were abruptly cut off as the gathering song began to play and the clergy began to process by. I knew we had been very blessed.
It was a beautiful Mass. The setting was incredible, and it was only the beginning. As I said, Barangaroo was located on Darling Harbor, but what I didn’t mention is that this point is where Darling Harbor meets Sydney Harbor, and it is right on the edge of the beautiful city of Sydney. Throughout the Mass, aerial shots were shown on the screen, and it was stunning: 300,000 people, both inside and outside the gates of Barangaroo, had packed this area by the water, with the skyline standing perfect guard in the background. The light was brilliant - the setting sun cast a pink, orange, and faint yellow glow across the blue sky, and the week they said would be overcast with rain and cool temperatures was warm and clear in defiance. Even Mother Nature was bowing with humility to the God who created her.
It was hard to tell, but I think there was a hush over that large crowd throughout the Mass. Those people gathered are serious about their faith - so to have such a massive sea of humanity turned with uplifted hearts towards a celebration of sacrifice and thanksgiving is incredible and a true witness to the Catholic faith. The homily was spectacular as well - it was clear that the poor Cardinal, after being bombarded with negative media the week before the event, was in much better spirits now that his vision of having a WYD in his archdiocese was playing out and that it was going off with such a bang. I was able to speak to him just briefly after the Mass and he had a new glow about him - it was wonderful to see him so happy!
When it came time for us to begin our procession towards the stage to receive the Eucharist, I was covered in goosebumps - I was so cold, so nervous, so excited. Yvey and I walked next to each other, both trying to stop shaking! It was such a special moment, such a special privilege, and I was amazed that it was given to ME! How beautiful to begin the week in such a way. Yvette and I were close to tears as we walked back to our seats - such a breathtaking experience!
We were directed to exit the stage and walk through its belly on our way back, and as we did we passed quite a few crew members, the good people who were keeping the Mass running on a technical level, and I was a bit surprised to see three of them crowded around a laptop watching a movie! They had NO idea what I had just gone through, why these people were walking past them, what it meant to be at such an event, where all these people had gathered from, Who they were in the Holy Presence of! If only they had been watching - what God might have done to change their hearts! I prayed that at some point throughout the week He would reveal Himself to them. I can’t imagine the crew of a WYD being so unaffected, despite their religious status!
As the Mass ended, I was filled with that peace we are to take forth, and there was much celebration as WYD had finally begun! Mingling with a few others who were in the same seating area (the one closest to the stage…not our former place among the sea of chairs) we climbed on to a platform to take a look at all the people around the venue, flying flags from every corner of the world. We were very slow to leave as we wanted to soak it all in, and meeting up with Beth, a good friend who had given a testimony in the lead-up to the Mass, we began chattering about our experiences and the days that were to come. Before we knew it, we had walked out of Barangaroo, and only 20 minutes later did we realize what a mistake that was! It only seemed like most people had left the venue because our little area was cleared, but there was a concert going on and dinner was being served within the fences and no one was allowed back in until everyone else had left. Basically, no one was allowed back in. Beth and I wondered around for quite a while, going this way and that, sharing a granola bar for dinner, and finally plopping down on the curb of some side street just outside Barangaroo, not really knowing what to do or where to go.
We decided to walk towards the streams of people leaving the grounds, and taking our place among them, made our way to Darling Harbor where she stumbled upon her pilgrim group, and I coincidentally met one of Alana’s friends from Texas. TALK ABOUT right place, right time! He had just gotten to Sydney that morning but didn’t know how to contact Alana - see, waving an American flag can come in handy!
Together we met up with Alana, who took us back to the temporary apartment of some WYD volunteers - right on the edge of beautiful Darling Harbor. From their balcony we watched the beautiful display of fireworks set off from Barangaroo to celebrate the official start of WYD.
Humbled and content with the blessings the opening had bestowed, I made my way home and went straight to sleep, preparing myself for both the challenges, pandemonium, and peace that lay ahead.
Early that morning we rose to dress, pack, and leave, half of us traveling to our catechesis site to drop off our equipment, the rest of us heading to the city to get our accreditation and sit in on a few briefings for our various volunteer activities for the week. As we made our way to Darling Harbor through the city streets, and then walked along the water, I couldn’t help being overwhelmed by the amount of people that had suddenly descended upon Sydney. Where had they all come from? The answer to that question is not simple, because every group we passed was from a different corner of the world, and with over 150 countries represented at the event, I feel we probably covered every corner!
I knew that among the crowds would be a large group of 90 pilgrims from Indianapolis, and I desperately wanted to find this gathering of familiar faces. Fr. Jonathon Meyer, leader of the group, had passed on his Australian mobile number to me before leaving the States, but as I tried it a few times after I knew he would be in the country, I was disappointed with no answer - the phone wasn’t working! It was a blessing, really, because it forced me to rely on the Divine Providence of God to come across the group, but I certainly was doing everything in my power to search for them. I was constantly scanning the crowds of people looking for an American flag, a tall, skinny priest…anything to give hope of Hoosiers!
As we made our way through the convention center, the four of us girls who had agreed to pick up the accreditation ran into several people we knew along the way. I continuously found it amazing throughout the week how many friends I saw! I guess it’s because I live here and we’ve been working on this event for quite some time so we’ve met lots of the organizers, which means I know more than the average pilgrim, but still, it was so interesting!
We had a bit of time to kill so we just plopped down near the door of the auditorium we would soon need to enter for our briefing. I just sat there staring off into space, thinking about nothing and everything, and would you guess who walked right by me?
Fr. Meyer!
I couldn’t believe the incredible Providence of it - God had answered my prayers, and much sooner and easier than I thought! I was so ecstatic. It turned out the group from Indy was also animating a catechesis site (this just in) and Fr. Meyer was waiting for the briefing as well, which was lovely because it gave us a little chance to catch up. He explained the problem with the mobile phone, and wasn’t sure when it would be working. He outlined the group’s plan for the day, though, so when I had the chance I was hoping to head the same places they would possibly be to providentially bump into them again! It just so happens that was unnecessary though, because after parting with Fr. Meyer and then leaving the convention center an hour or two later after another briefing, I saw I had a missed call and voicemail from his mobile number! Guess he got it working…
Listening to the message, it wasn’t Fr. Meyer, though. It was Ben Syberg, an old friend from high school!
The story of Ben is that after bumping into him in January while I was home and explaining the new path my life was taking, he decided he was going to do everything he could to get to WYD himself! I hadn’t heard, though, whether he was able to make it or not, so one of the reasons I wanted to find the Indy group was to answer that question. No need! Ben’s message confirmed he was indeed in Sydney and calling him back I found out their exact location, which I promptly made my way to. I almost tackled him when I saw him! It was so exciting to see an old friend after such a long time, and in a foreign country at WYD! It was amazing to hear how hard he had worked to get there. Ben is in the seminary, so he employed some good letter writing skills (asking for donations) and the power of prayer to help him on his journey. I haven’t spoken to him since he returned, but it was pretty clear God wanted him to be there for a reason. I wonder if he was able to realize what that reason was!
There were a few others I knew among the group as well: Chrissy Beiriger, one of Jenny’s good friends and classmates, Peter Jansen, another old friend’s brother, and Katie Berger, a youth minister I was around a lot in high school. I met a few new people as well.
I hung around with them for a little while - by this time we were in Barangaroo, which is where the Opening Mass was being held. In fact, Barangaroo was a place (that looked very much like it used to be a parking lot?) on the Northeast side of Darling Harbor, created specifically for some of the large events of WYD. Among those events were the opening Mass, the Papal arrival, and the Stations of the Cross followed by a concert. I’d like to know how many people it was estimated this place could hold, because it ended up being completely packed and then some for the Opening Mass. As you can imagine, it was a HUGE amount of space. Just that morning in one of our briefings, one of the WYD staff had told us it took her 17 minutes to walk across it empty…I had no idea how long it was going to take walking across it packed with people.
This is something I was thinking about though, and the reason for that is this: I needed to sit in the VIP area for the Opening Mass because I was given a very special privilege. I was among 40 people who received the Eucharist from His Eminence George Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney and the main celebrant of the opening mass of WYD 2008. There were well over 200,000 people there and I went up on stage in front of all of them to receive the Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ! O, it was exhilarating! However, the exhilaration began long before the Mass even started. I had NO idea how to even get to this VIP area! Luckily I crossed paths with the director of the Sydney Uni chaplaincy, who also was looking for this allusive entrance. Together we found the general area, but got split up a bit on the way through the gate - there were quite a few people, and it just so happens the International Liturgy Team (ILT) was also walking through at that same time! A bit of chaos, really! However, it turned out lovely because I got to have a quick chat with the American representative on the ILT, and see a few friends I had made the night before at the countdown (also part of the ILT). Once I got through to the VIP seating area, even though I showed the lady at the entrance my ticket saying that I was to be receiving Communion from the Cardinal, she told me to just sit anywhere. Anywhere being on one of the maybe 2,000 white chairs set up for all VIPs. As I walked in just behind was another girl in the same situation - she too was receiving Communion from Cardinal Pell and as we sat down, quite far from the stage, we wondered how he would know we were among the 40 people if we were sitting in the middle of a bunch of other people? It was puzzling, but we began chatting anyway, assuming somehow it would all work out.
She told me her name was Jacquii and it was really loving talking with her - she was very agreeable and as it turns out, she was on her way to the States shortly after WYD to do her last year of uni there! She flew out on August 7, and is studying at Univ. of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. On an exciting side note, she emailed me a bit after WYD and was asking about sororities - she said she’d really like to be part of one while she is in the States! And guess which one she is looking at? TriDelta! I’m still anxiously awaiting the results of her recruitment week. More on that later.
Anyway: I only knew of one other person who would be among those chosen for this special honor, and just 10 minutes after Jacquii and I sat down, Yvette found us. Yvey, as we affectionately call her, works at Mary MacKillop Place - a beautiful lady with a jolly disposition and a strong faith. It was really nice to have a conversation with her while we were waiting for the Mass to begin. Jacquii, Yvey and I quite enjoyed ourselves, making the most of a confusing situation.
As the three of us sat amidst the thousands of white chairs, Penitito, who was volunteering for WYD and lives at the CYS house, came walking by and stopped suddenly upon seeing us. “Aren’t you receiving Communion from the Cardinal?” he asked me. Well, yes. “You’re supposed to be sitting up there!“ he said, pointing towards the front…
right…..
“Follow me.”
Before we knew what was going on, we were whisked away from the white plastic chairs and sailed past the rows and rows of them, until leaving that area, we sailed still farther up towards the stage until we were finally plopped in the back row of a small section just at the base of the massive stage. As we attempted to resettle, now with less than 5 minutes to the beginning of Mass, we three looked at each other in astonishment, wondering how it had happened that we had ended up in such a wrong place, and thankful that in the nick of time, someone had noticed the error and corrected it. I began to imagine what would have happened if Penni hadn’t come by when he did, and as my thoughts turned to the sad possibilities, they were abruptly cut off as the gathering song began to play and the clergy began to process by. I knew we had been very blessed.
It was a beautiful Mass. The setting was incredible, and it was only the beginning. As I said, Barangaroo was located on Darling Harbor, but what I didn’t mention is that this point is where Darling Harbor meets Sydney Harbor, and it is right on the edge of the beautiful city of Sydney. Throughout the Mass, aerial shots were shown on the screen, and it was stunning: 300,000 people, both inside and outside the gates of Barangaroo, had packed this area by the water, with the skyline standing perfect guard in the background. The light was brilliant - the setting sun cast a pink, orange, and faint yellow glow across the blue sky, and the week they said would be overcast with rain and cool temperatures was warm and clear in defiance. Even Mother Nature was bowing with humility to the God who created her.
It was hard to tell, but I think there was a hush over that large crowd throughout the Mass. Those people gathered are serious about their faith - so to have such a massive sea of humanity turned with uplifted hearts towards a celebration of sacrifice and thanksgiving is incredible and a true witness to the Catholic faith. The homily was spectacular as well - it was clear that the poor Cardinal, after being bombarded with negative media the week before the event, was in much better spirits now that his vision of having a WYD in his archdiocese was playing out and that it was going off with such a bang. I was able to speak to him just briefly after the Mass and he had a new glow about him - it was wonderful to see him so happy!
When it came time for us to begin our procession towards the stage to receive the Eucharist, I was covered in goosebumps - I was so cold, so nervous, so excited. Yvey and I walked next to each other, both trying to stop shaking! It was such a special moment, such a special privilege, and I was amazed that it was given to ME! How beautiful to begin the week in such a way. Yvette and I were close to tears as we walked back to our seats - such a breathtaking experience!
We were directed to exit the stage and walk through its belly on our way back, and as we did we passed quite a few crew members, the good people who were keeping the Mass running on a technical level, and I was a bit surprised to see three of them crowded around a laptop watching a movie! They had NO idea what I had just gone through, why these people were walking past them, what it meant to be at such an event, where all these people had gathered from, Who they were in the Holy Presence of! If only they had been watching - what God might have done to change their hearts! I prayed that at some point throughout the week He would reveal Himself to them. I can’t imagine the crew of a WYD being so unaffected, despite their religious status!
As the Mass ended, I was filled with that peace we are to take forth, and there was much celebration as WYD had finally begun! Mingling with a few others who were in the same seating area (the one closest to the stage…not our former place among the sea of chairs) we climbed on to a platform to take a look at all the people around the venue, flying flags from every corner of the world. We were very slow to leave as we wanted to soak it all in, and meeting up with Beth, a good friend who had given a testimony in the lead-up to the Mass, we began chattering about our experiences and the days that were to come. Before we knew it, we had walked out of Barangaroo, and only 20 minutes later did we realize what a mistake that was! It only seemed like most people had left the venue because our little area was cleared, but there was a concert going on and dinner was being served within the fences and no one was allowed back in until everyone else had left. Basically, no one was allowed back in. Beth and I wondered around for quite a while, going this way and that, sharing a granola bar for dinner, and finally plopping down on the curb of some side street just outside Barangaroo, not really knowing what to do or where to go.
We decided to walk towards the streams of people leaving the grounds, and taking our place among them, made our way to Darling Harbor where she stumbled upon her pilgrim group, and I coincidentally met one of Alana’s friends from Texas. TALK ABOUT right place, right time! He had just gotten to Sydney that morning but didn’t know how to contact Alana - see, waving an American flag can come in handy!
Together we met up with Alana, who took us back to the temporary apartment of some WYD volunteers - right on the edge of beautiful Darling Harbor. From their balcony we watched the beautiful display of fireworks set off from Barangaroo to celebrate the official start of WYD.
Humbled and content with the blessings the opening had bestowed, I made my way home and went straight to sleep, preparing myself for both the challenges, pandemonium, and peace that lay ahead.
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