April 15 and all's well!

I just want to start this post by apologizing for the length, and scarcity of my recent blogs. They have been few and far between - something that I will try and work on. Maybe if I didn't fill them with so many pointless facts...

The update for the past week or so is that it was relaxing. Thank goodness.

When you last heard from me, I was on my way to a girls night at a friends house, and the night was quite lovely. Just a bit of dinner, a board game, and lots of girly chatting. Perfect!

Sunday, April 6, I went to the Cathedral for a fairly new event called the Day of the Unborn - very similar, I'd say, to the March for Life in Washington DC, but on a MUCH smaller scale. About 300 of us made a small procession through the streets of Sydney praying a rosary in honor of all those unborn children who have been robbed of the right to life, and in a prayer for those who still have a chance in their mother's wombs. We even had the cooperation of the police as they blocked off a few streets for us. Maybe Australia is making some pro-life progress!

That Monday was the second Theology on Tap (TOT) of the year and it was quite a success, with over 500 people in attendance! The pub was bursting at the seams, so the event is moving venues, to a larger pub owned by the same man. This past Saturday a group of us went up there to check it out for the next TOT, which is May 5. The event happens every first Monday of the month. If you'd like to check out the website, which is complete with audio from the talks and pictures (I'm in some of them!!), the URL is www.ndstms.com.au - click on the link at the top for Theology on Tap, or the ribbon that says "Get on Tap!" for the homepage of the event. My friend, Patrick, is the brain behind the operation - he's only 20 but has quite a name for himself! If you check it out, let me know what you think - it's probably one of my favorite things to do in Sydney!

Tuesday, April 8, was quite a special day. I'll try not to write a book about it, but in as few words as possible, express just how blessed the day was. Our team was asked to help with a few JCI events in the schools. I know that doesn't make any sense to most of you, so I should start with a bit of a background explanation.

*In the early days of World Youth Day (WYD), since 1984, Pope John Paul II (JPII) blessed a very large wooden cross for all youth, and sent it off to journey around the world, which since then, you can imagine it has done many times! It is now seen as the "Olympic torch" for WYD, and it spends the year before WYD in the country that is hosting the big event. In 2003, JPII added something else to the journey: an Icon of Our Lady. This is all known as the Journey of the Cross and Icon (JCI). Just below is the link for the website where you can read more about it - it's a beautiful, beautiful thing.
http://www.wyd2008.org/index.php/en/wyd08_events/journey_of_the_cross_icon
Well, based on what I've said, the JCI came to Australia last July to begin its travels around this continent, just before I arrived in fact. Now, when I got here, I didn't know anything about it at all, and certainly didn't really have any high aspirations to see it - I wasn't going to go find it. However, it came and found me on my trip up the east coast of Australia to Cairns, a popular spot for departing land for the Great Barrier Reef. The day I arrived in Cairns, I had several hours to kill and decided to go and find the church I would be attending Sunday Mass at the next day. As I approached St. Monica's Cathedral, a van pulling a trailer, covered in the WYD logo, pulled into the Church right in front of me. I didn't think too much of it until I saw a poster saying the JCI would be in Cairns that very day! I couldn't BELIEVE the coincidence (or Providence, as we Catholics call it), and raced around the back of the Church, speechless and moved to tears. I wasn't sure why I was crying, but looking back, I would ask anyone not to cry when you can so visibly see the Lord in your life. That occurrence was a sign of hope to me that somehow, someway, I would make it back here for WYD, because you see at that point, I still didn't know if that was a possibility. And now look where I am today!
Anyway, the JCI team that travels around with the Cross was there and I met a few of them, but I honestly didn't remember their names, and only vaguely remembered their faces, since I was in such an emotional state. That day really stuck with me though, and I would pinpoint it as the day my entire life began to change. The grace of that Cross is truly amazing.
However, as you may have read in the earlier blog, I only just got to see the Cross and Icon on the Wednesday before Easter, because you see, that day in Cairns, they had just gotten off the road, and weren't able to unpack the Cross so I could see or touch it. I held a lot on that Cross though, even without having a physical encounter with it, and so when I finally got to see it, and every time since, it has been a very blessed experience. However, none can compare to last Tuesday.*

After hitting up one high school and performing in the program they had organized for the JCI, we raced the Cross to its next destination at another school which was holding an all-night vigil where quite a few schools could come to venerate the Cross and Icon. We arrived just a few minutes before the JCI team, and about 10 minutes after then, the Cross arrived as well. However, in that 10 minutes, I was reminded that God is smiling upon me. I was chatting with a few of the JCI team members, one who I hadn't met before, another who I had met briefly, before he was part of the team, and suddenly, Fr. Chris Ryan, the coordinator and leader of the JCI in Australia, who had been talking to the rest of the CYS team, came up and said,
"Hi, I've met you before, but I'm sorry I've forgotten your name."

Well, I was quite shocked because I didn't actually remember meeting him! But then I thought, surely, this was not the man I met in Cairns on my providential run-in with the Cross, but sure enough, it was him, and let me tell you why this is such a phenomenon. I should have been the one to remember him - it was such a monumental day in my life - but Fr. Chris Ryan, who has been all over Australia with the Cross and Icon, has had, no doubt, countless upon countless encounters with young people, and who hadn't seen me in 7 months, remembered my face! But not only that...

"I'm Missy," I replied to him in shock, to which he said,
"Yes, Missy, of course, I met you in..."
"Cairns," I finished his sentence for him, still hardly believing this was real.
"Cairns, yes," he said, "You were on a holiday, and you couldn't stay, but we had driven past you."
Nodding my head, as a few tears sprang to my eyes, I almost whispered, "I can't believe you remember."
"Of course I remember," came the immediate and gentle reply.

I was so astounded. Words could not express the intense respect I immediately gained for Fr. Chris. What a phenomenal priest! He then even went on to say he was glad I had joined CYS - wow! He knows about CYS and cares that I am part of it?
Just then, the Cross pulled in on the back of the truck, but as we stood there side by side, watching this amazing object, so meaningful to both of us, he looked down at me (he's quite tall!) and said,
"It's good to see you again."
"It's good to see you too," I said, and added the biggest smile I could manage, hoping that maybe, in that, he would see just how much I meant it.

Because of that, I could feel the warmth of the Lord throughout that cold, rainy night, as we spent hours around the Cross, carrying it back and forth, while thousands of children and their parents venerated it. At many of the stations, I was put in position holding the Cross, along with another person, so that as people processed up to touch, kiss, hug, or kneel before it, it would not be knocked over. I felt so privileged - not only was I blessed to witness the faith of those gathered, but they gathered and waited in line just to have the chance to touch the Cross, the one I was holding. Holding - they say you receive so much power and grace just from touching the Cross, just from being in its presence, even, as my encounter in Cairns can prove, but now I spent hours with my hands on the Cross.
I was so emotional, which may sound odd, but I'll share one more thing from that night that really touched me. During many of the stations, parents had brought their small children up to venerate the Cross, often holding their hands up to the wood, which was touching in itself. However, something I will never forget was the faith of a father with his little baby girl in his arms. As he brought his daughter up, he didn't reach out her hand to touch the Cross. Instead, he touched it himself, and then immediately made the Sign of the Cross on her, because she couldn't have been more than 6 months old, and so couldn't do it herself. It was such a special moment.
I hope you may understand just a bit more why I say that day was so blessed. I wish I could share the Cross itself with you, but the best I can do is share the website. Please check it out!

After our all-night vigil with the Cross, we slept all day Wednesday and that night I took a walk along the coast, just to get out and get some air.

On Thursday, the team was treated to lunch at the Sydney Fish Markets (yummy!), mostly as a reward for our work throughout the term, which had come to an end (1 down, 3 to go!).

Friday and Saturday I spent at the Catholic Institute of Sydney at a Colloquium on the New Evangelization. Sound boring? I thought the same thing, but it actually was quite interesting, and I was very surprised at how much I gained from the talks which were given. Plus the social and culinary side of it wasn't too bad - the Dominican Sisters from Nashville were there, and they are always a bonus to any event! Their accent isn't bad either...I sure do miss it!

Friday night we visited one of the CYS girls who has been away since Easter - she has had not one, but TWO deaths in her family since then, and she has been very sick with a fever she contracted in the Pacific Islands while at one of the funerals. Talk about bad luck. Her health is improving though and she will be rejoining us after the break!

Sunday, I visited my old home - Newtown, Sydney! That's where I lived last year while I was studying, and after Mass at the Cathedral, a few friends and I went to dinner there, getting Thai, which the area is infamous for - yummy yumm. It was good to see a familiar street!

Monday was exciting - one of the WYD staff members had free tickets to the filming of the show "So You Think You can Dance? Australia" which takes place also in a familiar place, near Sydney Uni's campus, at a theatre venue called Carriageworks. It was alright, seeing the dancers to their opening routine, but if I hadn't had the tickets, I wouldn't have gone - meaning I didn't care one way or the other. It was good to fill the afternoon, anyway! Then I mosied on over to the Chapliancy, somewhere I spent quite a bit of time last semester, and was able to catch up with the women who work there, including Tajana, who was fresh back from her honeymoon! It was fun chatting to her about her wedding - she was very anxious for the feedback, which I happily gave. All thumbs up!

So, in case you didn't catch it, I'm on a two-week break right now, and will most probably be bumming around the CYS house or loafing around Sydney between now and the day we resume. On the list of exciting things planned are a day roadtrip with a few friends up the coast to a place called Gosford (I shall give full reports and a few pictures), and yet another trip up the coast to close off the break during the last weekend, this time for a retreat with the Dominicans! I'm very much looking forward to it - it's just girls :) Should be fun!

My last point of sharing is quite exciting, if you ask me. Now, you may or may not know, but recently I've been a bit homesick. More than a bit, really, but it comes and goes depending on the day. Anyhow, I received word that a friend from Millikin, who also studied here in Sydney last semester, will almost certainly be returning to either pursue her Master's degree here in Australia, or just work and travel - she loves it here so much she can't wait to come back! Which is exciting for me as well, because I would then have a familiar American face to turn to when those homesick pangs are sharp. However, she may not be here until June, July, even August, which is closer than we think, but still, a long way off all the same.

But that's ok, because God decided I needed some relief from home now, so He sent me a package of blessings in the form of a girl from Texas. Her name is Alana, and she just arrived last Monday. She's working for WYD as a volunteer in the accommodations department. I was afraid I scared her when I met her on Saturday night because I just freaked out to hear a familiar accent and be able to finally share the "weirdness that is American" with someone else! However, it turns out, I may be a God-send for her too, because as I've heard from her and a few others, she needed someone from home just as bad, being in a new foreign place and all. I imagine a very lovely friendship will soon blossom. Thanks be to God! :)

Until I write again, may God bless you!