Waterford native Aoife Connors is a first-time pilgrim at World Youth Day. She blogged from Australia all month about her personal experience at the world's largest gathering of young people.
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Monday, 21 July 2008
Well we’ve come to the end of our spiritual journey for WYD 08. All the celebrations marked the end of WYD Sydney 08 as Pope Benedict announced the next WYD in 2011 and the location will be Madrid.
That’s when the 400,000 pilgrims standing in Randwick Racecourse this morning had to pack their final bags as they looked ahead with hope to Madrid in three years time. Pilgrims wondered where will I be in 2011 and what will I be doing? It seems so far away and yet the planning is certain to begin very soon indeed.
Last nights candle-lit vigil was coined ‘Holy Night’ on the front page of this morning’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper here in Sydney. It really was a very special night with over 200,000 WYD pilgrims camping out under the stars.
Pilgrims began their 10km journey at 5.30am on Saturday morning from North Sydney station to Randwick Racecourse. I set off with my parish Our Lady of Victories at 11am from North Sydney towards Darling Harbour where we took a well deserved break from our pilgrimage at lunchtime to enjoy delicious fish and chips with a cool drink for a great bargain of $10!
There was plenty of banter, singing and colour throughout our pilgrimage to Randwick Racecourse. We arrived before 4pm and quickly set about making our beds with warm sleeping bags and termarests while layering on the clothes to keep away the cold!
At 7pm the entire racecourse was transformed as every pilgrim held their candlelight in the darkness while singing our WYD theme song ‘Receive the Power’. Pope Benedict XVI addressed the pilgrims last night speaking about the need to embrace god in our lives rather than trying to escape from him.
The Holy Father emphasised what our catechesis speakers have told us throughout WYD ‘Jesus is Love’. He also spoke about the importance of realising that God is present in our everyday lives; our working lives, study, sport, music and art activities.
Many of us felt that Pope Benedict was relating in a very meaningful way the vital need for God in our lives. He said if you realise the presence of Jesus Christ in your ordinary life then this has the capacity to become extraordinary.
Everyone sang together our WYD theme song along with coordinated liturgical movements to the words ‘Allelulia, Allelulia, Receive the Power from the Holy Spirit, Allelulia’.
After some great music and dancing, the pilgrims began to drop like flies into the sleeping bags! Many shivering and shaking with the cold while others were nice and toasty in six or seven layers of clothing.
Some got a great night’s sleep, the fresh air knocked out some of the pilgrims good and early including myself before 10pm! However others twisted and turned on the hard ground struggling to get some sleep. Our misfortunate priest was so cold he had to go to the food tent for a cup of soup at 4am to warm himself up! Other pilgrims were heard chanting ‘Benedicto, Benedicto’ throughout the night.
By 8am every pilgrim was alive, alert and enthusiastic! All gear had to be packed up before Morning Prayer at 8am followed by the Pope’s blessing of all the WYD pilgrims in his helicopter flying over Randwick Racecourse.
Mass began at 10am with almost half a million people joining together in Randwick for the WYD final mass. Pope Benedict spoke about the theme of WYD 08 during today’s mass; ‘You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses’.
Similarly Archbishop Martin also spoke about the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives during his catechesis session with CYC on Friday morning. Archbishop Martin gave a very interesting and thought provoking speech to the pilgrims which generated many questions from the group afterwards.
But finally at the end of his script Pope Benedict said it is the most powerful thing in the world if you can be amazed by the words of the gospel everyday. We said the Angelas after 12pm and heard the farewell address from Cardinal Pell; Archbishop of Sydney and Stainslaw Cardinal Rytko; President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity.
Pilgrims stood patiently until 1pm when finally the anxious waiting was over as the Holy Father continued the precedent set by his predecessor by announcing that next WYD would take place in 2011 in Madrid. Could it be more convenient for the us Irish pilgrims?
After farewells and good luck greeting the pilgrims began the next leg of their pilgrimage; the journey home from Sydney. What a WYD it has been! What an experience! Everyone is full of praise for the organisation and spectacular WYD experience that this city has hosted. Congratulations and well done to all involved, it was an honour to be there and we’ll always remember: ‘Jesus is Love’.
Saturday, 19 July 2008
Throughout this week there have been many world events taking place. Tuesday was a huge occasion as it marked the beginning of WYD with the official opening mass celebrated by Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney and the Bishops of the world.
Thousands of young people gathered in Barangaroo along Sydney Harbour for the beginning of WYD. Representatives from every nation carried their national flag onto the stage as the Cardinals and Archbishops arrived.
Music blared from the gospel choir as the crowd sang in unison and flags were waved from the thousands in the crowd. The mass was very special and communion was received by everyone in the crowd.
The Cardinal and Prime Minister of Australia welcomed everyone in numerous different languages ensuring everyone was included in this special occasion. Uplifting songs like ‘Spirit Power’ and ‘We are one body’ meant everyone sang together.
On Thursday afternoon we all gathered in Barangaroo again for the Papal arrival into Sydney harbour in what was termed the boatacay as boats surrounded the Holy Father. Pope Benedict XVI arrived on a huge ship travelling along by Sydney Opera House and towards the crowd in Barangaroo.
The Holy Father then made his way into the Pope Mobile and flew up the aisles between the welcoming party of more than 100,000 pilgrims. It was an exciting and action packed day for Pope Benedict as he gave an opening address to the crowd. He welcomed pilgrims from every nation and spoke about chastity and peace and care for the environment.
Some pilgrims were very lucky to get a spot in Barangaroo that was very close to the Pope’s mobile that travelled from the harbour to the main stage. Others lined the city streets as the Pope travelled all around Sydney city centre after addressing the 100,000 pilgrims in Barangaroo.
We were back in Barangaroo again on Friday for the Stations of the Cross. These moved from different locations that included St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney Opera House, The Domain and Baranagroo. The stations were done in a complete rein enactment of the events of that lead to our Lords death.
The actor who played the role of Jesus created such a resemblance to Jesus it was a very moving and painful experience to watch the treatment of Jesus before his death on the cross.
After the stations, pilgrims were encouraged to stay on for a live concert ‘Receive the Power’ with some great performers including gospel choirs and other stars. After a long afternoon in the sunshine it was time for dinner and early to bed before our pilgrimage to
Randwick Racecourse in the morning and our overnight vigil in by candlelight.
Thursday, 17 July 2008
We arrived in Sydney on Monday midday after an early start heading to the airport from Melbourne. Thankfully we got the best welcome we could have received with a fabulous blast of sunshine as our plane touched down in Sydney.
Melbourne was so cold but Sydney has made up for it with fantastic weather everyday since Monday. WYD is a major event in the city, every where you walk or travel to you see WYD pilgrims.
The city is so colourful and alive with the thousands of pilgrims that are residing here for WYD week. The activity around the city is a sight to see with singing, youth festivals, fireworks, lights, flags and pilgrims in many a location.
My parish Our Lady of Victories are residing with the Catholic Youth Care group from the Dublin diocese in the parish of St Patricks church in Bondi. This place is beautiful; Bondi beach is busy with tourists (even in Australian winter time) with all the typical tourist attractions and a great place to surf the waves. On Wednesday afternoon we had a WYD festival on Bondi beach with the wrapping priest and many other performers.
On Monday afternoon CYC began by registering all two hundred pilgrims at the parish centre. Here we received our WYD packs which included a pilgrim transport guide to Sydney, a raincoat and foil thermal for our outside vigil on Saturday night, a koala key ring, a book on WYD Sydney 2008 and a guide to the liturgy for WYD.
No one will forget their pilgrim packs with their bright orange, red and yellow colours! No matter where you walk this week in Sydney the pilgrims are instantly recognised by their colourful back packs!
Monday evening was an introduction for all of the CYC pilgrims to St Patricks church in Bondi. Fr Tom is our Iris Chaplain and Fr Jim Caffrey from CYC are working together preparing the liturgy for each day. Veronica and Geraldine are also very busy CYC staff
at the moment making sure all the pilgrims are OK.
Each morning we begin the day with Morning Prayer at 9am, followed by Catechesis at 9.30am. This is a true WYD experience of exploring and developing our own knowledge of our faith.
Sometimes these sessions can be quiet challenging with questions posed that make you think and relate to many a past experience or present situation in your own life.
On Tuesday morning we received our catechesis with Bishop Caggiano from Brooklyn. Bishop Caggiano was very witty and grabbed the whole congregations attention with his personal and humorous stories from his past experiences of seeing the whole spirit in his life. This session was followed by mass at noon.
Archbishop Hickey came to Bondi from Perth on Thursday morning to give the CYC group, along with pilgrims from the diocese of Tuam, Osserey, Perth, Meath and Youth 2000.
This session of catechesis was different to the previous day as Archbishop Hickey’s personality and approach was gentle and passionate in another way. He spoke about the poor and Christ as well as the holy spirit in our lives.
Today we will receive catechesis from our own Archbishop Martin from Dublin. All CYC pilgrims will then head for the city where Stations of the cross will take place on Friday afternoon around the city locations including St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney Opera House and Darling Harbour to name but a few.
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
Hi there, there is so much to tell you all about everything that’s happening here in Sydney but there is just not enough time! We had an uncomfortably warm flight from Melbourne to Sydney; the air condition nearly knocked me out with the variations in temperature!
Saturday was a very cold day in Melbourne; as one friend put it ‘I brought three or four jumpers to keep me warm but I didn’t think I’d end up wearing them all at the same time!’.
The day began with early mass at 9am with local parish priest Fr Brian from St Scholastica’s church. Gerard was thrilled because it gave the choir a dry run before the Archbishop of Dublin arrived for mass on Sunday morning.
Fr Brian was so witty; everyone got a great laugh out of him at some point. He used his homely to take a microphone and walk around the aisles and the young people asking us how we felt about Days in the Diocese and why we were here.
Many of the Dublin Diocese group from Catholic Youth Care stood up and said things like; even though we are all from different countries with different languages, we are still all united by one thing and that is God; our faith has united us.
When speaking about the mass in the Telstra Dome the night before; one parishioner took the microphone at mass and said ‘I don’t know about you guys but I felt like I was standing in a refrigerator!’ It was freezing!
After mass it was sooo cold myself and the lads from Our Lady of Victories parish hopped on the tram into town and headed straight for Starbucks where of course the coffee and hot chocolates were pipping hot. One could not resist the temptation to enjoy a deliciously fresh apple and cinnamon muffin as well of course!
By the time all the chatting had ceased it was time to sort our mobile phones with oz numbers in the Vodafone store. Next we hopped on a tram to a session called Lectio Divina wirh Archbishop Thomas Collins from Toronto. This took place in St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne.
In the afternoon we decided to attend Taize prayer in St Augustine’s church. This was a very different experience of prayer, there was chanting of psalms and meditation and beautiful candles and intense to create a very special atmosphere in the presence of the lord.
By the time we came out of the church it was time to head for dinner and our beds because Sunday was the day Archbishop Martin was celebrating mass in St Scholastica’s parish with CYC and the Chilean and Argentinean pilgrims joining us in the parish. The music was fantastic with some great solo performers.
Sunday, 13 July 2008: Days in the Diocese
Since we arrived in Scholastica’s Parish, the welcome we have received from the local parishioners had been unreal. Over 10,000 homes in Melbourne have opened their doors to Irish and international pilgrims for ‘Days in the Diocese’ (DID08).
On Thursday morning we were collected from the parish centre by our host families and brought to our homes for the coming days. No matter what we wanted, it was not a problem.
After lunch we hit the city and that’s when the fun began. The colour, music, flags and events were something special to take in. First we attended St Patrick's Cathedral for the official DID08 opening ceremony. This was celebrated by Melbourne’s Cardinal Harte with pilgrims from every nation in the cathedral. Thousands of pilgrims attended many sitting on the church floor just to hear the Cardinal speak the word of God.
There were flags representing every nation of pilgrims that were hosted by the diocese of Melbourne.
Next it was time to head to the Catholic University of Melbourne, the centre of information for all pilgrims. This university has been transformed with the DID08 team providing information on pilgrim places to pray and meditate, public transport information, tourist attractions to visit, merchandise and a lounge for pilgrims to mix with other international pilgrims.
There are almost 600 pilgrims traveling to WYD from Ireland. The largest group of pilgrims are traveling with Catholic Youth Care (CYC) from the Dublin Diocese. I am traveling with the 200 pilgrims from CYC, but my parish is a small group of seven and therefore it’s easy for us to get around the city of Melbourne and go to plenty of DID08 events.
We visited some of the main tourist attractions in Melbourne city on Thursday afternoon including a trip to Federation square where a special St Vincent de Paul concert was taking place for DID08 with a rap priest belting out songs on stage!
After a few pictures at some of the main attractions we took a tram back to our host families. At this stage we were frozen with the cold. The weather in Melbourne is freezing, it is winter time and this is one of the coldest winters they’ve experienced in years with very short days and sharp cold winds. Us Irish were well adjusted to our mild summers when we arrived here in July!
Friday began with Morning Prayer by Fr Jim Caffrey, Director of CYC. Fr Jim spoke about July 12th being the feast of St Benedict. He explained that we don’t always have to be listening to the iPod or holding the phone for the next text to come in rather we can be silent and alone at times giving ourselves a chance to just listen and think.
Friday night has definitely been the highlight of our DID08 experience. We attended the commissioning mass in the Telstra Dome which is the largest football stadium in Melbourne. The build-up to this mass was fantastic with almost 50,000 young pilgrims, volunteers and local parishioners attending the event and over 600 priests and bishops, archbishops and cardinals. At the four corners of the pitch stood four white globes used to project the words of every song out to the pilgrims.
The stadium atmosphere was electric. Pilgrims, priests and lay people sang their hearts out as flags were waved furiously from side to side. A large blue cross in the centre of the pitch was lit up with red lights and the alter was placed in the centre. A gospel choir and pop singers sang some great hits as the pilgrims danced and sang their hearts out in the stadium with the roof closed to create an even more powerful atmosphere.
One local parishioner commented the following morning at mass that he felt he was standing in a refrigerator at the mass. It was so cold in Melbourne city!
After a hot dinner and a tram home, it was straight into bed with a hot water bottle for the WYD pilgrims!
Tuesday 8 July 2008: Day One
I cannot describe the excitement that surrounds me as I anticipate what lies ahead in the coming days. My tummy is bursting with butterflies at present as I sit here in the departures lodge of Heathrow airport waiting to begin another leg of my fantastic journey to World Youth Day.
My travels began early this morning as I left Waterford and travelled to Dublin. The day we were departing was, of course, a smashing day with glorious sunshine beaming from the car windscreen.
Arriving at the airport at 2.30pm, Fr Kevin from Our Lady of Victories parish greeted my family and me as my Mum and sister hauled the luggage from the car while dad tried to find a parking space.
The parish I have linked up with from Our Lady of Victories just outside DCU consist of a small group of seven people with Fr Kevin leading us on our journey. Over the coming days I am going to keep you updated on the adventures and experiences of a first timer at WYD.
Once the initial greetings at Dublin airport had taken place, I went to check in with Mum pulling one bag and my sister with the other. That’s when the fun began! My nerves had been building about this all day; I was sick with worry! Would I be overweight or underweight???
As I decided to stay a little longer in Australia with relations, I had to bring a few bits extra in the case!! However when I put the bags on the scales and the pretty perfect Aer Lingus girl smiled at me and said ‘you know you are only allowed 20kgs’ I gazed at her in dismay! ‘Really’ I said. I was well passed the 20kg mark on the scales!
I thought how am I going to leave anything behind, what a nightmare to have to empty the bags at this stage. However thanks to the large group of young people travelling with Catholic Youth Care (CYC) the kind lady wavered the weight and quickly checked in the luggage before whisking my precious pink and blue cases away on the conveyer belt. Thanks bit of god is all I could say! The first miracle to happen on my journey to WYD.
After a little photography with the press and the Irish flag held good and high, It was time for a bit to eat at O’Briens sandwich bar. It was lovely to ‘chill out’ without the suitcases after three days of stress over whether they were overweight.
Unfortunately we got a bit too relaxed and it wasn’t until 4.30pm that we strolled down to where we checked in looking for security. Inquiring from the Aer Lingus lady again, I asked was I in the right security area? She gasped at my ticket before blurting out ‘that flight is boarding now, get to gate straight away’. I looked at Dad and he looked at me in horror, ‘Holy God, we better start running!’
So we legged it! Running down escalators, flying past trolleys and suitcases before winding our way under the crowd control barriers. I was panicking and shaking, in fear of not finding the group and not catching the flight as boarding time came and went and I was still running.
Before long I reached the security checks. I was on my own from here; literally. I grabbed Mam, Dad and Sis for a hug that lasted seconds before I ran to the conveyer belt throwing the shoes, watch, laptop and everything the bag could hold up onto the tray.
As soon as I had flew through security after setting off the bepper twice I ran and ran down the tunnel searching for area B22 and someone I recognised from CYC or OLV.
After about 10minutes running, I arrived at B22 sweating and panting, to find all passengers were patiently seated awaiting boarding which had not even begun!!
It was time to take a group photo before I lost track of them again! Oh the adventures that lie ahead!! Follow my trip in the coming days.
