Pilgrims Log

Well, I originally intended to blog everyday while we were in Sydney for WYD 2008, but, as with many things this did not go entirely to plan. With all the events happening it became evident that I would probably have to do one of the following in order to blog:

• Take the laptop everywhere? (unlikely its not exactly the lightest of all things)
• Not go to some events (Yeah, that was so going to happen!)
• Learn to blog in the unconcious state commonly referred to as sleep (Possible, but probably would have taken years of preperation by living in a Tibetan monastery, learning ancient secrets…you get the picture)

So as you may have gathered blogging was just not going to happen. Instead I have decided to wrap up Sydney in a? few blog posts. They won’t be a blow by blow account but they will give you an idea of amazing miraculously experience that WYD 2008 was.

So, my last post dealt with our arrival in Sydney. The next major event was Opening Mass at Barangaroo. Little tip when trying to find Barangaroo, don’t ask someone from Sydney where it is, it was invented for
WYD and is not any map (bit like Eldorado) and by now I am sure it has disappeared into oblivion once again. Nevertheless Barangaroo was the site of our first taste of the scope and size of WYD SYD 2008. Walking there pilgrims were arriving in large numbers, chanting “Benedetto” and other phrases, swarming towards the entrances to secure some (hopefully) prime setting. Surrounded by pilgrims from Trinidad & Tobago, Germany and America you really understood that the Catholic church is global.? We arrived around 12:00pm so we had a bit of a wait for our afternoon mass. The main activities to fill in time were to meet pilgrims from other nations, watch the Brazilian pilgrims dance (and boy can they dance) and many other pilgrims sing and pray (and do some praying yourself). When the mass finally came around the sun was setting and the mood was set by a stunning indigenous opening and welcome. The Mass was celebrated by George Cardinal Pell and he gave a very relevant homily asking, “will we be the seeds that land in rich fertile soil or, instead on barren rocks or prickly thorns?” I think we all aspire to spread and strengthen our faith, and to use the experience of WYD to fire up our home parishes and communities.

After mass there was dinner (or, as I like to call it getting to know pilgrims from around the world in a very intimate manner while queuing for the food…at least it was warm there) and then concerts and a finale including Guy Sebastian, fireworks, flames and tap dancing. It was lots and lots of fun. I think we all agreed this was a very good start to WYD and we were all looking forward to more!

Stay tuned for my next installment on WYD 2008, The Papal Arrival…or gone in 6 seconds…

Ciao for now!

Well, we finally made it to Sydney. Our first flight was canceled after a 6 hour delay so we got a 12 :00am red eye  flight to Sydney, but we got on it and are now in Sydney. Sunday, therefore, was spent sleeping and then some sightseeing in Sydney and a few of our group went to Hillsong. Then we slept.

Monday half of us went to Sydney’s Taronga because we, as pilgrims, get a half price discount.  We saw many many animals, but it seemed that every animal we approached preferred to show us their, am, lesser half. Very entertaining nonetheless.  There were so many WYD pilgrims there and some were singing in the middle of the zoo being filmed (holding up zoo traffic, but still really cool!). Also there was a plane making crosses in the sky  and wrote ‘Jesus’ also… so things are really heating  up for  WYD.

2 of our group wen to Darling Harbour to mill around with other pilgrims which looked really great and fun. Pilgrims singing, chatting etc. Apparently Sydney-siders are really surprised and think its “bigger than the Olympics.”  At least in ambiance and atmosphere… wait until tomorrow, they haven’t seen anything yet.

Could write more but i’m a little tired and tomorrow is opening mass..so have to be rested! We also need to find something soft to sit on…its gonna be a long but exciting day.

See our photos for more on all our experiences.

Tags: WYD, Sydney, Zoo, Pilgrims, 2008

We have been at the airport for the past 5 hours. Our plane was meant to leave at 12:25….it is now 3:32pm. It times like this that you really need to repeat “I am not a tourist I am a pilgrim”. At this stage we have done the following to fill in the time:

• tried to finish a crossword
• gave up on the first crossword and tried to finish a second one
• gave up on the crosswords all together
• played many games of uno
• watched engineers climb all over one of the engines of our plane, then leave it alone
• received food vouchers
• took photos
• charged a laptop
• learned that Qantas apologizes a lot about not knowing anything about their planes
• Filip is reading Ennegram II  by Richard Rohr
• gave up on playing uno

And thats it at this stage…but we still have the rest of the day and the night.

Tags: WYD, planes, Qantas, Uno, crosswords, waiting, delay, plane, photos, laptop, RIchard Rohr