Tuesday July 15, 2008

Before heading out for the day’s events, we thought we would tell you about the rest of yesterday. As part of WYD there is a Vocations Expo set up in one of the large convention center halls. We have a booth there, and some Little Sisters and novices went down to set it up in the afternoon. The booths are nicely arranged, and we saw several familiar faces from the United States and elsewhere. The Expo opens for visitors today, and we have a schedule arranged for staffing the booth. The Sisters of Life are organizing a WYD site called Love & Life, and have invited us to have a table there as well.  Setup for that is today, and it will open tomorrow.

Yesterday afternoon in the sky above our home an airplane appeared, which traced out with smoke two crosses & the name Jesus. What a treat to watch! At the airport, pilgrims are coming in by the planeload, and a group from Brazil gathered outside the terminal to sing and dance. Our Little Sisters from Noumea arrived in the afternoon and we brought them directly to the convention center, since a gathering of French pilgrims would take place there in the late afternoon. It was actually a Mass with Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois of Paris. 13 other bishops and 74 priests concelebrated with him. Before Mass began, the animators asked the pilgrims from the different dioceses to come up and do something for the crowd. Priests and bishops from their dioceses joined them in leading the spiritual songs and chants. The Mass took place in a large auditorium, and the words for the songs were displayed on a big screen so that everyone could join in. Cardinal Vingt-Trois gave a lovely homily based on the Gospel reading, encouraging the young people to open themselves up to the full gift of self. The atmosphere was joyful and lively, but also very prayerful just before and during the Mass. We were 6 Little Sisters from 5 different countries. A lady next to us in the row said to her neighbor, “It’s something; they all speak French, but none of them are French!” We were happy to be able to correct her, since Sr. Benoite was with us. It was a delight to see all the young people spill out into the convention center plaza after Mass, still singing and waving their flags from France and from their regions, as well as banners from their dioceses.

Most of our group headed home after the Mass, but our USA contingent headed for the cathedral where Fr. Thomas Rosica, CSB was leading an evening of prayer and worship with young people from Canada. Fr. Rosica organized WYD in Toronto 6 years ago, and as a fruit of that experience, founded Salt & Light web TV. This evening at the cathedral focused on Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, and began with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Young people then gave testimonies of faith, followed by a talk by Fr. Rosica, in which he encouraged us to reflect on three aspects of the Blessed’s life: his love  for the Eucharist, his respect for life, and his suffering and young death. It concluded with several invocations to Pier Giorgio, asking him that when we stray from all that we’re called to be, to show us the way “Verso l’Alto!” (a favorite saying of his, meaning, “Upward, to heaven!” Father Rosica alternated freely between English, French and Italian during his talk. At the end of the evening we had the opportunity to greet Father, and also to greet Pier Giorgio’s niece, who has come from Italy for this special event.

The Opening Mass for WYD will take place this afternoon, but we are first going down to the Opera House for Eucharistic adoration. Here at home more visitors are arriving, including several bishops and priests from France, and a bishop and priest from the USA. We will be back in touch. God bless.

Tuesday July 15, 2008 (part 2)

The excitement is certainly underway here in Sydney! This morning a large group went to the Opera House for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, animated by the Missionaries of Charity and the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. We took our local bus as far as we could go, then walked a few blocks to the Opera House. But it wasn’t just us walking; it was a stream of people from all over the world. Approaching the Opera House, we could see the pilgrims from the various military archdioceses lined up on the steps for pictures. Later on, we would encounter one of these families, an American Marine & his two sons who live in Okinawa, Japan right now. What a contrast when we went inside; a peaceful time with Our Lord. We stayed for almost an hour, then headed for the site of the Opening Mass, Barangaroo Harbor. We’ve learned from our Little Sisters here that this was a working harbor up until 6 months ago, and that the city has plans to develop it. For now, it is a long rather narrow empty space which serves as site for some of the main WYD events.

The walk to Barangaroo was quite an adventure. The streets were literally filled with people and trying to keep our large group together (about 18) was a challenge. Once we passed through the gate we found a spot off to the side where we could regroup and go forward. Meanwhile, our Little Sisters who had been setting up the second Vocations Expo started making their way from another part of town, and another group from the Exhibition Center. With the cell phones two of our three groups managed to connect, and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening together.

Task #1 was to find lunch. We gathered up our tickets and sent our representatives up to the service tent. Today’s lunch was Australian meat pie (for the Americans, like a pot pie with no vegetables). They were very tasty and very hot! We also got a dessert cake, a tangerine & a flavored mineral water.  It was plenty to fill us up for the afternoon. There was still plenty of time to explore, greet the crowds and hand out our little souvenirs. And of course, to take some pictures. Having obtained an “official” media pass for today, 3 of the 4 of us went to the media stand directly across from the stage where the Mass would be celebrated. The rest of the group stayed in place. We could see the stage, but most of what we saw came through the big screens set up along the park.

From the media releases we’ve learned the following: “After Pope Benedict XVI sent a personal text message to pilgrims, the atmosphere in the Sydney city was electric.  He sent: ‘Young friend, God & his people expect much from u, because u have within u the Father’s supreme gift: the Spirit of Jesus – BXVI’ Approximately 150,000 pilgrims attended Barangaroo and other CBD live sites for the Opening Mass. The warm weather and gorgeous Sydney harbour as a backdrop left the crowd in awe as the sun went down during the proceedings. After an official indigenous welcome, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd inspired the crowd when he said ‘too often when young people travel in large numbers, it’s for war. But you have come here as pilgrims of peace.’ Following the 168-flag procession and the walk-in of the WYD Cross, Icon and Indigenous Message Stick, Cardinal Pell welcomed the international pilgrims in four languages – English, French, Spanish and Italian. Joined by 26 Cardinals, 400 Bishops, a 300-person youth Choir, and an 80-piece orchestra, his Homily focused on the fruitfulness of commitment.”

The Mass was a votive Mass of the Holy Spirit. A large choir, accompanied by the SBS Youth Orchestra animated the beautiful liturgy. In the Cardinal’s homily, he not only spoke of commitment, but of Christian hope. At the beginning he referred to the psalm of the Mass, Psalm 23, and Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep, saying that on the big Australian sheep farms the idea of searching for one sheep doesn’t make much sense, but Jesus & his Father know each sheep by name and go searching for the lost. He welcomed us once again, but first of all welcoming those who sense themselves to be lost, reminding us that where there is life there is always the option of hope, and that with Christian hope there always comes faith and love. He also said that the capacity of the Church and of Catholics is to make new life flourish even in the most uncertain circumstances. He encouraged the young people to make this week not only a week of human celebration, but of celebrating the liberation of our repentance, the rejuvenation of our faith.

The Mass continued with prayers of the faithful in the different languages, and representatives of different countries in the offertory procession. Mass concluded with the WYD theme song in its international version. Then it was time for supper & time to head home. At lunch and supper both we were joined by a few other pilgrims (in order to make the 6 meal quota) from other groups and other countries. We saw some familiar faces, too, from the ones who have stayed here at the home. On the bus coming home we fell in with a group of school girls from Kowloon, Hong Kong. It’s been quite a day and tomorrow will begin at 9am with our catechesis session at our parish. We’re off and running! God bless.